Audio Interfaces for your MacBook, iMac, and Mac pro Tweak's Guide to Recording Success Store Links s Audio Interfaces for your Mac Get the right Audio Interface for your Macbook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. There are a few things to watch out for if you have a late model Mac. First, the PCI interfaces are not going to work with any of the Mac Pros, and of course not with any of the Mac Books, Mac Book Pros or iMacs. Today's Mac Pro has a PCI e slot format. This will not work with PCI cards. Most of us would probably not need a Mac PCIe interface.

Professionals with high i/o needs may want to go the MOTU PCIe route with a, and a. These are for large multi track systems with digital mixers. The Home studio enthusiast has many other options and they are mainly firewire options.

That is what we'll mainly focus on here. Tweak: This is the back of a, and audio interface with plenty of i/o. Click the pic to enlarge. When comparing features like i/o be sure to check out these comparison charts. Firewire interfaces generally work well with the current iMacs, MacBook Pros, Mac Minis and the Mac pro.

Note that newer Macbooks do not have firewire. USB 2.0 interfaces are valid for those Macbooks and all the others as well. At the bottom of the page you'll find lots of polls, user reviews and discussions from our forums. Keep in mind there are more audio interfaces that will work with your Mac. This is more of a list of those that should form the basis of your research. I am not including Digidesign interfaces here because they have done extensive compatibility theses on.

That is where you should research matching your Mac to an appropriate Digidesign or m-audio interface. When considering any audio interface there are 4 things that create the perfect storm for you. Excellent functioning drivers for your OS and applications. 2. Excellent sounding converters. 3.

Excellent sounding preamps. 4.

Sufficient and appropriate i/o for your studio You can always add on different preamps and converters to nearly any audio interface. Preamps will plug into the line inputs and converters will use s/pdif i/o. But there are two things you cannot change, or fix, with the interface you eventually choose. You can't go in and re-write driver code. The drivers manage the 'traffic' from inputs to software to outputs and are at least partially to blame for latency issues, clicks and pops, and other nasties.

Also you cannot change your i/o. If you get a box with 2 analog inputs and outputs, even if you buy a 100 channel mixer you can't change the fact that from the standpoint of the computer you have 2 channels in and 2 out and that will limit how many tracks you can record at one time to two. Its a great plan to get more i/o than you need.

You can do this by choosing an interface with an ADAT 'lightpipe' input. This gives you 8 digital inputs into your system. You could add a rack of 8 analog preamps that have ADAT digital out. The back panel of the MOTU 828mk3. Click the pic to enlarge You can find audio interfaces for your Mac from $150 to $2,000 on this page. What is the difference?

As above, quality of components for the preamps, converters and the number of hardware i/o. There is the research and development cost of making solid drivers, beta testing them among various applications, keeping the drivers updated through software and Operating system revisions. Finally there is the build quality of the box, brand name recognition, status in the professional community and how well the company follows Apple through its changes.

Low Cost (under $500) Also, look at the Mid Cost ($500-$1000), Higher Cost ($1000.00 plus) Cool Threads. Poll. Poll. Cool Links.

(See for Tascam us1641). Back to SoundCards and Audio Interfaces ©2010 TweakHeadz.com.

I've used just about everything out there including Pro Tools HD and have always used a Mac Pro. Currently I'm using Logic and love it. I recently bought and moved into a new place and have completely revamped my setup. Simplified it actually. Since I'm laying drum tracks down and not anything too drastic I chose to go with and interface similar to what you are describing. My drums are done through Battery 3, keyboards through various NI and IK plugins, vocals, bass and guitar all through a Firewire TC Electronics Konnect 6. Which is currently on sale everywhere.

I'll post some picture of my setup later when I'm not on my works firewall. Also check out Focusrite. I've used the Saffire and thought it was great. This forum has it right. I've used the Apogee and Presonus before and they sound great. Their preamp can't be beat.

I went with the TC Electronics due to the fact that for the money it can't be beat. Also, it's on-board reverb is killer.

I second the motion to be careful with M-Audio products. I used a Firewire 410 for while and had nothing but issues. While there USB controllers are solid I'd stay away from their interfaces. I use a MOTU (Mark of the Unicorn) Ultralite for my main interface - has 2 Hi-Z / XLR inputs with their own preamps, and several more line-level in the rear plus spdif in/out.

It's preamp is fine though I use the FMR RNP 2-channel preamp because I read a fantastic review. For MIDI & controller I use the M-Audio Axiom Pro 49. I used to use an M-Audio Ozone as my main input. Had nothing but problems with it. Picked up the MOTU and haven't looked back.

I have a hard drive dedicated for music production and I'm always sure to go into Energy Saver and turn OFF the 'Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible' to avoid problems. I guess it would be questionable whether i really 'need' a mac pro. But I have never really done much with macs and am curious to give their legendary stability a test and i figured if i was gonna give it a go I might as well do it right. I am used to dealing with hardware/software communication stability issues on my home built pc and want to have one round with a mac experience. I also do design work (adobe suite and architectural design) so it would get used for more than just music. Id ideally like to use an internal card just because it seems like it would be better than external but i am open to suggestions from people who have had good experiences, which of course is what this post was for.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I am going for stability, so my thinking is go with a mac pro along with the most appropriate fitting software and hardware. I wasnt sure if there was a common hardware brand that worked seamlessly and smoothly with macs. And it seems that Logic would be the easiest and most hassle free experience.

I guess it would be questionable whether i really 'need' a mac pro. But I have never really done much with macs and am curious to give their legendary stability a test and i figured if i was gonna give it a go I might as well do it right. I am used to dealing with hardware/software communication stability issues on my home built pc and want to have one round with a mac experience. I also do design work (adobe suite and architectural design) so it would get used for more than just music.

What Is An Audio Interface

Id ideally like to use an internal card just because it seems like it would be better than external but i am open to suggestions from people who have had good experiences, which of course is what this post was for. Thanks for all the suggestions! I am going for stability, so my thinking is go with a mac pro along with the most appropriate fitting software and hardware. I wasnt sure if there was a common hardware brand that worked seamlessly and smoothly with macs. And it seems that Logic would be the easiest and most hassle free experience. +1 on Focusrite and Apogee; they're good stuff.

If you're looking for the best-of-breed, however, and are willing to pay for it, check out the Metric Halo ULN-2, which is used by many pro-level engineers. Only two channels, but they're outstanding channels with high-gain, low-noise mic pres, and A-D conversion that's up there with the best of them. It also has outstanding DSP-based effects and mixing/recording capabilities in its control software, which is very robust.

And contrary to an earlier post, Metric Halo also has very tight integration with Logic. I know this is really getting away from being mac related but what are thoughts on these two interfaces looking at the two brands that people are suggesting most- apogee and focusrite, i tried to find each of their cheapest options for what i am looking for the apogee duet does seem great for meshing with logic with two inputs @500$ and the Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 is around 300$ and says it has 8 in 6 out (they had one model lower with 2 in & 4 out, but for that price.on amazon for 220 even) it seems like a no brainer to go with Focusrite, which makes me think im missing something.

Apogee Audio Interface For Mac

Anyone with experience on that model? I use a Liquid Saffire 56. It uses the same conversion chips (CS4272 off the top of my head. I could be wrong but I believe they're listed on GearSlutz) as the Apogee Ensemble and Duet. This is not 100% of the AD/DA conversion story but the 56 has a great word clock which improves conversion quality over products with an inferior clock. Profire 2626 for example will improve in conversion quality when clocked to the Saffire 56. I'll recommend the 56 on it's IO alone.

Audio Interface Reviews

Once you're into outboard gear, you'll appreciate the IO at mix time for adding analogue compression and other outboard FX. Focusrite Pre's are also quite good for interface pre's. The addition of the liquid pre's is nice as well. They're not picture perfect reproductions of the classics they emulate, but they add some nice flavour to your recordings. This is a VERY under appreciated interface.