RME Babyface (Blue) Reviews

4.9/5.0 based on 18 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Carson McClain

I am truly an RME evangelist. The stability of RME's driver and software, the quality of the preamps, as well as the clocking and Jitter supression make their products an absolute STANDARD in my studio. If you are sick of issues of interfaces not being cross-platform, then go with the RME Babyface as a portable interface. For its size it has more I/O for the buck and similar if not better quality over the other portable boxes out there.

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Customer Reviews

Paul G
from Seminole, FL
January 16, 2013Music Background:
Pro Musician

High Quality!

I was looking upgrade to my ECHO Gina PCI card (which I always loved before it died) that would be a next level improvement . I am very pleased with the Babyface and it is noticeably superior sounding. My wife who doesn't care noticed the sound difference right away. It is just clearer, cleaner and more detailed. . I checked the latency and round trip I am at 4.8 ms with 128 buffer and 88K sampling which is phenomenal for a USB2 interface. Very easy setup and not difficult in use. I am so happy I just went for a Babyface .

Ricardo
from Brazil
August 16, 2012Music Background:
Casual Player

Great Product

This is a great interface. Nice features and the ADAT is a very nice

Mike
from Cleveland
June 14, 2012Music Background:
Studio Musician / Guitarist

RME Babyface

The RME Babyface is one awesome sounding Audio Interfaces that I've come across, I've tried Motu, Edirol, Focusrite and others, and between the A/D Converters & Preamps along with TotalMix FX, its a beautiful sounding professional gear! The capabilities are astounding, the routing is flexible, with ADAT expandability, the Sweetwater Sale Pro's are extremely helpful, wonderful purchase.

from
June 13, 2012Music Background:
sae atlanta graduate. producer

best of the best

its rme what can i say. I'm hearing parts of my mixes i couldn't even hear with my mbox. the kicks are so much more punchy, just a great unit

Dan
from United States
March 15, 2012Music Background:
Recording Engineer

Impressed

I've only had this for a couple days now, but I'm really impressed so far. It feels more solid than I expected it to, which is a nice surprise. This thing was super easy to setup on my mac, just plug it in and install the drivers. I've used a digi 002 for years, and after that died my line 6 pod xt pro as a soundcard, so not the greatest interface, but useable. This thing just sounds great. It's super quiet and super clean. I can finally start using my UA 4-710d again and pipe whatever else I need through that. For someone like me, a "prosumer" this is perfect. Works seamlessly with Ableton Live and all of the mac apps.

Zach Neal
from North Branch, MN USA
January 12, 2012Music Background:
Producer, Engineer, Mixer, Musician

Holy Cow!!

This is truly the best portable interface at this price, or for me the best interface at this price period! The conversion itself is definately something to write home about. Its amazing sounding, very clear and true to the performance. The preamps are very nice as well for the price. You can really take advantage of the conversion though with an external preamp, like a True Sysyems P SOLO. Thats what I use and it really works well with the babyface! Thinking of putting a Urie 610 through it. I cant wait for the results! The steady clock in this sucker is really a solid rock, no latency. The ADAT feature also is great. I have an 8 channel strip of focusrite pres linked to it for drums. This interface is a must have! Totally up there with Apogee with its own sound of course but you will not be disappointed!

Todd
from Indiana
December 6, 2011Music Background:
Creative Producer

Exceptional Sound with Wow Form Factor

I was very impressed with the Babyface from the moment I picked it up. This unit is has a very nice heft to it in an attractive metal housing. The drivers are rock solid and so is the support staff if you have any technical questions.

The sound produced by the A/D & D/A converters is really something that you have to hear to believe. Extremely low noise. You really are upgrading into a nice sweet spot from anything entry level with this unit.

The TotalMix FX mixing/routing software that comes with the unit is really so powerful in its unlimited useability that the sky is really the limit in getting creative.

A very nice well rounded interface.

nvr
from pittsburgh, pa
September 6, 2011

professional compact interface

i am looking for a professinal compact audio interface with usb connectivity that works on both pc and mac ang got this little guy. i own duet1 nad firestudio mobile along with this. first of all, it very easy to install both on mac and pc with totalmixfx software.

i first used my duet1 to see the difference between babyface and duet1. the difference between these two is significant. my initial interpretation is babyface is more open and transperant. it is so natural that i feel the vocals recorded in logic is some what more near to the actual vocals some one hear near by the singer. i have noticed i did not lose much melody that the singer express on mic. where as i see duet1 more digital and crisp and accurate with out noise, but i still feel something is missing out of this. i do not own duet2 so i can. not really tell who has more edge in terms of sound.

in short, this is very good nice sounding, almost no noise at high gain levels usb audio interface with very good drivers.

Damian Pulse
from Los Angeles
August 31, 2011Music Background:
Producer

RME Babyface vs Duet 2

Well after extensive testing of both units I must say that the RME wins the battle! TotalMix, Mac/PC compatibility, Midi, Spdif, DSP and most importantly STABILITY! The Duet 2 freezes or is not recognized or Maestro gets weird then you must re-boot or unplug or remove the big dial to avoid static shocks (yeah I know, see forums). The Babyface just sounds better too. More natural and true to the source. The Apogee is loud and big and bright but it sounds fake and you get tired of the overemphasized highs. Feels like sonic trickery to get that WOW sound. The Duet 2 offers more gain (75 vs 60 dB) on the preamps which is the only advantage for those of you with old ribbons. The RME drove my gain hog SM7B just fine and the conversion is beautiful. Truly a boutique product. Well worth the money. The best USB interface on the market imho. And so flexible too... Cheers

Alan Simpson
from Richmond, VA
June 28, 2011Music Background:
Guitarist, Novice Engineer

Powerful, but user friendly

Killer piece of gear. This is a huge upgrade from the interface I had before, and I couldn't be happier. It has loads of features for such a small device, and the expandability is an awesome bonus. Preamps and convertors sound excellent, there's plenty of clean gain, and the TotalMix FX software is very well done. I was able to plug in and record within an hour; it's capable of doing a lot, but it's also easy to use.

Barrie
from Toronto
May 13, 2011

Brilliant!

I love everything about this unit.
The sound is excellent, TotalMix is fantastic, drivers are solid and stable, the build quality is great, the controls work exactly how I want them to, the simplicity of USB connectivity, balanced I/O and the feature set is more than I expected.
It's a perfect fit for my studio.

W. Chancellor Jr.
from Minneapolis, MN
May 3, 2011Music Background:
Instructor at The Institute Of Production & Recording (IPR) -Minneapolis, MN

Lovin' It

Great internal clock... Audio is well defined through my monitors...great drivers... I'm happy withe the purchase of mine..

Al C.
from Iowa, Illinois
February 17, 2011Music Background:
musician recording hobbyist with excellent ears.

Overall Excellent

Excellent portable flexible unit to host home consumer connections or balanced pro audio connections (-10dB vs. +4dB). Longer USB2 cord (8 ft.) can be used with no increase in sample rate. 100mA for a USB2 connection, the gain on the inputs is highly flexible enough. The manual for the unit is the first place and perhaps last place to check to make sure. The electronics of the unit are excellent.
A mention to RME may have them think to change some things in the TotalMixFx program and for me only make it better. Add to that echo, reverb, and parametric equalizer included with TotalMixFx and the consumer has a highly portable flexible excellent unit.

Al C.
from Iowa, Illinois
February 17, 2011Music Background:
musician recording hobbyist with excellent ears.

Overall Excellent

Andrew D
from New Jersey, USA
February 13, 2011Music Background:
Recording Engineer, Hobbyist

The best!

I can't find any other table top interface that can outperform this little guy. It's worth the extra money 100%. It can do what ever you want it to do plus more!

from
July 7, 2012Music Background:
Pro musician. Producer.

Great value

After an update of the firmware the unit is rock solid. Love the totalmix software. Still figuring it out but is versatile. Onboard Preamps are very good. Using with my apogee Rosetta 800.
Flawless and love the ergonomics. With pro tools ten is a fine upgrade.

Shane
from Phoenix, AZ
May 17, 2011Music Background:
Recording Engineer

Great Home Recording Interface

This interface is awesome for the price! The AD/DA Converters are awesome and the pre-amps are killer for the money you spend. Also the nice thing is it has s/pdif and adat optical connections so you can expand. All and all I love this interface and its a real good home interface especially now that pro tools 9 is open source.

frank
from richmond, ca
January 28, 2013Music Background:
recording engineer

mixed feelings...

Diver installation was not easy on windows 8.
I had to manually install drivers.
Total mix software has complex layout and is a puzzle to figure out.
It's very easy to be at wrong sample rate when using device with Pro Tools.
Interface sounds good. Mic Pres are also good.
Owner's manual seems translated from German.
DigiCheck meters are excellent.
This is one of the most difficult devices to learn how to use for me...but it may be worth it....we'll see. Time will tell.

inSync Review

Mitch Gallagher
2-24-2012

interfaces have long been known for their feature-heavy design, rock-solid drivers, low latency, and pristine sound quality. With the , RME has brought all of these qualities together into a compact, portable Mac-/PC-compatible interface that can connect via FireWire or either USB 2.0 or 3. And check this out: the Fireface UCX is class-compliant, so you can hook it up to your iPad using the Apple Camera Kit. How cool is that?

The half-rack Fireface UCX has eighteen inputs and outputs (eight analog, eight ADAT optical, and stereo S/PDIF). There are two mic preamps with phantom power, as well as word clock I/O. They even found a way to squeeze in MIDI input and outputs plus a connection for a remote control -- the Babyface-style remote is included, or you can upgrade to the RME Advanced Remote Control, which adds even more features.

The Fireface UCX comes with RME's TotalMix FX software for latency-free monitoring. In fact, there are two DSP chips built into the unit -- one for eliminating monitor latency and one for providing DSP-driven effects. TotalMix also includes a complete control room monitor-control section for handling your speakers.
In use, the Fireface UCX is a joy, getting out of the way so that you can make music. The array of I/O covers all needs, and TotalMix FX drives the whole thing transparently with a user-friendly interface. With its compact size, the Fireface UCX is the ideal laptop companion for location recording. The mic preamps deliver the goods, and the overall sound quality is clean and clear. And the iPad connectivity (via the optional Camera Kit) is a bonus that shouldn't be overlooked. I was able to get eight analog ins with my iPad 2, at resolution up to 96kHz/24 bits! I predict this will become increasingly important as the iPad comes into its own as a DAW host.

RME's reputation for building quality audio interfaces and drivers is well deserved. That reputation is enhanced even further by the Fireface UCX -- another great interface from a company that clearly "gets it" when it comes to understanding what recording musicians want and need.