Recording - February 2012 - 44

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

M-Audio
M-Audio’s interfaces have always shown an understanding of what the computer-based recording musician really needs to have at hand while working, and have evolved over the years to offer more comfort and convenience along with more power. Even something as simple as recognizing that most entry-level recordists don’t rackmount their interfaces, and therefore replacing small frontpanel knobs with big dials on the top of the interface case, shows M-Audio’s focus on giving musicians what they need in a simple and elegant format. The new Fast Track C Series interfaces continue that trend and add some interesting and worthwhile new tricks, going beyond inputs and outputs and offering a nearly complete set of interface tools for the small- to medium-sized home studio. Large and small solutions There are two Fast Track C interfaces, the C600 and somewhat smaller C400. The C600 is a 6-in/8-out 24-bit/96 kHz bus- or AC-powered USB 2.0 audio and MIDI interface designed in a tabletop format for easy control of inputs and studio
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RECORDING FEBRUARY 2012

Fast Track C600 Audio Interface
A perfect small-studio solution for audio I/O and more
monitors as well as DAW transport and other functions. It incorporates a powerful and flexible low-latency monitor mixer, built-in DSP effects for the monitor mixes, and comes with a software control panel that provides a variety of metering and control options to marry the interface neatly to any Windows or Mac DAW... including Avid Pro Tools SE, the entry-level version of Pro Tools that comes bundled free with the interface and requires no authorization key beyond the interface itself. The Fast Track C interfaces are intended to be placed near at hand while working. The angled top panel offers controls for the four analog input channels on the left and for monitoring and output control on the right. Each input has a large LED level meter (you can set their Clip lights to stay on until cleared), gain pot, and 20 dB pad switch. The first two inputs have switches to choose between the 1/4" TS Hi-Z instrument inputs on the front edge of the unit and the balanced XLR/TRS combination inputs on the rear panel. There are separate phantom power buttons for Inputs 1/2 and 3/4. The buttons require pressing and holding to turn off phantom, a nice safety feature to prevent losing power due to an accidental touch. Given that function, it’s a little surprising that they turn on instantly—I’d prefer a pressand-hold for that too, so as to protect any ribbon mics from accidental damage. The right half of the top panel has a large master volume pot, two smaller pots for the two independent 1/4" TRS headphone outs (on the front edge of the unit, like the instrument inputs), a set of three buttons to select three pairs of analog outputs, and six assignable buttons—five marked with transport functions and a button marked Multi, about which more later. The rear panel is all business: four Amphenol XLR/TRS jacks for the analog inputs, six 1/4" TRS balanced output jacks, S/PDIF in and out on RCA, MIDI In and Out, USB, and power. There’s no power switch—plug in the C600 and up it comes. The C400 has an almost identical feature set under the hood; it is bus-powered only, has two fewer inputs and two fewer outputs, one headphone jack rather than two, and lacks the five transport buttons of the C600 (although it retains the Multi button). We had a C600 in for review, and all of our discussion and test results are for that unit.

Recording - February 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - February 2012