Brings back memories

Gowing up the 4th of July was always a special time celebrating our nation's freedom. It's also a time to enjoy small things that produce loud booms and create colorful spectacles to help enhance the festivities. What does the Fourth of July have to do with an audio interface you ask, plenty. The AUDIOFIRE 2 from Echo audio brings to mind similar parallels. A small package packing a huge amount of boom and spectacle.

I have been a very happy ECHO Audio customer for many years and it has been the company that I started with when entering into the digital recording era with the GINA 20. To me ECHO Audio has always been a company that produced solid reliable devices that performed the way they were supposed to perform and always had the backing of rock solid drivers to keep things going that way. So let's get into what makes the AUDIOFIRE 2 so special.

Dont' let the size fool you

When you first take the interface out of the box there it is surprisingly small. At the same time there is a solid feel to it due to using a nice metal enclosure. The interface front provides two balanced 1/4" inputs a status LED an 1/8" headphone jack and a headphone level control.

The rear panel houses two 1/4 inch output jacks, a connector for a break-out cable providing MIDI in and Out as well as a digital SPDIF connection. The two Firewire connectors provide a link to your host computer (Mac or PC) as well as a pass-through connector to another Firewire device which is very convenient. You also have an auxilliary power connector for those times you do not have sufficient power on some laptop computers.

It's all about the sound

The size and build are matched by an equally high quality sound. The interface provides for 24bit audio with sample rates going all the way up to 96k which gives you plenty of flexibility to work in just about all of the most critical situations. At the time of this writing I am using the AUDIOFIRE 2 along with SONAR Producer 8.5.3 x64 running at 24 bit 48k. The AUDIOFIRE performs great under Windows 7 64 bit. 32 and 64 bit drivers are included for both Mac and Windows and are always being improved. To get the most performance from the AUDIOFIRE 2 Echo recommends running in ASIO mode. You are presented with a very nice control panel to set levels and monitoring, samplerates and such.

MIDI On-Board

Including a single MIDI in and out is a great plus especially if you are using the AUDIOFIRE2 with a laptop as Firewire ports are always seemingly scare so having the extra functionality without tying up an additional Firewire port is a great advantage. Also the MIDI being integrated just makes things feel tighter overall when tracking.

More than meets the eye

It might look like a headphone jack on the front but it is so much more. I was very pleased to learn that it can be used as an output for other uses as well. I love being able to set up a sub mix or other source mix and be able to send it out to outputs 3 and 4. One other useful trick I have found when working with Windows 7 is to use Outputs 3 and 4 as outputs for System audio sounds or other audio you are trying to capture with SONAR or your DAW. It is also helpful when using screen capture utilities that might not be able to capture the system audio directly so you can route it to outputs 3 and 4 then use inputs 1 and 2 to captur the full audio.

OF course you can use it as a headphone mix as well which has worked great when tracking vocalists and being able to send them their own customized mix. The onboard mixing facilities and control panel application provides for a great real time experience with no noticable latency.

At home or on the road

Since it is a Firewire device you can attach it to your favorite laptop that supports Firewire for a fantastic experience when needing to record or perform on the road. The AUDIOFIRE2 provides great low latency drivers that allow you to use virtual instruments and record live using your mobile computer. The same quality you enjoy at home is equally enjoyed when you are out there working it.

Let's Celebrate

Having all of these features in one sturdy little box is reaon enough to celebrate. Having it come in at a price of under $200.00 just adds to the festivities. I have been very proud of the quality coming out of our productions lately due to the fine people at Echo Audio. With their help I am making new memories and giving others the freedom to take their projects to the next level.

For more information contact Echo Audio www.echoaudio.com