Alesis io 26 Reviews

[brandondrury]

Alesis io 26 @ Musiciansfriend



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Is The Alesis io 26 The Right Audio Interface For You?
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Alesis io 26 Description
Utilizing DICE II FireWire technology for big bandwidth, fast signal handling, and lots of digital headroom, the Alesis io|26 is a professional—level computer recording interface in an easy-to-use tabletop design. You get 8 analog channels and 18 digital channels; Alesis high definition microphone preamps; Cirrus audiophile converters and jitter elimination technology; and high—quality 24-bit/192kHz audio conversion circuitry.

The io|26 audio interface has line-level inserts on analog channels, 48V phantom power, 5-segment signal/clip meters, 2 headphone outputs, 8 line-level outputs, turntable inputs, S/PDIF I/O, dual MIDI/O, and includes Cubase LE recording software. Dual ADAT lightpipe inputs give you forward-thinking, professional expansion potential for your recording setup. Flexible, routable Hardware Direct Monitoring allows you to send a customized, latency-free mix to each output pair. The io|26 interface runs on FireWire bus power or AC power with the included adapter.

[lzmyyl]

Quality: 8
This device has 8 clean sounding low noise Mic preamps (with Phantom power) that work really beautifully. The size of the box is smaller than the usual 19" rack mount devices that come with 8-mic input interfaces so it will fit easily in a backpack along with the laptop used for recordings on location. Setup for multitrack recording in Windows is easy, some computers will need the latency settings to be set higher though to prevent pops and clicks (on my 2 GHz core 2 duo with 2 GB memory running XP this was not necessary).

Reliability: 6
After 2 faulty devices the 3rd one has only one bad habit: at around 30 ~ 45 minutes after powering on the io 26 it switches off and immediately back on again, to remain stable indefinitely after that.

Overall Rating: 8
Regarding the functionality and sound quality I would definitely recommend this product to others with only a warning to check the stability and buy from a dealer that is willing and able to exchange faulty devices quickly.

[TwardylikeTank]

So, I'm in the strange position of owning one of these, but not having a computer to run it; how many tracks were you recording simultaneously on your 2 gig machine?

Cheers zmyy

[lzmyyl]

Since I have only used it for recording from analogue sources (condenser microphones) the maximum number of simultaneous tracks was 8, usually @ 44100 samples/sec - 24 bit but also sometimes @ 88200 / 24 bit.

[TwardylikeTank]

Ah, that's excellent. No drop outs or anything hairy? How about when it comes to processing the tracks, does it stress-out your computer machine?

[lzmyyl]

I think that depends more on the software you use for the processing than the io|26 itself. I have had no problems using Reaper (from Cockos).