[pitrow]

So I went back to the store last night and brought home a Fast Track Ultra 8R to split test with my Profire 2626.

I was actually able to work! The Profire 2626 gave me constant CPU overloads with no plug-ins up. It would even drop audio from time to time when I was just listening to iTunes using the 2626 as my internal audio.

The Fast Track Ultra8R seems to be working fine in Pro Tools which leads me to believe it's either something with my firewire ports or the Profire. My firewire drives work fine though so I don't think those are the issue. I even had gotten a firewire expresscard to ensure I was running on separate busses.

I guess I'm excited to have a working set-up, but am I losing any quality if I stick with the Fast Track Ultra 8R over the Profire (granted the Profire doesn't want to work with my set-up, but if in theory I got it working someday)? It seems they both use the same Octane pres and I think I lose some expandability, but I'm never really gone need more than 8 ins anyways.

Would the only difference then be firewire vs. USB?

I guess my real question is, since the Profire is a definite no with my system, if I stick with PTMP and the Ultra 8R, or if I take both M-audio interfaces back and go with a 003 set-up. I know this would be grounds for a new thread, but since anyone following this knows the history of the issues I thought it made sense.

I know the Ultra 8R still has the octane pres which I like so far and have heard they are better sounding than the 003. Perhaps in my head I still have this sense of Firewire interface being a better upgrade than USB, but guess there's not a definitive answer I've found to really support that.