Re: Audio Interface for Notebook Users

[mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 9:25 PM -0500 3/23/06, Brian Good wrote:
>
>I was just helping a friend with a similar purchase, and we stumbled 
>across a couple new interfaces from Alesis.  Apparently only the 
>smaller of the two is shipping right now.  I know absolutely nothing 
>about their sound, reliability, or anything else, but they do look 
>like they offer a fair bit of functionality for the price.  The 
>smaller one looks like it only has two line-out channels, which 
>makes it not so looper-friendly, but the larger one has 8.

It may be a non-issue (since these are Firewire, and a different 
basic architecture) but I've got a two-channel audio interface built 
into my Alesis Photon X25 USB MIDI controller.  I've stopped even 
attempting to use it.  It has a tendency to randomly blast huge noise 
bursts after some unspecified period.  This is especially fun with 
headphones on (like I need any extra help going deaf).  It won't stop 
until you reboot the computer.

I didn't really care all that much (once my ears stopped ringing). 
Frankly, I bought the darn thing primarily for its Axyz controller. 
Anything additional is pretty much cake, so I just wrote off that 
functionality.

As I said, it might not apply to this series.  However, I'm somewhat 
leery of the Alesis audio interfaces now, at least in terms of 
quality control.

        --m.

-- 
_______
"You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike..."