M-Audio Fast Track Pro review

Verdict:

Review Date: 18 Apr 2008

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Kat Orphanides

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

M-Audio's Fast Track Pro is an external USB audio and MIDI interface designed for home audio production. With its huge range of ports, you can use it to connect almost any audio kit to your PC.

Two multipurpose ports on the front can take ¼in jacks or XLR microphone connectors, and it has MIDI in and out ports on the back. Other connections include coaxial S/PDIF in and out, two sets of stereo phono outputs, in outputs and effects pedal inserts.

Installation went smoothly, thanks to clear instructions in the quick start guide. If you've got an onboard Realtek sound device, you'll have to download the latest driver, as older versions cause conflicts. We weren't impressed with the bundled software, which includes Ableton Live Lite 6.01 - a hobbled version of the excellent Ableton Live - and a demo version of Digidesign Pro Tools M-Powered 7.3.

Audio output was clear and precise: excellent for monitoring and mixing live audio and MIDI output, or just listening to MP3s. Input quality allows recording at a maximum of 24-bit and 96kHz, which is plenty for most audio production. It doesn't output as much volume as some interfaces, and setting the correct levels for microphone input took some tweaking, but we were pleased with the results.

Excellent sound quality and a huge range of audio ports make this an easy and effective way to equip a PC for audio production.

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