Cheap interface: can you guys help me out?

[tonymcbony]

Hi people,
I'm about to buy a macbook with logic express.
I used to use an intel imac with tracktion 3 and a spike...that was cool but the spike was noisy and tracktion crashed all the time. Mackie really managed to mangle a good product there.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, I'm looking for a well-priced 2 channel interface
Here's what I'm looking for

• 2 channels
• Fire wire
• Mac compatible
• under $300
• Midi if possible

I'd like the best quality pre's I can get at that range...I did the wizard thing and came up with Saffire LE...is this still a good current model to pick up, or should I look at something else?

[superpete]

Have you tried the AUDIO INTERFACE WIZARD? It was creatyed to help give you some options of audio interfaces that suit your needs.

Check it out and post back here with your results and we'll see if we can help you further

[superpete]

Sorry, I should have read your post a little bit closer.
I havnt had any experience with the saffire so i cant reccomend it sorry

[Adam1423]

i recomend the Presonus Firebox (firewire), or the M-Audio Fast Track Pro (though this is USB2) im in exactly the same postion as you, and these have been the two that have caught my eye the most!

Personaly im going with the Firebox as Firewire seems to be better than USB, but i have used the Fast Track Pro at uni and can tell you it is also a really nice product. One thing i would mention though is i dont think the mac book pro will power the firebox through its firewire lead, i may be wrong but you might need to use an external transformer which may change your decision .

[String7th]

Originally Posted by tonymcbony

I'd like the best quality pre's I can get at that range

It's been said a bunch of times here but you're new, so I'll explain briefly about preamps.
Anything under $900 per channel will sound the same to most people in the world. Buying an API channel strip or Neve board will not make your mixes better. A good engineer can make awesome recordings with a rack of $30 behringer preamps.

That being said, anything in your budget will have equal preamps, you should see which features are close to what you need. MOTU and Digidesign really love Macs, but are a lot more expensive, but you bought a Mac so you're used to overpaying for stuff right? ZING!
Focusrite makes good stuff too. My Presonus is starting to be finiky with the drivers and my ADAT being used as a clock, so it lost some rep point in reliability.

What are you going to record? Could you buy a cheap interface an splurge on software?

[garageband]

The little Presonus Firebox is nice.