Lets have real talk about audio interfaces

[BONES]

Yes, Edirol is Roland. I doubt you'd need updated drivers, most work for Vista, W7, W8 and W10 so there should be no need to update them. The last time I had a problem with a driver was indeed with that Edirol device and it was going from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. It caused the only BSOD I had between installing XP in 2002 and buying a Surface Book in 2015. One BSOD in 12 years, fixed in 30 seconds by getting the latest driver, is utterly amazing. I've had half-a-dozen since but usually before Windows finishes booting, so it's never cost me lost data. i.e. Windows 10 has never BSODed on me while I've been working or while I've had any applications open.

[EnochLight]

Yes, Edirol is Roland. I doubt you'd need updated drivers, most work for Vista, W7, W8 and W10 so there should be no need to update them. The last time I had a problem with a driver was indeed with that Edirol device and it was going from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. It caused the only BSOD I had between installing XP in 2002 and buying a Surface Book in 2015. One BSOD in 12 years, fixed in 30 seconds by getting the latest driver, is utterly amazing. I've had half-a-dozen since but usually before Windows finishes booting, so it's never cost me lost data. i.e. Windows 10 has never BSODed on me while I've been working or while I've had any applications open.

Consider yourself fortunate. I've had audio interfaces "break" just from an OS update, and the manufacturer stopped developing drivers for it. I've had this issue in my early days when I was new and buying Creative interfaces, but also later with interfaces from MOTU and M-Audio.

And I have absolutely been able to get Windows 10 to BSOD on me, though that's unrelated to audio interfaces.

[rod_zero]

Yes, Edirol is Roland. I doubt you'd need updated drivers, most work for Vista, W7, W8 and W10 so there should be no need to update them. The last time I had a problem with a driver was indeed with that Edirol device and it was going from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. It caused the only BSOD I had between installing XP in 2002 and buying a Surface Book in 2015. One BSOD in 12 years, fixed in 30 seconds by getting the latest driver, is utterly amazing. I've had half-a-dozen since but usually before Windows finishes booting, so it's never cost me lost data. i.e. Windows 10 has never BSODed on me while I've been working or while I've had any applications open.

The exception even inside Roland that has left some old USB equipment without driver updates.

Companies as apogee also leave their customers with unusable products as the first gen of One.

As stated by others it is rare for such a long time support, RME has the track record to claim long support.

I am also not a fan of expensive stuff, and I run away from companies charging for their brand name. But once you compare the features of a RME interface (which are quite more than cheap interfaces) the price is fair (obviously if those feature matter to you).

I see many of my friends going through several brands, wasting money on 4 interfaces instead of getting a good one.

That being said there is one brand that also has very good drivers and decent support: Steinberg, their UR line is quite good, and while they take time to deliver updated drivers at least IME they work well.

[stanlea]

Higher than RME are Prismsound and Antelope. Pricey, but better converters if you can hear the difference.

[EnochLight]

Higher than RME are Prismsound and Antelope. Pricey, but better converters if you can hear the difference.

Do they make their own USB controllers in-house and supply updated drivers for old interfaces for decades? Do you know how their driver performance compares to RME? Just curious. I'm not familiar with Prismsound or Antelope,

[stanlea]

Higher than RME are Prismsound and Antelope. Pricey, but better converters if you can hear the difference.

Do they make their own USB controllers in-house and supply updated drivers for old interfaces for decades? Do you know how their driver performance compares to RME? Just curious. I'm not familiar with Prismsound or Antelope,

Good points. Concerning usb controllers, I don't know. Prismsound drivers are solid, Antelope not so much on PC with the newest interfaces Discrete.

[BONES]

The exception even inside Roland that has left some old USB equipment without driver updates.

You quoted my post but you obviously didn't read it beyond the first sentence, because what I was saying is that you shouldn't need updated drivers beyond Vista/Win7, because Microsoft has gone to great lengths to ensure continuing driver compatibility since the Vista debacle. ALL my Win7 drivers work in Win10, every last one of them.

[EnochLight]

what I was saying is that you shouldn't need updated drivers beyond Vista/Win7, because Microsoft has gone to great lengths to ensure continuing driver compatibility since the Vista debacle. ALL my Win7 drivers work in Win10, every last one of them.

Ugh.. don't get me started on that train wreck that was Vista. That said, I was probably one of the few people on the planet that actually liked Windows 8.

[softska]

Do they make their own USB controllers in-house and supply updated drivers for old interfaces for decades? Do you know how their driver performance compares to RME? Just curious. I'm not familiar with Prismsound or Antelope,

For Antelope no. Marketing claim their own low latency USB driver but has been proven enough on forums it contained Theyson signature in driver at one point and is likely still based on it at current ver.

I own both O32+ and Zen Studio myself. They work fine but performance definitely aren't great on USB at low latency/cpu stress. It's hard to recommend despite the sound (you see this type of comment all the time; true for me at least). Their forced driver/control panel update and that online activation for new units is incomprehensible.

[bmanic]

Higher than RME are Prismsound and Antelope. Pricey, but better converters if you can hear the difference.

Do they make their own USB controllers in-house and supply updated drivers for old interfaces for decades? Do you know how their driver performance compares to RME? Just curious. I'm not familiar with Prismsound or Antelope,

I can answer this as I have a Prism Orpheus and also have been a long time RME user. Prism drivers are absolutely garbage.. and they dropped support for their expensive Orpheus after not many years. It's a shitty company and they are not getting my business ever again.

The AD and DA conversion is top notch but it all ends there. The USB controller is definitely not in-house and I know for a fact that they use a 3rd party for their ASIO driver coding. Cheap plastic knobs and a digital encoder that is now broken on my Orpheus.. and headphone preamps that were misaligned from the factory (all leaning slightly right). Having said that, it's worth noting that I have a pretty early version as my serial number is very low.

Still.. That company is shite in my opinion.

Antelope is apparently not much better. The guy who started antelope is the guy who also founded Aardvaark Audio back in the day and it was a complete shit show. Good hardware with massive potential, completely let down by the company management and support. Looking at the various Gearslutz threads it seems like nothing has really changed at Antelope.

[aallvor]

Is it fair to say that RME is the Miele of audio gear? I don't have any RME gear, but I have a Miele washing machine. No BS, super solid, just works

Expensive though, just like RME...

[The Noodlist]

I restarted using an old MOTU Traveler MK1 on windows 10 X64, it works, struggles a bit when a intensive plug-ins are used.Yesterday when recording got intermittent burst off white noise for the first time.

I usually use a rock-solid RME 9632, but need more I/O for outboard using Presonus pipeline, didn't want the hassle of setting up the ADAT routing on the MOTU.

RME card has been solid, great latency, it's now the only company I would use for interfaces, more I/O in future.
I also heard good thing about their USB drivers and performance.

[stanlea]

I think that Antelope works well on mac. A friend of mine runs a professional studio and is very happy with the high end Antelope.

[BONES]

Ugh.. don't get me started on that train wreck that was Vista. That said, I was probably one of the few people on the planet that actually liked Windows 8.

Vista was fine by SP1, which is when I first used it. OTOH, they broke WMP in Win7, which was a PITA for me, so I stuck with Vista for as long as I could, then got onto the Win8 beta at the earliest opportunity, thus minimising my exposure to Win7. I think I was probably one of the few people on the planet that actually hated Windows 7.

[DrGonzo]

RME BabyFace Pro.

Solid build quality, small portable and best ASIO drivers in the industry (one of the few companies that codes their own).

tl;dr but if you never want to feel screwed - go for a Babyface. Those drivers are not just insanely tight but even support Macs down to 10.6. RME takes their sound cards very seriously.

The pre-amps in my MOTU 828 Hybrid have given up the life - and although I never was unhappy with it - the Babyface have always had an egde over it.

/C