Maudio Quattro, any experience? Options

[mikehoff]

thanks to those that responded to my earlier posts re: EZBus.

I've now found the Quattro and wondering if any of you have had a luck using it in OS9 and/or osX.

also - if you ARE using it - with what software.

thaks again in advance!

Mike

[squid]

I Have an Audiosport Quattro and it is pretty cool... With acouple of odd things...

It needs a 9v wall wort, cant be powered off the USB buss which is a bummer.

Works with Digital Performer in OS 9, all four channels available.
Works with Pro Tools Free in OS 9, but only two channels available.
Works in OS X, shows up correctly labled in sound pref pannel and audio setup, works fine with Spak ME in OS X.

When recording all four channels at once in OS 9 with Performer I found that I needed to set it's latency high (in it's own controll pannel), if the latency was too low the audio files written had drop outs. Not sure how well all 4 channels work in OS X (still waiting for some X software Can do 24bit 96K if the software can do it. The four in's are 1/4" but they are balanced.

When I took the unit overseas, if the transformer I was using didn't kick out 105v or higher (dropping 240/220 down to 110) then the files it recorded had some strange hums I couldn't get rid of (lifting grounds, balanced vs. unbalanced didn't help). Sounds like a clocking problem maybee. As long as the voltage the Quattros wall wart sees is 105v or higher it seems to be cool.

Even with these problems I'm still pretty happy with it. The MIDI works great, at the same time it is recording audio. Having the audio and midi in one box is one reason I really like it. I have sucseffully used Coaster to record with it while sending MIDI program cahnge commands at the same time drom Digital Performer.

If it was bus powered it would be almost perfect.... The 4 channels in and out can be cool, but if you only need two channels, M-Audio is supposidly comming out with a new box that does two channels analog or digital and MIDI. (Quattro does not have digital in's/out's. If you don't need the MIDI there are tons of other boxes from the Apogee ($$$) to the mBox ($$) to the griffen imic($).