anyone heard about Black Lion Audio mods ?? what is it that they're really doing ??

 

never any single issue with ma fireface usb.
ZERO
good driver and good routing

 

Yes, there are better converters on the market than RME. (subjectively: Prism, Lavry, Antelope, Mytek, Burl, ect) It's not like you're stuck with RME's converters. At that price point it's just a matter of preference, just mix and match. That's a whole other level. Then you get to go on to forums and be all like: forget lower cost brand X guys, get this 8K+ set up like me!

Lucky you.

 

If you're satisfied with your equipment why the urge to upgrade? Upgrading for the sake of upgrading?
My advice would be think of what you don't like in your current setup, what you need to improve, are you going for better performance or more features? Ask yourself these kind of questions, figure out why you need to upgrade.

Also think about your whole setup, not just your audio interface, maybe better CPU would do you more good, maybe new motherboard with Thunderbolt support, and then you can think of upgrading your interface, while also having more options to choose from, and so on. Don't just throw money around without thinking why you're buying something. Figure out what you need, why you need it, do your research and make informed decision on your purchase.

Good luck!

Oh, yes, forgot to mention that. Yes, I indeed usually use it at 44KHz.

 

Black Lion does pretty good op-amp mods on interfaces. Few friends of mine have their Apollos modded by Black Lion and they love it.

HERE is what they do for RME interfaces

 

Why is the RME Babyface Pro so expensive? Because it is. They can charge that price in the market, if they couldn't it would be cheaper or on near continual special-offer ends on Friday sale promotions.

Whatever you buy there's going to be something more expensive and better. There always is. Buy what you can.

 

I've owned an NI interface, a motu traveller, a motu 8pre, an edirol, a focusrite scarlett 18i20, and several others I can't even remember off hte top of my head. I bought an RME UFX, and it's so much better. Holy shit. The focusrite one day just stopped working thru usb. still works thru adat, so I use it slaved, along w my 8pre, also slaved, after picking up the UFX. Better latency than the focurite. Drivers that will be updated forever, even if I never "update" my OS. Very clean pres x4. Compressors/gates/EQs on every input, even the non RME ones, if I want them. The onboard DSP should handle using them on every input simultaneously, also. 30 inputs, 30 outputs, n I've got almost all of them attached to something. I don't even technically need my patchbay anymore, though I still keep some stuff thru it. The mixing software is the best I've used, and I've used quite a few. Bit of a learning curve, but absolutely worth it to learn to use it. Way better than focusrite's. The focusrite has 'colored' pres. The motu has colored pres, as well, although I like the motu mojo slightly better than the FR. some things sound good thru FR, tho. the motu never worked particularly well using firewire, but I'm on PC, so... One thing to note is that the reverb and delay on the RME is not that good. serviceable, if you got no outboard (or a uad like I got). It'd be freaking fantastic if RME would make alternative fx to utilize the dsp chip onboard differently. That's a whole other conversation, though. I'd never go back to any of the other interfaces/drivers/software. I'd save for another RME if this one ever shit the bed on me (like the focusrite did)

 

actually the internal DSP cannot handle EQ, Dynamics, and reverb on every channel at once, I've reached the moment my UFX couldn't do any more

 

Anyone compared RME stuff to Universal Audio , eg: Universal Audio Arrow ?

Does the Universal Audio also have Loopback (record output without any virtual audio cable etc.) like the RME ?

comparison


[edit]
ok Uaudio reviews does sound that promising:
https://www.uaudio.de/review/arrow/#51712

 

Last edited: May 15, 2019

Most UA stuff nowadays is thunderbolt. If you look at the latency list I posted you can see that
Apollo Twin Mk II (basically same drivers as Arrow) are a little better on latency numbers..

 

Last edited: May 15, 2019

? yes I know ? the arrow as well, I wonder how the drivers compare etc

 

I edited my post

 

To me it's simple. I have the Babyface Pro and it sounds better than the Apollo (demo on youtube for sound comparison). Also, German engineering is simply better than anything anyway. Just like German engineering on cars. I really don't know too many people who use the UAD plugins that come with the apollo. Plus I doubt people do the research and they just follow what everyone else buys. But my ONLY downside with the Babyface pro is that you cant hook up multiple sets on monitors. with the Apollo you can at least have 2 sets of monitors.

 

TOTALMIX is the best interface mixer hands down. It's a virtual patchbay. I haven't used another interfaces' integrated mixer that can even come close. Just my experience.

 

funny how different preferences are. The total mix and its matrix is the least thing i like of my multiface II

 

The quantum 2 looks promising, does the quatum also have a virtual mixer ? Can you record its output without additional software ?

 

I don't get your "didn't use them, so they must be crap"
The pro's i know use RME, all of them. Let's define a pro. A pro is someone that does it for a living. He doens't want to fall in love with his gear. He wants to install the driver and then forget about it. Best for a pro is "yeah, the interface... it's somewhere back there. Installed it ten years ago. Dunno where it is, but as I still hear sound it must be back there somewhere."
Yes, they look like some cnc steering hardware. And the driver doesn't look impressive.
That's because pro's aren't easily impressed. so why try. Pro's measure and when the plot is near to perfect, they are like
"ok.. you may life here now"