My wife just bought me the PreSonus Fire Pod FP10 interface. While I think she did a great job picking a gift, it's a bit overkill for my needs. I currently have been using the M-Audio FireWire Solo, and it covers my needs for XLR input, stereo recording, it has phantom power, etc, but it has no MIDI. I'm currently running an Intel iMac, the most current one, second level (2 GB RAM, 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, etc. While I like FireWire, I'm concerned about the lack of FireWire support in the new MacBooks and what that means for the future of FireWire, since one day I may want a laptop. But anyway, I have simple needs. I'm an amateur recorder, currently using GarageBand '08, with possible plans to upgrade to Logic Express someday. I don't need MIDI for a lot. I'm very much a beginner on my digital piano, but I also want to use the MIDI interface to connect my Line 6 POD, for adding sounds to already recorded clean guitar tracks. One option I have considered is M-Audio's Fast Track Pro. Any advice?
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Need help choosing MIDI interface
- Thread starter xtwentyseven
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So, are you sticking with the firewire solo then? You're not going to use the fp10, right? Are you looking at the fast track pro just because you'd like a usb interface instead of firewire?
I'd recommend sticking with firewire for now. It'll be best for latency and high track counts. The only thing that will replace firewire will be usb3. That's still a little ways off. You could look into a m-audio usb midi interface. $40 will get you a midi sport with 1X1 midi i/o. Not too bad of a deal. You should just look into one of those if you're happy with your fw solo. And also i'm not sure if your POD will work with midi how you described.
Thanks
Thanks for the advice. That's pretty similar to what the guy from Guitar Center said. I started to consider keeping the FP10 because it would work as a mixer too, but then I discovered (still new to MIDI) that MIDI only transmits data, and therefore I really don't need a whole new interface, but I could just get a MIDI to USB device for that function. That cuts the cost way down to $40. Thanks for your help. It looks like I'll be sticking with the FireWire Solo and getting the MIDI to USB converter.
I still think it's ridiculous to have removed FireWire from the new Macbooks.
Thanks for the advice. That's pretty similar to what the guy from Guitar Center said. I started to consider keeping the FP10 because it would work as a mixer too, but then I discovered (still new to MIDI) that MIDI only transmits data, and therefore I really don't need a whole new interface, but I could just get a MIDI to USB device for that function. That cuts the cost way down to $40. Thanks for your help. It looks like I'll be sticking with the FireWire Solo and getting the MIDI to USB converter.
I still think it's ridiculous to have removed FireWire from the new Macbooks.
I have a MOTU Ultralite FW interface that also supports MIDI over the existing FireWire connection that the audio interface uses.