Agree with the drivers and also agree on the preamps.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 17, 2017

I use the Yamaha N8. Very happy with it.

 

I got a used RME fireface for a song on ebay and it's a dream.

 

Never thought of selling songs on ebay, that might be a breakthrough.

 

Why would I make it up? Like I said they are linked through a distributor company, nothing more. If they were sharing tech the Alva would be using RME drivers and Total Mix, which it isn't.

I understand that RME doesn't take too kindly to suggestions that these two products are connected in any way at an engineering level, so don't be fooled otherwise.

From the big boss at RME ...

"The Nanoface is not a RME product. Besides a similar looking case and the same extension cables with 1m/3m (optional - not breakout cables!) everything is different.

best regards
Knut"


"Neither one nor the other. The device has the same distribution, therefore a similar style. Inside and outside (driver) but is nowhere RME nor RME is involved in the product. And therefore, any further discussion in this (!) Forum inappropriate.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME "


Link Here ==> https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=10854

 

Last edited: Feb 14, 2016

I have and use the Audient iD22, the iD14's big brother. I also have a full PARIS rig and PTHD rig and the Audient is superior sounding to both. I've used some top of the line converters tracking in some of the finest sounding studio's in the US, and IMHO the Audient converters are in the $2000 quality range. Very solid PC drivers and even better MAC drivers. Monitor controller and top, bang for the buck, preamps in the price range help make them best in class IMHO. I'm honestly shocked at how much you can have for so little with the Audent interfaces.

The iD22 is an interface you will need to spend well over 3K to upgrade from, that makes it a bang for the buck piece and well worth your time to investigate, as upgrading from a lesser interface will cost you more in the long run and just not sound as good.

Here's the pro lesson nobody wants to tell you, it's how the biz stays in biz.... off of you:

Take the iD22, you can spend $600 now, and save yourself a lot later.
It will take $2000 converters to upgrade from the iD22 converters.
It will take $500 to upgrade from the remote monitor controller.
It will take $500 to upgrade from the on board, fully by-passable preamps.
Speaking of by-passable preamps, you will not have to upgrade the iD22 when you purchase your first outboard preamp, Tonebeast anyone, because of the line insert. You will not have to upgrade the iD22 when you purchase your first outboard compressor, WA76 anyone, as you can go from iD22 preamp to outboard compressor back into id22 converter, via the line insert. When you want to add more preamps to track your friends drummer, any 8 channel ADAT pre can be added to the same iD22 that you bought 3 years back. Audient is a company of music professionals, and every pro starts as a hobbyist, their understanding of what a bedroom studio needs is fantastic.

IMHO, If you are recording Audient would easily be my top choice, but if you are mostly VSTi, I would look long and hard at RME as they have the best drivers in the biz.

 

I have both of the small Audient-interfaces in operation since 4 months or so, and I want to underline every single word that
WillTheWeirdo has written above. Like WillTheWeirdo I have quite the interface-/converter-burial grounds here, starting from RME, to Focusrite, to Metric Halo and only the MetricHalos and a vintage Studer-mic-pre can "out-perform" the Audients, iD14 and iD22.

Both come with some smart features that fit the tasks at hand like a glove (monitor controlling for the iD22 or "simple" audio-interface for the iD14). Hard to explain here without writing an epic essay ... but I'm sure WillTheWeirdo knows what I mean, and the rest can watch some Audient-vids on YouTube

Nothing wrong with RME or Focusrite, but keep in mind: RME is a different price-range and the Focusrites and everything else in the 200-300$-range does not come anywhere near the Audient in terms of pres, DAC and especially driver (plus a very solid very user friendly, analogue-style mixer-app). As with everything else in audio: it's also a matter of taste and my taste responds to what the Audient pres and DACs are capable of (especially the transparency in the low end of the DACs; very pleasing!)

as an addendum to Will's post: the Audients actually come with 4 top-DACs as the headphone-outs run through an extra pair of DACs that are built like the main audio-out-DACs (Texas Instruments/BurrBrown) - something you won't find too often on a 300$-interface.

On a sidenote: I want to do a little shootout in the next weeks of some of the converters lying around here, comparing the Audient iD12 against a Mytek, a Metric Halo and a custom built Ross Martin-converter - maybe I'll throw in an Apogee Quartet. If you peeps are interested, I'll make a video of this little "digital gangbang", and in case someone IS interested, feel free to throw in some suggestions as to what would interest you specifically in such a comparison.

 

Always about drivers those high end soundcards. But in my opinion built-in driver into Windows, MacOSX, Linux, ... is pretty hard to beat. I'm about to get ODAC rev. B, and expect it to "kick ass" to RME Babyface, and why not?
ODAC doesn't require any drivers, and runs straight from usbaudio.sys' UAC1. Through ASIO4ALL or WASAPI, >2ms should be no problem.
Why rival competition with "better drivers" and not just bet on the one that's supplied with the OS?

 

Must be lying when he says they're the partner company for RME then

Though he does then say it's only the housing that's the same but makes a point of the comparison to the Babyface.

 

used and use:
Presonus - good.. but not the best -
Emu - good.. not the best and bad driver support -
Yamaha/Steinberg - Very good.. my favorite, Yamaha had a bad rep with support, I hope steinberg don't go that way. -
Prism Sound - Very good.. expensive (not worth it) -
Apogee - Very good.. only Mac :-(
Creative Labs --> look Emu

So for me, I would go UR22

 

keep the money and buy good audio interface which is not USB.
why to wasting money every year on the crappy audio interface ? if you can buy a good audio interface and forgetting the problems
many people wasting money on the crappy hardware then turn head in the room and see many audio interfaces many studio monitors
many midi keyboards many crappy stuff and empty Soundcloud .

why not buying good audio interface good monitors speakers and going forward step by step when you have everything right for your needs

 

Yeah, I forgot mention about the high quality headphone amp or the fact that you can have 2 pair of monitors hooked up to it with push button talkback, you just provide the mic, I'm using a small cheap AT boundary mic. It's just a killer tool for a home studio. I would give anything to be starting out with an iD22 25 years ago...... you kids are extremely lucky today, I hope you seriously appreciate it.

 

I think they supply some external cables to RME, but it seems they are maybe trying to milk this association by implying there is more to the relationship than just a few cables and a shared distributor. RME seem to be quite irked by this, so anybody reading this do your own research, but be sure there is no common internal/external/driver design going on. A big clue is that SOS article actually mentions Alva Nanoface had driver problems

PS Synthax are the distribution company for both RME and Alva, and they are obviously in the business of making money for themselves and their clients, so I guess they are just promoting their products as best as they can and the confusion seems to be working.

 

Last edited: Feb 16, 2016