Your Opinion on the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra Audio Interface

[Newysurfer]

g'day guys

Currently looking at buying an external audio interface from the internal Soundblaster X-treme Music soundcard I have presently in my PC. I have XP (media edition) loaded unfortunately so I understand I'll have to convert my OS to XP Home Edition first (or upgrade to Windows 7) as Media Edition is not compatible with external soundcards and audio interfaces.

The M-Audio Fast Track Ultra has everything I need/want and there's several units on Ebay currently for under $300.

I've done a search here and found several old reviews on this interface. Just asking owners/users to give me their present views on this product. How do you rate it overall, any issues or problems I should know about it. Any recommendations for me.

Also ... does anyone know if current M-Audio Fast Track Ultra's will be fully compatible with Windows 7 Professional when the correct drivers are installed- thx

[newkid]

Originally Posted by Newysurfer

g'day guys

Currently looking at buying an external audio interface from the internal Soundblaster X-treme Music soundcard I have presently in my PC. I have XP (media edition) loaded unfortunately so I understand I'll have to convert my OS to XP Home Edition first (or upgrade to Windows 7) as Media Edition is not compatible with external soundcards and audio interfaces.

The M-Audio Fast Track Ultra has everything I need/want and there's several units on Ebay currently for under $300.

I've done a search here and found several old reviews on this interface. Just asking owners/users to give me their present views on this product. How do you rate it overall, any issues or problems I should know about it. Any recommendations for me.

Also ... does anyone know if current M-Audio Fast Track Ultra's will be fully compatible with Windows 7 Professional when the correct drivers are installed- thx

Nobody knows what is compatible until the new os is out and people try their old aps on it

Lots of stuff didn't work on vista aka son of Bob .

Lots of stuff won't work on spawn of vista either.
7 is just a clean up of vista with a few annoyances removed.

It is a tautology to say that if you have the driver that works then your box will work. Who knows when/if the magical driver will ever be written and if so when it will be debugged.

[Newysurfer]

Originally Posted by newkid

Nobody knows what is compatible until the new os is out and people try their old aps on it

Lots of stuff didn't work on vista aka son of Bob .

Lots of stuff won't work on spawn of vista either.
7 is just a clean up of vista with a few annoyances removed.

It is a tautology to say that if you have the driver that works then your box will work. Who knows when/if the magical driver will ever be written and if so when it will be debugged.

Ok Newkid - any comments on the Fast Track ultra itself ?

[dmmi]

I love it....

It's been rock solid since installation.

The only drawbacks are:

- the front inputs are all phantom power if needed, so forget about line level inputs while using the FTU to power condenser mics.

- The sp/dif pisses me off.....ok great for things such as 2 channel cd players with sp/dif, or good for reference monitors with sp/dif, but forget about trying to use those as instrument recording inputs. You would need an external A/D converter and/or pre-amp. = more money than a fast track 8R with 8 inputs.

Conclusion:

- It's good for home recording enthusiast
- Not enough inputs for mic'ing a drum kit (but I use v-drums anyway)
- If you want to use the back inputs 5 or 6 as line inputs you need active pickups in your guitar or bass.....then you can power mics at the same time.

***If you plan on expanding your setup.....spring for an expandable firewire interface, but if your like me and find mic'ing drums too time consuming and expensive, and you have active pickups...you can use it rock solid to record a whole band.

Hope that helps

[bozmillar]

I think it's pretty rare to find a product that doesn't work as the description says, so as long as the product specs are up to your liking, you should be fine. If there are problems with it, you will find them easily by reading reveiws on musicians friend.

I used to think that M-Audio drivers were buggy, but then I learned that all audio drivers were buggy.

As for working with windows 7, if it works in Vista, it should work in 7. The switch to vista caused problems because microsoft revamped the audio engine, but most interfaces dealt with this a long time ago. With windows 7, it should crossover pretty painless.