The control panel offers eight tabs, providing monitoring options for all eight outputs as well as a number of additional features. The next eight channels are returns from your DAW application software. Any of these 16 channels can be sent to any of eight possible output busses by selecting the Monitor tab for the desired output pair and setting the levels for the input and software return channels respectively.
This latency can result in a delay that is undesirable when overdubbing to existing tracks. Smaller buffer sizes result in lower latency, but may not function well with slower systems, causing clicks, pops and dropouts in the audio playback. This is useful when setting up levels for live tracking or mixdown. Page About Tab Clicking the buttons in the lower right will take you to useful pages on the M-Audio website.
If your computer does not see a valid connection to Fast Track Ultra, or if the unit is powered off, you will see a message Page Troubleshooting Increasing the buffer size can be helpful, particularly in the case of older or lower-powered systems.
For more troubleshooting tips, visit the Knowledge Base at www. All rights reserved. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. Page 20 PC Print page 1 Print document 21 pages. Rename the bookmark. Delete bookmark? Cancel Delete. The preamps are based on M-Audio's Octane technology, as found in the more upmarket Profire The right side of the front panel hosts four gain controls for the mic preamps offering about 60dB of gain.
A 20dB pad is included, which can be useful for recording particularly loud signals and is engaged by pulling the respective gain knob out — it clicks firmly into either position. The other knobs control the main output level and the output levels of the two independent headphone outs. While fingers of the short and stubby kind are perhaps not best suited to the closely packed knobs, overall, M-Audio have done a good job of getting a lot of functionality into what is a small-footprint interface.
Moving from left to right, the rear panel features a power button, an input for the included power supply and a switch for the phantom power. The latter is global: on or off for all four channels. In addition to the six TRS jack line inputs, the rear panel is completed by two insert jacks also TRS that can be used to patch in a hardware processor such as an analogue compressor between the preamp and the A-D conversion. It's great to see such inserts included, as they can add considerable flexibility.
However, they are hardly given a mention in the supplied documentation and, given that the unit is priced at a point that will appeal to the recording novice, this is a pity. This is, perhaps, understandable, but it does mean another power adaptor to pack if you want to use the device as part of a mobile recording setup and need more than two analogue channels. While on the subject of power, I was a little surprised that the power socket on the rear of the unit doesn't feature some sort of cable lock, as the jack from the power adaptor seems to have a little play in it when connected and, in the chaos that often ensues in a mobile recording environment, I could easily imagine it becoming dislodged.
This is a bit of a shame, but in all other respects the Fast Track Ultra seems to be solidly built. The manual pointed me to the M-Audio web site to check for updated software and, with this downloaded, installation proceeded without a hitch on my system.
The drivers work with OS Ableton Live Lite 6 is bundled with the Fast Track Ultra, and while it offers a limited track count compared to the full version of Live four audio tracks and four MIDI tracks , it nevertheless has a good deal of the functionality of the full version. Its inclusion also allows those new to computer-based recording to get started 'straight out of the box'. An upgrade path to the full version of Live 7 reviewed in the February issue of SOS is also available.
With the occasional exception at the very budget end of the market, most modern audio devices aimed at recording musicians have very respectable audio specifications, and the data for the Fast Track Ultra suggests it's capable of good things. Playing back my test tracks covering rock, folk, country, dance and classical through the main outputs gave excellent results and, subjectively, the unit produced an even frequency response and good stereo imaging.
The Monitor windows allow multiple monitor mixes to be created and the Ultra's DSP effects to be applied.
When monitoring both the mic and line inputs at zero gain, in terms of average noise levels, I was able to get very close to the stated SNR data of approximately dB, and recording both vocals and acoustic guitar produced perfectly acceptable results. The mic preamps offer a reasonable amount of gain and the phantom power operated as advertised, although it's a shame it's global — even being switchable in two pairs would offer further flexibility for those with a limited mic collection.
What is perhaps a little surprising is that the four input-gain knobs only function with the front-panel inputs. As far as I could see, if you're using any of the rear-panel line-level inputs the signal level has to be controlled at source, as the Fast Track Ultra doesn't provide any means of control either in hardware or software. Having two independent headphone outputs is a big plus, allowing both engineer and performer to monitor if they are recording in a single room and don't have the luxury of a separate control room and live room.
Equally, the front-panel controls for the headphone outputs and main output level are welcome and much preferable to software-only controls. My only other minor gripe here is that the headphone outputs seem a tad underpowered — a drummer might struggle to hear what was going on in their headphones over the sound of the kit without some further amplification. This said, in the average home studio the Fast Track Ultra is unlikely to be the weak link in the audio signal chain.
In terms of audio quality, I'd have no problems in using this device in a commercial context for most recording tasks. The majority of the Fast Track Ultra's features are accessed via the eight tabbed windows within the Control Panel software. The user has control over the levels from all eight inputs, as well as up to eight channels of audio being returned to the Fast Track Ultra from the host sequencer.
It is also worth noting that the software faders for the input channels control only the monitoring level. Adjusting these has no influence on the level being sent to the host sequencer for recording — this is controlled independently via the front-panel gain controls although only, as noted earlier, for channels The tidy front panel is small but packed with functionality.
The onboard DSP processing powers a small selection of reverb and delay algorithms. The effects can be applied to either one of the input channels or to signals being passed from the computer back to the Fast Track Ultra for monitoring.
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