This looks like a great little unit for computer based singer/guitarists!
24/96, Mic/instrument In, Line In/outs, S/PDIF in/out (patching at shows!), FireWire bus or DC powered, etc...
Anyone have any experience with this unit?
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html)
(http://www.m-audio.com/images/en/callouts/big/fw_solo.jpg)
Hello,
I bought one for my son, very good, the only drawback are the lack of a pad on mic input (If you use very sensitive mics will be a problem).
Cheers
Thanks for the info ramallo!
I have browsing to find the lowest price and found it for $179 + free 3-5 day ground shipping at amazon.com . Not a bad price.
I just got a Firewire Audiophile which seems to be the same except for:
1. Solo has 1/4" in/out where Audiophile has RCA in/out and MIDI in/out.
2. Solo has the mic (+phantom) and instrument level input.
3. Audiophile has a power switch.
So far after having this thing for a couple weeks, I like it. I haven't officially done any DAT transfers with it yet but I did test it and it worked good. Playback through SPDIF was easy to set up also and works very good. I have one gripe though...the power switch is pretty useless...if I turn it off while the computer is on and then turn it back on later it isn't recognized anymore...so I have to reboot...this defeats the purpose of the switch. The Solo doesn't have a switch so you don't have to worry about that. I'm thinking about trading the Audiophile for a Solo. ...or actually I should've bought the Firewire 410 that was FS here recently and got the best of both worlds.
Quote from: smokydays on January 12, 2006, 10:29:56 PM
This looks like a great little unit for computer based singer/guitarists!
24/96, Mic/instrument In, Line In/outs, S/PDIF in/out (patching at shows!), FireWire bus or DC powered, etc...
Anyone have any experience with this unit?
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html)
(http://www.m-audio.com/images/en/callouts/big/fw_solo.jpg)
I really recommend something with two mic inputs though. Eventually you may want to do some stereo recording, eg., of your own live show :)
I think the best deal out there now might be the Presonus Firebox. This is something like $299. It has two (reasonable) mic inputs, plus at least 2 (or 4?) more line inputs. It also has SPDIF (optical and coax, check this?).
Anyway, I think it is worth spending a bit more and getting something with: 1) known decent preamps, 2) two mic inputs, and preferably 3) other inputs besides mics (eg., for board mixes).
Richard
Hi,
The F.solo have a pretty decent mic preamp for the price, very good sound with a Sontronics STC5 mic. I believe that is a very good toy for amateur musician, one channel for guitar, another for a vocal mic, and two line inputs (For record a keyboard or take sound from a mixer), bus powered, and drivers for OSX and XP.
179$ is a very good price.
Cheers
Quote from: poorlyconditioned on January 13, 2006, 02:52:09 PM
I really recommend something with two mic inputs though. Eventually you may want to do some stereo recording, eg., of your own live show :)
I think the best deal out there now might be the Presonus Firebox. This is something like $299. It has two (reasonable) mic inputs, plus at least 2 (or 4?) more line inputs. It also has SPDIF (optical and coax, check this?).
Anyway, I think it is worth spending a bit more and getting something with: 1) known decent preamps, 2) two mic inputs, and preferably 3) other inputs besides mics (eg., for board mixes).
Richard
Hey this is great Richard, I appreciate you posting about this one. For a dollar more and change you certainly get alot more features. +T
Quote from: smokydays on January 13, 2006, 05:43:35 PM
Quote from: poorlyconditioned on January 13, 2006, 02:52:09 PM
I really recommend something with two mic inputs though. Eventually you may want to do some stereo recording, eg., of your own live show :)
I think the best deal out there now might be the Presonus Firebox. This is something like $299. It has two (reasonable) mic inputs, plus at least 2 (or 4?) more line inputs. It also has SPDIF (optical and coax, check this?).
Anyway, I think it is worth spending a bit more and getting something with: 1) known decent preamps, 2) two mic inputs, and preferably 3) other inputs besides mics (eg., for board mixes).
Richard
Hey this is great Richard, I appreciate you posting about this one. For a dollar more and change you certainly get alot more features. +T
A dollar more??? I think the Solo was $179, and Presonus is $299! Maybe you can get the Presonus a bit cheaper. My point is that you'll end up buying this anyway, so $299 is a good place to start. That is, if you want laptop taping...
PS: I bought the Presonus Firebox, which has 8 mic/line inputs. I should have got the Firebox or the MOTU Traveler though. The Firebox is just to big to carry around.
Richard
Quote from: poorlyconditioned on January 13, 2006, 06:47:15 PM
Quote from: smokydays on January 13, 2006, 05:43:35 PM
Quote from: poorlyconditioned on January 13, 2006, 02:52:09 PM
I really recommend something with two mic inputs though. Eventually you may want to do some stereo recording, eg., of your own live show :)
I think the best deal out there now might be the Presonus Firebox. This is something like $299. It has two (reasonable) mic inputs, plus at least 2 (or 4?) more line inputs. It also has SPDIF (optical and coax, check this?).
Anyway, I think it is worth spending a bit more and getting something with: 1) known decent preamps, 2) two mic inputs, and preferably 3) other inputs besides mics (eg., for board mixes).
Richard
Hey this is great Richard, I appreciate you posting about this one. For a dollar more and change you certainly get alot more features. +T
A dollar more??? I think the Solo was $179, and Presonus is $299! Maybe you can get the Presonus a bit cheaper. My point is that you'll end up buying this anyway, so $299 is a good place to start. That is, if you want laptop taping...
PS: I bought the Presonus Firebox, which has 8 mic/line inputs. I should have got the Firebox or the MOTU Traveler though. The Firebox is just to big to carry around.
Richard
Dollar as in slang for a hundred dollars.. Sorry bout that... ;)
Yea looks like $299 is the going rate on those. Well worth the extra for what you would get though.
Do yourself and your son or whoever a favor... Get a stereo version with two mic inputs. You are pretty much guaranteed to regret it at some point if you don't.
Hi,
Don't worry about me :D, I have my own sound card (Apogee MiniMe+MiniDac+RME Digiface) and is stereo ;).
For my son the Solo is enough.
Cheers