Best / Most Stable Interface(s)

I don't think there is a thread dedicated to this in the AA3 section. So here it goes. I'm am considering upgrading from my 2 Presonus Firepods. Has anyone found any particular sound interface to be more compatible than others in dealing with AA3? I'm most interested in interfaces that can either be daisy changed or have at least 16 inputs. RME? MOTU? Let's get some interface success and failure stories going here. The Presonus Firepods are OK. The ASIO driver's are not super fast, I've seen much faster in some of my cheaper usb interfaces (like the novation xiosynth, which is mainly supposed to be a midi-synth, but it happens to have a 2 channel i/o also) Anyhow, hopefully all y'all have some good suggestions.

So far no issues with my Delta 44.  Which presumably means that a Delta 66 and 1010 would be similarly glitch-free.

The M-Audio Delta cards are good with XP,  but Vista drivers are still in development with no release date known as of yet. So if you are running Vista you'll have to wait until the drivers are released, and nobody knows when that will be.

I've got the 1010LT and Audiophile 24/96 and had good luck with them with XP.


I'm running Vista so I can't use my sound cards, so in the meantime, I'm using the sound card that came with my motherboard, and a M-Audio Midisport Uno to get my midi into the computer, because M-Audio has released Vista drivers for the Uno.

I have 2 older MOTU MKII 2408 Interfaces. They seem to work quite well with audition. Even though the drivers were made for like Windows 98 (and i did use these then) they seem to continue to install in newer OS's as well. Haven't tried vista. I love these things. Originally, they were about $1,000 each. But now that my model is the older one, you can ebay them for about $200, which is why i have the second one. AA3 + MOTU = Pretty darn sweet!

I've used multiple MOTU 2408 MK11 and MK3 units with no problem. A year ago I switched to RME FireFace800, mainly for the mic pres, and find it equally stable. I would have no problem recommending either.

I currently use Echo's Layla 20.  I don't have the experience with other units but I am VERY happy with how stable this runs.  It uses old drivers that are only beta's.  But I can get these units for 120-140 on Ebay.  In fact, I think the Layla originally shipped with CEP as the software.  Just my 2 cents.

I used M-Audio F410 with AA 2,0 and XP on Pentium 4 .
Then I bought AA3,0 and tested all my old 2,0 sessions on it. No trouble at all.
I started one new session where I used AA 3,0 for recording both audio and midi.
Worked fine.

Now I have new PC (with dual core processor) and Vista OS
So far so good but I did not have enough time to test it properly.

Anyway, Vista driver for M-Audio Firewire family is working.
I download it from M-Audio web site and I ran installation.
I turned off my PC, connected my Interface and turned on PC again.
Never got any strange messages.
I did some basic tests. The time will show.
I installed Cubase SX2, Hypersonic, Addictive drums and some others old VSTi-s.
Everything is working fine.
I’ll let you know if anything strange happens in the meantime.
sikter

LOVE my 2-Echo Layla's chained together!  When I was shopping for them bout 3 yrs ago, in my comparisons I nailed my 2 choices down to the layla's and the Aardvark.  My decision was made based on my inability to find ANY negative reviews on the Layla, but still a few on the Aardvark.

Yeah I haven't needed more than 8 channels yet.  But i would buy another Layla in a HEARTBEAT!!!  I am so happy with how fast and stable it is.  I have a P4 2.8 with a gig of RAM.  Windows XP.  I would like to see how quick this would run on a dual-core.  The Layla and AA work great!!!

We're currently running AA3 (and AA2 before it) on a now-ancient Aardvark Q10 with XP. The drivers are quite old,
the last ones Aardvark offered. Overall, AA3 runs better than 2 did on same machine.  We also typically run Ozone,
some Waves plugs, and UA powered plugs with it. Machine is  a P4 single processor 2.45Ghz with 1 gig RAM.

Overall, AA3 seems more stable in this configuration than AA2, though often we have to set the Aardvark ASIO buffer
higher than I'd like.

Shortly we will be setting up a TC 24D Konnekt (firewire)- waiting for it to come in. I'll be curious to see
what (if any) improvements result, and will post here.  It has some onboard DSP which will run its own
reverbs and compressors, so that should be interesting too. 

We're also setting up a dual-core Pentium 3gig system (not Core2Duo, the series before that one) with
total 3 gigs RAM. It currently has AA2 on it, but soon will have AA3. Right now, it's running a Digi 002R
interface using their current ASIO drivers (but w/no Pro Tools installed). That one runs pretty well, but it will likely
wind up with either the TC interface or maybe the old Aardvark, not sure yet.  We have one Pro Tools
system (for compatability) but  seldom use it, so moved the 002R over to this machine for messing around.


We don't have the UA hardware installed on that system, but probably will before too long.
We curr have 2 UA boards and one or both might well wind up on it (UA lets you move them fairly easily, but
not as easy of course as just plugging in a USB "key"!)  It seems to run  the normal Ozone and Waves plug load
better than the single CPU system , no surprise there. It's also running XP but may wind up with Vista Home Premium.

Have not yet really hit the dual-core system hard in terms of plug load and/or very dense projects, but will be
doing so pretty soon.

Hope this is helpful.