Like a Champ
Not really a music specific post today, but more of a gear post.
Over the last few years, I’ve used several audio interfaces with my computer. When at home, I mainly need a good, solid interface that will let me mix anywhere from two to thirty-two channels without any hassle. To be specific, an interface that worked well with my Mac mini and Tracktion. I don’t do a lot of recording at home, so having multiple inputs (XLR, MIDI, etc.) isn’t an issue.
I’ve settled on a Behringer FCA202 FireWire interface. Yes, a Behringer product. A lot of people bash them, but when it comes to bang-for-your-buck, there’s no better. I’ve owned several of their products and never had any real complaints. The FCA202 is a very simple firewire device - two 1/4″ inputs, two 1/4″ outputs, a headphone jack and two firewire ports. That’s it. A negative of this interface is no XLR or MIDI inputs. But, if you want to upgrade your computer’s sound card (using a factory sound card for pro audio applications is not recommended) for a cheap price ($80), I highly recommend this card. It’s also extremely compact, making it a great, portable unit. I often throw this in my laptop bag to work on audio projects on the go.
The main issue I ran into using other units dealt with audio dropouts, pops, clicks, and more noises. For some reason, a couple of units would only briefly work with my setup before the audio would drop out. But, I would expect more from $200-600 units, so this was disappointing. The FCA202 performs much better with my setup. The units that didn’t perform as well included an Edirol FA-101, Alesis MultiMix 8 FireWire, and a PreSonus Inspire. They all resulted in glitches while I tried mixing a project.
I can’t verify if this product would work well with a PC, or another Mac setup that differs from mine. It does work great with my iBook G4, though. If you have a 6-pin FireWire port on your computer, the device can be bus-powered (no power adapter needed). Looking through reviews on Musician’s Friend shows there are issues if you try to use it with Vista (but, what else is new? The surprise would be if it WORKED with Vista!).
If you’re in the market for a great little (affordable) audio interface, and if you don’t need XLR or MIDI inputs, I highly recommend this unit. Combine this with GarageBand on a Mac and you’ve spent $80 to start recording your ideas and more.
