I’ve been using equipment since the 90s when their flagship samplers weren't just popular but an absolutely essential bit of studio kit. Since then, not a huge amount of Akai branded gear has passed through my hands bar a few controller keyboards. With this in mind, I was glad to see something from Akai coming my way, especially due to the fact it was an audio interface and built like a tank. Here we’ll take a look at whether EIE Pro lives up to its tough looks and impressive feature list. First Impressions As I mentioned in my opening comments, the Akai EIE Pro build quality has a military grade feel about it. On taking this thing out of the box, I was first struck by the fact it’s completely wrapped in metal. This is pretty rare these days and usually only reserved for high-end products.

(Pic 1b) The only software here is a simple control panel I usually have all the facts at hand when I first get a piece of kit to review and this was pretty much the case when the EIE Pro landed. The only thing I didn’t know was the price. It was actually quite refreshing checking this out without knowing that key bit of info. After a bit of a tweak and inspection, a friend and I started to “guess the price” (this may be a whole new reviewing technique).

High Orbit Ion Cannon Wiki here. Ignite supports the following methods to export or share your work: Share your Session file with a friend via email. Export an audio WAV file of your music.

We actually came up with £350 - £400. We figured this was what it would be selling for but agreed £300 - £350 would be really fair. Turns out this sells for around £169 ($249). Whichever way you look at it, this is a an absolute bargain (and it comes with Pro Tools Express, too). Some interfaces placed at four times this price point have a far inferior build quality and feature set. Of course, you can’t measure an interface on how heavy it is.

So how does this thing sound and what can it do? Sound And Vision Let’s take a look at the unit’s basic specifications. You get USB 2.0 connectivity, 4 ins, 4 outs, 4 inserts, MIDI in and out, 48 V phantom power and vintage style VU metering. On top of this, the EIE sports are really innovative yet simple feature. On the rear, you will find three powered USB ports.

This means not only do you free up the port that the Akai is using but you also gain two more. (Pic 2b) The vintage style VU meters are a cool addition here Another interesting touch is the inclusion of inserts.

This is not something you see everyday on a USB audio interface and is again something reserved for high end gear, or at least interfaces with higher i/o counts. The insert points allow you to patch (or insert!) your analog gear right into the mix or input signal path. This means you can treat anything you are recording with your favorite rack compressor, guitar pedal or reverb unit. The four channels give you some flexibility here as mono and stereo feeds can be mixed.

The EIE’s inputs are the usual dual purpose Neutrik variety, offering inputs for microphones and instruments alike. Phantom power can be fed to any of these inputs allowing a full spread of four condenser microphones to be used if required. The front panel is also bristling with knobs and switches. Everything from input level to meter selection is controlled via sturdy metal switches and rubberized knobs. There’s even a dedicated on / off switch on the rear. After admiring the overall construction of the EIE Pro, I got around to recording some basic vocals, analog synth and played a few familiar mixes through it. I have to say it performed very well indeed.

Everything sounded crystal clear and at no point did I feel anything was lost. There was no noise or distortion anywhere and stereo signal sounded great. Now I’m not saying that this unit performs as well as the higher end USB interfaces for the likes of Apogee or Focusrite (for example) but it certainly punches above its weight and is able to to do a sterling job even on critical projects. Final Thoughts And Conclusion So summing up, this is an interface that starts to make the old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ look a bit daft. OK so you don’t get the sleek good looks that some more expensive interfaces may give you, there are no touch sensitive OLED screens or internal DSP effects, but you do get solid build quality, a super clean signal patch and flexible routing.

Overall this is a real winner, either for the beginner looking to record a few sources at once, or the budget conscious engineer moving up from a 2 in 2 out setup. Obviously, this isn’t hugely portable, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be moved, it just isn’t really ideal for throwing into a laptop bag.

(Pic 3) The slightly chunky nature of the EIE puts it juts outside of the portable division As you might have guessed, I’m really impressed with the EIE Pro but that’s not to say I wouldn't change anything about it. One glaring omissions for me is the ability to change which set of outputs the main level knob controls on the front panel. I may have missed something in my evaluation, but I couldn't really find a quick way of switching outputs apart from using routing from directly in a DAW.

This is a real shame as switching between the outputs from the front panel would allow the user to set the EIE Pro up as a monitor controller with two separate sets of speakers. Bar this niggle, I found everything else to be very impressive. When you consider this can be easily found for well under £200 you really can’t go wrong. For more information, visit.

• • • • • • • • back • • • • • • • • • • back • • • • • • • • • • • • back • • • • • • • • • • • • back • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • back • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Thomann is the largest online and mail order retailer for musical instruments as well as light and sound equipment worldwide, having about 10m customers in 120 countries and 80.000 listed products. We are musicians ourselves and share your passion for making music. As a company, we have one single objective: making you, our customer, happy. • We have a wide variety of pages giving information and enabling you to contact us before and after your purchase. Alternatively, please feel free to use our accounts on social media such as Facebook or Twitter to get in touch. • Most members of our service staff are musicians themselves, and therefore excellently qualified to help our customers from the choice of their instruments all the way to maintenance or repairs. • Our expert departments and workshops allow us to offer you professional advice and rapid maintenance and repair services.

This also affects the price - to our customers' benefit, of course. • Apart from the shop, you can discover a wide variety of additional things - forums, apps, blogs, and much more. Always with customised added value for musicians.

Audio Interface • 24 Bit / 96 kHz • Simultaneous recording of four channels • Inputs: 4 x XLR/Jack combo including phantom voltage und volume control • Outputs: 4 x 6.3 mm Jack (operation with two separate monitor pairs possible) • 2 x VU level meter with switchable reference • 3 x USB port for connecting further USB periphery (hub function) • 1 x MIDI in and 1 x MIDI out • 6.3 mm Headphone output with selectable channel and direct monitoring • Desktop model • Robust design • Dimensions (D x W x H): 160 x 201 x 103 mm • Weight: 1.9 kg • Including power adaptor and USB cable. I've had my Akai EIE Pro for just over a year now, and for a long time it worked very well. The four combination sockets on the front are exceptionally useful, and the built in MIDI sockets and USB hub are a very good design feature, however I can no longer use my EIE to it's full potential due to its lack of OSX support. For Windows, however, I have found no issues, on 7, 8, 8.1, or 10.

Be aware that the XLR sockets are not properly balanced, and so it cannot handle long cables (had a lot of interference issues with 15 and 20 meter cables). Also be aware that in non-DAW programs, the interface treats input 1 and 2 as a Stereo pair, so if you only use one microphone, it will come out of one side, e.g.

Trey Songz Intermission 1 And 2 Album Download. Input 1 would be on the left side only. I would highly recommend this interface for anyone who is using a Windows-based DAW, but be cautious when using an OSX based system.

DON'T GET THIS INTERFACE IF YOU'RE USING WINDOWS 10 I re-installed windows 10 due to getting a new graphics card, and did a clean install of all drivers. The newest version of windows 10 and the newest drivers for this interface make windows crash as soon as any audio starts playing back! Bluescreen& this error: 'PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA What failed: akaieiea.sys' //// The interface looks amazing, it's a solid piece that seems to be really robust. I love the look, the analog VU meters look just amazing. Sadly, only the input one is usable - the output one will only move 1mm when the sound is at maximum.

I use it with 2 Yamaha HS7, with windows 7 everything worked ok most of the time. I got random crackles, and sometimes the samplerates randomly switched making the audio all distorted. Uninstalling all audio drivers (realtek, etc) and disabling other audio devices (display with speakers, etc) seemed to fix most of the sample rate problems but i would still get some crackles now and then. That was slightly annoying but didn't really cause huge problems. Now i recently upgraded to a new PC running windows 10, the samplerates are switching all the time leaving me either with distorted audio or hihat-like glitchy clicks playing over all audio.

Downloading and switching to ASIO4ALL driver fixes the problem, but it creates another one - no multiclient support. This means if i have ableton open, i can't hear any other sounds unless i save my work and close ableton. This creates problems when you have a huge library of samples/look for samples online while working.