Discussion
I want to replace our Focusrite Clarett+ 8Pre. It offers excellent sound quality, but its operation is reliant on software that's only available for MacOS or Windows, so for me it's the final obstacle to completing the shift from MacOS to Linux.
I had wanted to return to the Behringer UMC1820 which was ergonomically perfect and sounded great. But the unit we had blew up three times, and evidently overheating is a widespread problem.
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While visiting Wellington on the weekend I saw another alternative in the Rockshop: An M-Audio Air 192|14. It's not a rack mount unit, but I could put it on a sliding drawer in the rack. It has even better ergonomics than the Behringer UMC1820, but mic preamp gainstaging is apparently logarithmic, requiring settings between 8 and 10 out of ten.
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There are mixed reviews on the web. Some warn people against buying them, but in the comments I see a lot of people who are very happy.
An added advantage from my perspective is that if the unit is sitting on a slide out tray in one of the racks, it would be relatively easy to disconnect and take with me for location recording. If Aelyth's too busy to come to the studio, the studio can come to her.
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So if anyone has encountered M-Audio's Air series interfaces in the wild, I'd love to hear your impressions of the gear.
Oh ... ergonomics?
The Behringer had a mix knob that let me dial in the right balance of DAW and inputs for monitoring while recording. The Air 192|14 has the same knob, PLUS two instrument inputs on the front panel that override whatever's plugged into the combo socket on the back. We do have a patchbay, but this feature is definitely a plus.
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Install Fedizen
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@elsemusic Have you heard of the ALSA Scarlett Control Panel? It gives you full control over your Focusrite interface. It works perfectly with my Clarett+ 4Pre.
https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui
GitHub - geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui: alsa-scarlett-gui is a Gtk4 GUI for the ALSA controls presented by the Linux kernel Focusrite USB Drivers