Hey all,

I'm looking for my first decent audio interface, as I'm getting more in to sound and will start working on my first audio installation.

I would like something with 3-4 mic inputs, and about 4-8 total inputs and outputs.

I was looking at devices such as the m-audio fast track ultra, but it appears to not work very well under linux. Seems that that device is not fully duplex either, (due to usb?). I also looked at some firewire devices (like the echo fireaudio4), but that one looks currently unsupported by freebob.

Lots of the other devices on freebob seem to no longer be sold. (m-audio stuff in particular)

The reason I was thinking usb is that it would work on all my machines, as they don't all have firewire. Firewire would be ok, if the device was easy to set up, really worked and was stable (especially for installation). My installation machines all have firewire, just not my portables.

So anyone have any recommendations? I looked through the archives, but it seems most of those cards are now out of date. Oh and it would be nice if the device was around $500US.

Things I'm interested in doing with the card: using a mmic array to track the position of sound emitting objects (without amazing precision), and recording environmental sounds in installations.

Thanks all for your time, B. Bogart