Which M-Audio unit

[Artful Dodger]

Hello to all,

I'm just starting out with making some Podcasts and I've been looking at using these two units (links below) with GarageBand and wanted to know what anyone thinks about either such as pro's vs con's. In the end I only need two inputs but which would be the best in terms of lasting and if any, bells & whistles.

I'm using a 17"MBP Mid June '09, with 8GB RAM and I have a scratch disc that I use with FCE/iMovie.

http://tinyurl.com/4qa6tp4

http://tinyurl.com/4rak2y8

Thanks for any and all input.

 

[Macchino]

I would say go for the fast track pro...

A: Its a very very good Deal

B: You get Midi I/O

C: You get Spdif

D: I'm pretty shure they use the same pre-amps witch are ok, but definitely not mind-blowing

E: You get Inserts (For external processing)

F: My first Audio interface was a 1st gen mobile pre USB, and the build-quality was pretty bad (after trying 5 different solutions I now have a Digi 003 rack for the studio and a mbox 2 for the laptop, and its waaaay better)

If you really want something with fantastic converters and good pre-amps, maybe you should consider this:

http://www.amazon.com/Apogee-Duet-A...8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1296770361&sr=1-1

Its 5 times the price, but damn... it sounds good, looks good and all that.
I would have bought it for shure if i didn't use protools - Witch was hardware dependent at the time

Hope this helps

 

[Artful Dodger]

Thanks,
I was thinking the same thing. At a learning center they (we) use a sound board and everything else when we shoot video seminars or lectures and I really like that setup however I can't see buying all that at this time for Podcasts or even Videocasts down the road.
It seems with the Fast Track Pro most issues have been with windows as this was a consistant across the net in different reviews/forums.
I do like the Apogee but wow, I can like something else for less money at this time and later down the road whatever this setup gets replaced by means it is a stable backup for the just incase piece of mind.

Thanks again

 

[Macchino]

No Problem... The Fast Track Pro will probably serve you well for the next couple of years, and as you say.. You can always upgrade later

Best Regards

 

[Artful Dodger]

Yeah, thanks, I think it was meant to be because it just dropped down to $99 since my last post on Amazon so I took the plunge. I'm hoping too pair it up with a decent mic, the 2020 or 2035 and all should be well but I'll try my Rode mic out with it first and see what happens for a few days. I really was impressed by Rode when shooting some video this summer and everything the mic was able to pickup (sometimes it was a bad thing).

 

[ChrisA]

I like the knobs to be on the front. But it depends on how you place the equipment.

M-Audio's weak link is always software and drivers. I bought a Firewire Presonus unit party because it works on the Mac with no drivers. So when "Lion" comes out I will not have to wait half a year for m-audio to make new drivers like you would if you bout an m-audio box.