M-Audio Solo | $49 Audio Interface | Review and what you need to know before buying!

I have had ZERO luck with anything M-Audio outside of the Nova Condenser Microphone.......will this buck that trend?

*Apparently this can get a LITTLE better results across different systems, but it's not worth messing with in my opinion*

[SianaGearz]

I can hear the clipping. The indicator is accurate. At 7 with the first mic, it actually starts sounding good. I think the preamp is sensitive enough, just the adjustment linearity of it is spectacularly bad. The problem why it appears low seems to be low output volume from the headphone amplifier. I don't actually care whether it looks like it clips in Audacity because Audacity has a linear waveform display, which is a bit deceiving, and there for sure isn't more than half a bit of resolution lost even if they misaligned the gains, which is the least of this box's issues.

A great flaw of the UM2 is that the monitoring isn't mono summed, you only hear yourself in one ear, which is EXTREMELY ANNOYING. To get mono summing, you need to upgrade all the way up to UMC204HD, but then you also get a professional hi-rez interface (24/192) with two mic preamps, inserts and MIDI, which is about 4 tiers of features more than most people who're not recording musicians actually need, even if it's no less of an amazing value at its price. There's room in the market for one more interface, one which is perhaps not too dissimilar from this Solo, just somewhat more refined.

Cool software? Pro Tools? Who wants that? I bet you'd have to pay most people personal injury compensation to use it instead of Cakewalk, or Presonus Studio One, or even Tracktion, or even Reaper, and at least half a dozen others. MPC Beats is likely just a promo, the version they're bundling is probably the one that's free to begin with.

[JulianKrause]

Hey, do you use the M-Track Solo with a Mac or Windows PC? In Audacity you can't use the ASIO driver, so you have to use MME, Windows Direct Sound or Windows WASAPI. For some reason, the M-Track Solo clips at -3 dBFS with WASAPI and the signal is lowered even further with MME or Win Direct Sound (that's why it sounds so quiet). On the last two settings the signal even clips at -6 dBFS. The indicator on the M-Track is correct and you can see that you are clipping the audio, hence the bad sound. So far, I experienced a few problems with the driver, but interestingly enough, it is pretty much the same with the UM2 and UMC22. I would have hoped that this clipping problem is a thing of the past by now...

[angomnaresh]

I use M-audio duo because it has two mic/ line level inputs as I extremely needed two condenser mic one for vocal and another one for acoustic guitar for live streaming, the main feature is that it has mono/stereo option for headphone and it goes well on my ear, besides all this it is also budget interface

[GregorMima]

Well all i care about are low noise preamps, and the M-Audio delivers.

[nahailyenvanakkor]

Granted, I use a lower-end dynamic mic (Behringer), but I also have this problem with recording levels.
For acoustic guitar, It’s too quiet until like 9, then the gain is suddenly jumping sky high between 9 and 10, and it’s clipping really easily when it starts to sound good.

[vincentperom]

The instrument line on that thing is actually decent compared to um2 but not the best.

[enriquekahn]

Man that is so unfortunate. I was really hoping there would be a cheapie alternative to the Behringer stuff which isn't that great to start with.

[senimanmahiwal]

I owned M-Track Solo, and when I plugged in my PC on Win10, it always detect as USB AUDIO CODEC.
And when I install the M-Track Solo and Duo 1.0.3 driver, it cannot install, the Setup Wizard not showing, and always have Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable pop-up 2 times, and then it quits.

When I runned my DAW (Studio One), its show NO AUDIO DRIVER.

any help ???

[mattxloca]

Hi, very nice review man, I have a question! Is M-track solo better than the new Donner Livejack lite audio interface in your opinion?

[itscarlosreally]

Man, been using the Behringer UM2 since the quarantine started, for work. So far, it looks like the only good upgrades I can get would cost an arm and a leg.

[Thatblindguy]

Hi, I was wondering if you could take a look at the Fifine k678 and k690 microphones in the future?

[sirnigelcogs]

Based on what you described and how much the audio interface was clipping, I'm going to guess the configuration issue was on the computer side of things. The gain and configuration settings on the computer have to be set to match the audio interface with whatever audio interface is being used. Otherwise an audio interface could be clipping while still not getting much level in the recording software.

[Abbynorml]

I wonder if a new quality alpha pot would change things? Seems a simple fix...

[AudioHotline]

That gain set to 10, sounds so solid! 😂
That’s too bad it isn’t a good interface, I was hoping for a decent budget interface that I could recommend to people.

[GloriousPanic]

Would it be okay for beginner voiceover ? Thanks

[blessedflow]

which is better M-Audio M-Track solo or the Behringer UMC22?

[worlarusham]

i have a dumb question here, lets say I've connect both my headphone and speaker to my audio interface. can i switch between these outputs?

[DaviddoesStuff]

Wow! That potentiometer they used on the gain control was a really bad choice. I bet if you changed that out for a better one you could actually make it usable.

It would make a fun project if you like doing that sort of stuff.

Have a great day and be safe out there!

[brendens]

In 2005 m audio wasn't the junk it has become. The FireWire 410 was solid. I grabbed a m track plus years ago. Better than what it is now but still not the quality of product.

[heryeryu]

Hello, is this sound card suitable for 55 ohm headphones?