M-Audio and its annoying quest for mobility
Posted: 11/02/08
Near the end of 2007, M-Audio quietly added a new interface to their lineup, the Fast Track Ultra. It’s a USB 2.0 device and includes their Octane preamp technology in the four pres on the front panel. It looks good and I felt it was a clever addition to their line of mobile devices. Yes Firewire is nice, but it doesn’t have as wide support and reliability as USB does in my opinion. Then, at the Winter NAMM show, they unveiled some sort of super-interface called the ProFire 2626. It’s got eight Octane preamps, an onboard DSP Mixer and Router, can operate standalone, and has an array of features in the sync department. Overall it adds up to 26 in and 26 out, hence the title.
Although both of these interfaces look good, I feel like they illuminate what is wrong with the state of gear development. Better exemplified by the ProFire 2626 release, I feel like there is such a push for things to be mobile for the sake of being mobile. Laptops are great and all but in my opinion they do not function well as the core of a studio. So why is M-Audio developing interfaces such as the 2626 that are intended to be the heart of a production center, yet the thing runs on Firewire? M-Audio’s most successful line of audio interfaces was the Delta series, which ran on PCI connections. Having the direct link to the motherboard ensures that they run rock solid, and they don’t suffer from the ridiculous host of problems that Firewire and USB do.
If you look over the list of features on the ProFire 2626 with all its routing and I/O features, you are left wondering how the heck you could make full use out of it on your laptop in a mobile environment? Sure this is nice for people who track live shows and other similar tasks, but I feel like if you are working on a serious project outside your studio you might as well bring the desktop along or get a rackmount PC. Yes, it’s convenient that with Firewire you at least have the option to take this interface out with you, but I would’ve been more impressed if M-Audio came up with a system where you have the option to run it as PCI or Firewire. I say this cause it already has the option to function standalone, why not innovate a feature that would let you switch your preferred connection type? Even old office equipment like printers often have that ability to use USB or Serial, I think it’s about time that audio equipment manufacturers begin to address this frustrating state of affairs.