never used one personally but have heard good things about them... as to the fan... i would be surprised if the thing draws enough current to need one...

There are no fan's on the fireface. It is silent but it gets alittle hot when on for a long time. But mine has worked flawless every since I have had it.

I have use RME products for awhile , never had any problems. I own the fireface and a multiface and two ADI-8 converters. They work and work well. The four mic pre's on the fireface are very good too.

TotalMix is a great software mixer that the RME use's. The perfect tool for headphone mixes. It makes it very eazy.

Peace............Scoobie

I have to second that. Fireface is awesome. Its the only all in one (pre's converters sound card) that is on a pro level. Driver operation is extremely reliable. Sound quality is excellent. If your wanting a firewire interface this is the only choice in my opinion. If you do a search on this site you'll find alot of other recommendations. Matter of fact I can't recall ever seeing a bad review on the fireface ever. That says alot to me.

Thanks alot guys, what software should i use? cubase? Scoobie do you only mix and master with headphones or both phones and monitors?

For software Cubase would be find, it's kind'a what you like to use. These day's there is alot of very good software to choose from. It's a preference thing.

I use Samplitude and Sonar. Both work very well for what there designed to do.

I never mix with headphones. I guess you got the wrong idea about TotalMix. It's a software mixer that works with the Fireface. You can set-up as many headphones mixes as you have outputs. I'm not very good at describing how to do somthing. Do what I did and read the manual. learn all about TotalMix. That was a big reason why I went with RME interface's.

Peace...........Scoobie

Thanks since im recording in my parents house and will probably mix and master everything at night time would it be a good idea to get both good monitors and good headphones?

pow420 wrote: Thanks since im recording in my parents house and will probably mix and master everything at night time would it be a good idea to get both good monitors and good headphones?

I just learned from my headphone question (what to buy?) that you don't mix with a headphones on and primarily use it for checking sounds if there's anything going on that your monitors won't reveal. So it is a point of reference.

So, I guess you will be mixing on a couple of nearfields and check it with your headphone and later enjoy the result on both. Your parents will be safe, because mixing is not done on high volume anyway.

I don't use a Fireface but I never heard anyone complaining about one either. If you want the FF800 make sure your have a FW800/1394b port to make the most of it.

Thanks guys keep the reviews coming!

a quick look at the specs tell me there's only 8 (bal) LINELEVEL inputs (on the back) and just FOUR MIC inputs (on the front).

Presonus firepod has 8 bal mic inputs on FRONT
Focusrite saffire pro 26 has 8 mic inputs on the BACK which I prefer above all. (I only wonder if the saffire can be mounted in a 19" rack, there's no mounting brackets visibel on the specs. But I sure it there's a solution)

So I'd sure check out the presonus or focusrite. Altho RME has a good rep, I just don't like the inputs.

2 cents

Im going to be getting the ada8000 which comes with 8 more pre's so its not a problem

actually the fireface has 8 balanced inputs on the rear, while one can use the mic pres at the same time, spidif, and 2x ADAT lightpipe, so one could record 29 inputs at once. Personally, I have recorded 20 at once using the dual adat inputs plus 4 inputs on the rear with no pops or latency problems. :lol: The converters on the fireface sound great!!!!! The presonus and focusrite units are nice, but they dont sound nearly has warm and detailed. I have a buddy who has the presonus and I use the focusrite where I teach. No comparison in sound quality and the total mix program is truely unbelievable.

mozdedo wrote: actually the fireface has 8 balanced inputs on the rear, while one can use the mic pres at the same time, .

ya might want to double check this.... most always the mic and a line share a channel so i would doudt that you can do this.... stranger shit has happened but not recently....

You can record up to 28 tracks simultaneously with the Fireface . I record live sets, 24 channel (tracks)and have used as many as 26 before. You do have to use adat optical's I/O's , their is two.

Very fine firewire interface, JMHO the best in it's price range. Some people say bang-for-buck stuff!

Peace...........Scoobie

Has anyone using the fireface had any problems recording at 96k???

I have and it will record at 96k...........

But I don't have the need to record at that sampling rate. I do mostly live recording and that would eat up alot of hard-drive space.

FWIW, I didn't hear any difference . I'm sure it has alot to do with the room I was recording in.

If I was going to record at 96k, I would spend more money on my converters than the Fireface,JMHO. I have help mix some recording done at 24/96 that was truly awsome. But they were recorded with some top notch converters in a world class room.

Peace............Scoobie