RME Fireface UCX 36 Channel 24 Bit 192kHz High-End USB and FireWire Audio Interface

I got the RME Fireface UCX to free up my Sound Devices USB Pre 2 for location work and also to provide more I/O for my home studio.The UCX is a versatile, stable, extremely clean, durable, and relatively compact (1/2 rack space) audio interface. It is very well built and has quite a bit of easily accessible I/O for its size. Installation is very straightforward, a firmware update was needed out of the box which can only be done via USB meaning both Firewire and USB drivers are required even if you will only be using Firewire for operation, all of which are available on the RME website. With drivers installed the UCX shows up immediately (I'm currently using it with a Mac mini running OSX 10.10 and ProTools 11) and the TotalMix software starts automatically. TotalMix is quite flexible, has more features than I am using in my current setup, provides zero latency pass thru monitoring, and could be extremely useful for things like standalone operation. The UCX will operate bus powered on Firewire, but requires the included external power supply to run on USB, a second FW port (preferably FW800/9-pin) would have been nice for daisy chaining but it is a small unit already packed full of connectors. Audio is absolutely noise and glitch free all the way to 192kHz and there's lots of internal and external clock options. The single front panel encoder/push button could be a bit limited for standalone operation, but it works great as a studio monitor level control.I highly recommend the UCX as a high quality compact studio interface. It would also be excellent as a location recording interface, though it would be a good idea to create presets with TotalMix if you will be using it standalone (without a computer). There are less expensive interfaces that come bundled with plugin packages (TotalMix has a limited number of effects available) but I think the audio quality, build quality and rock solid driver stability make the UCX a better choice. If you need additional DSP, something like the Universal Audio interfaces would be worth considering, but for a top quality dedicated interface the RME is hard to beat.

I have used countless RME fireface products and it's first time I cannot load drivers on computer for this units to work. I kept it fore more than 6 months keep trying out on other computers but all the same. Waste of a lot of money!

This is a great piece of gear. I use this for mobile application and it's big brother the UFX in the studio. A serious interface for pros and for the passionate home studio. I use with a windows pc via a silver USB2 interconnect. The drivers are absolutely stable. Totalmix is a great, easy to use user interface. Brilliant. That said, I would like to see Ethernet or USB3 connectivity neither of which are available as of this writting.

I bought this interface in 2011 for my Macbook Pro 15" (new generation with Thunderbolt), Pro Tools 9, Logic Pro 9, Digital Performer 7 machine.Throughout the entire installation and configuring, I never had any problem, everything worked the first time. Software installed correctly, hardware was recognized, firmware updating went without problem, and the unit worked first time when plugged in. Generally, this interface is one of the best I've used an it's rock solid.I use this unit in multiple environments, my home studio has a wordclock (Big Ben) and the RME connects to this perfectly with no problem and works fine. I use the lightpipe connections for digital multi i/o and they work perfect, no problems and relatively little latency upon monitoring through the software in real time.I record myself often and absolutely can't stand any latency while monitoring a track I am currently recording. Fortunately with the FireFace UC I don't have to monitor through the recording software and I don't need any additional hardware either (patchbay or console). The software application TotalMix provides a solution. You can simply connect your headphones to the interface (or use an analog output if you have some other kind of system). In TotalMix's Matrix view, you can route an input to an output, while still enabling the input's signal to go to the software (essentially a 'mult'). This is great for monitoring while performing/recording with no latency in the monitored signal.I only have 2 gripes. One is that I find the use of the Matrix view is confusing and time consuming to set up at times. The second is that the multipurpose knob on the front of the unit is somewhat of a pain to use, however I don't see a good alternate solution RME could have implemented.I recommend this interface highly.

Good Price for a very proffisional audio interface, specially that I can choose to connect it via USB or FireWire

Simply the best quality sound for PC audio interfaceBetter than UC that comes with USB 2.0 only, but UCX model has USB 3.0