Echo Audio AudioFire12

It's versatile if you have a mixer and don't need digital I/O. I like it because I use it like a sophisticated tape machine with an analog mixer. I'm using 2 linked by firewire and wordclock for 24 simultaneous ins and outs. It's great for this and runs perfectly fine using all 24 inputs or outputs. Has 0 latency monitoring so it's like a tape machine in input monitor mode when recording. Only drawback with this setup is you can't monitor plugins while tracking. Not a problem the way I use it at all.

2 firewire ports and wordclock. Great! 12 inputs and outputs per unit. Great! I have this connected to a 24 channels inline mixer in the direct outs and tape returns. This is what this unit was made for! Love it! I like the mixer app that comes with but I leave it set one way like a real tape machine. Good stuff. Also, there's no wall warts. They use standard AC line cords which is also great!

No pre amps or DIs. This unit is made for people with pro mixers and outboard gear. They don't include any inexpensive pres. Also there's no digital I/O but for this type setup, you don't need them. MIDI implementation is great. Never had a problem using it and it's easy to set up anything MIDI wise. Any of the Inputs or Outputs can be used for anything like cue mixes, surround or whatever you need so that's no problem since you have 12 of each! I have 24 of each since I'm using 2 Audiofire 12s! No headphone out but why would a professional using this type of setup need one? My mixer has a headphone out and I also have a dedicated headphone amp in my racks. This is the type of setup these were meant for, Pro setups.

AC Powered. Won't power from firewire buss. Good quality line amps and converters is what these units are all about! Only giving a 9 to be fair to other units that pack in the features. These were not meant for those situations. They are meant for quality I/O to and from pro gear to and from computer DAW.

Supports all the resolutions available for digital audio including 192kHz, 24 bit. the only stuff unsupported are newer, non-mainstream stuff hardly anybody but the mastering guys and esoteric audiophiles might use that I don't even know about. Has 0 latency direct monitoring, yes. Good, stable ASIO drivers are provided and updated when needed. I've never needed to update. Never have any problems.

Came bundled with Tracktion 2 which is good. Chose your favorite DAW software and these will work unless it's that one company and then they want you to buy their dedicated gear. I've covered all the other stuff they are wanting in this category earlier.

Would definitely recommend this well made product. It's quality of construction and sound exceed much of it's competition, but is there really any? I'm not aware of other units like this made for integration with pro analog setups. I would get these again if lost. They perform flawlessly for me with a mongrel PC or my MacBook. No problems at all. Make sure you use a supported firewire card or your computer has a supported chipset though. Macs with built in firewire all are OK. PCs check Echo's site for information.

This is a rackmount (1U) firewire audio interface. Nice LED meters for each of 12 input and 12 output channels. No soft limiter, no mic preamps. Onboard DSP which can do a separate stereo mix for each stereo output pair (so 6 output mixes) which is great for monitoring. Note that the monitor mix is stereo, not mono (as in the Presonus FirePod) which makes a big difference when recording synths. The monitor mixes are easily set up by an application that is installed with the driver. No physical volume controls so I use a headphone amplifier to control my monitor speakers. Case is shiny aluminum, heavy duty metal.

Has two firewire ports. Word clock input and output. Multiple ECHO AudioFire interfaces can be used simultaneously (driver specifically supports that).

12 Analog Ins, 12 Analog Outs, all balanced TRS. +4 or -10 dBu selectable by software. 1 MIDI In, 1 MIDI Out. No preamps. No instrument inputs. No ADAT or SPDIF. So I give it a 9 - lots of analog i/o but some digital i/o would be nice.

Audiofire 12 can't be bus powered. Is AC powered by a line cord (no wall wart or line lump here). No provisions for battery power. I give it a 10 as I hate wall warts.

32kHz to 192kHz, 24 bits. Supports WDM, ASIO, and GSIF. Direct monitoring through onboard DSP mixer. Sound quality is excellent. Transparent, sweet. No noise.

Includes Tracktion, probably a lite version, I don't know because I don't care. The driver includes a nice looking mixer panel with a tab to do a mix for each output pair. I give it a 10 because I have my own software. All I require is a stable driver. ECHO's driver support is legendary (um I mean legendarily good). Setup was easy. I got the latest driver from echoaudio.com, it included a firmware update.

It works beautifully. I have a mixerless setup. I have a few synths and mic preamps plugged directly into it and this works well for me. I am using it with Ableton Live. I do recommend it if you have your own mic preamps to use with it or if you have a few synths you want to record seperately. Echo driver support is good, always has been. If it was destroyed or stolen, I would definitely buy it again.