Akai Professional EIE Pro Reviews

Sean Havlena
from Westlake, Oh
April 25, 2013Music Background:
Student

So far, so good.

Honestly, this has been a great purchase; It works really well and I've managed to get signal through it every time I've used it. My only regret is that I didn't get any XLR cables to successfully pass phantom power on this thing (plus I didn't know that you needed XLR to pass Phantom at the time.) Other than my own negligence, I can't see any other problems. I haven't managed to play around with much else, but I hope to do that very soon

from
July 29, 2012

Very good, all functionality you'd expect!

Hi guys,

Solid controls, quiet operation, nice sound quality.
We tried it with guitar, overdrive and reverb with Palmer speaker simulator DI and without it, and it sounds well either way, thumbs up for built-in preamps.
WDM drivers seem to work fine (tested with Audacity), no hum nor nasty clicks.

All features are useful, great looks and power supply supports 240V operation too.

Recommended for anyone looking for inexpensive USB recorder!

from OH, USA
March 21, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist

Nice..

Does eferything I need it to do as far as recording. have had no Latency problems of any sort. I definetly like the fact that I can control the input and output levels at the touch of a finger to control any clipping. Works great with IK Multimedia software, Sony Sound Forge 10 Pro, Nuendo, and Adobe Audition 1.5.

Jason Haury
from San Marcos, CA, USA
March 5, 2012Music Background:
live musician, amateur recording/engineering.

too cool for school

great sound, no hiss, no hum, hub feature is very convenient, inputs are very clean. it's a bit bigger than i imagined (~ 6"x3"x4") and pretty heavy (all metal) - so it's not quite laptop bag compatible, but it's still portable.

Victor Perez
from San Francisco, CA
January 15, 2013

awesome upgrade

Upgraded my NI audio kontrol to this beast. I love the functionality of it all, the usb hub in the back makes things easy and neat. The inserts allow me to finally dabble with some hardware components. It looks amazing and built like a tank. Oh, and the thing sounds awesome. Not the most portable, but it can be. I had the same noise issues whith playback but a simple change in my windows sound options fixed that in a second flat. (Set it to the highest settings) couldn't be happier with this purchase.

Thomas Walker
from LR, AR
June 20, 2012Music Background:
vocal hobbyist

Akai Prof EIE Pro

Quality exceptional! Love the zero-latency feature input monitoring. Only wish headphone gain were greater.

ramsey
from royal oak, mi
March 24, 2012Music Background:
musician, producer

so far so good

i give it 4.5 because i like the features and what its offering, i haven't used the interface to its full capacity so i cannot exactly say its a 5
but i use Akai pro products, mph 25, and 49 monitors rpm3 and i like them and they have great quality and features so i would assume that this will live up to the name

i used this interface with mic, monitor speakers, monitor headphones, audio 1,2 ins... didn't use a guitar... recording vocals is good.... i am using it to record demos, and what work i need done at home studio....
the price was great and the extra usb hub in the back is a great idea since i use lots of midi controllers
i do recommend it... get this 24 bit vs the 16bit

Curtis
from Chicago IL
March 21, 2012Music Background:
Rock

Awesome.

A Pro Audio Interface for a great price.

Jason
from SD
February 12, 2012Music Background:
Pro Musician

AKAI EIE - Backporch Paradox Demo

What a great product at a reasonable price...thanks Sweetwater!! We received it just a few weeks ago and already the band has a four song EP ready for the merch table. Easy to use and a heavy duty piece of gear. Kudos.

Kurt Conway
from Cullowhee, NC
February 9, 2012Music Background:
Student, Recording Engineer

Impressed

I ordered the EIE pro because i wanted a good portable recording interface with more than 2 input and outputs and that was able to record above 44.1. I was a little skeptical because of the price but i wanted to give it a shot anyway.. I tested it with 2 Neumann U-87's on a piano recording at 24 bit 48k and good really impressive results!!! I would definitely recomend this to anyone!!!!! Great buy!

from
April 15, 2012

Nice, but...

Great, ruggedly built unit. This is an upgrade from a Fast Track Pro, and maybe the only thing missing is the outputs are limited (compared to the FTP - no S/PDIF). Still, the construction and design are spot on....not the least of which is that it's aesthetically pleasing. So, why four stars?

Well, there seems to be a growing noise issue on playback with this unit (there are more than a few complaints on their forums). If you run outboard monitoring to a mixer, or utilize some other playback method, this *shouldn't* affect you too much. Akai's forums are moderated by employees, so I am sure they are addressing the issue, and will probably release a driver to fix it (if, in fact, that's what it is -- and who doesn't make a poor driver from time to time).

I have confidence it will be addressed, although owning/using USB interfaces for a while has definitely dulled my senses, and I seem to expect issues with them. Outside of this issue, which I can work around, I still like the unit a lot.

jlcawein
from ny
March 12, 2012Music Background:
recording musician

great

Does what it says...clean install...works great with sonar x1

Tony Chick
from Los Angeles, CA
February 22, 2012Music Background:
Former pro musician, now home recordist

Great performer, built like a tank!

I bought this to replace an MBox mini due to needing 96Khz/24-bit capability. The all metal/toggle switch/VU Meter retro design is pleasing in a molded plastic world but it does make it heavy as a portable unit. The drivers installed easily on my Macbook Pro with Lion and I had Pro Tools 10 and iTunes working with it in no time, and the 96Khz sessions I couldn't open before now open just fine. I leave it and the Mac on 24/7 and no stability issues so far

If I have any complaint, its with the VU meters. In the Output setting, they don't even twitch until the master volume is almost at max, a USB/line level setting would be cool. Also, they are very bright and if like me you leave your interface (and USB hub in this case) powered up all the time, can be an issue if your studio setup is in the bedroom. A dim/off switch would be nice. If you do want to turn it off there is a switch on the back, a nice touch its the first interface I've had with one.

Adonis
from
January 29, 2012Music Background:
Recording Engineer

Very Nice

This is a great interface for the price. I enjoy using it especially since it has the USB hub in the back. A great tool for smaller editing studios. Would I recommend this for recording? no not really. However, It gets the job done really well when looking to expand your equipment.

from
August 20, 2012

Good, to an extent

This product is decent in the studio. It crackles when you use up the RAM on your machine. If your careful, though, it is worth using. Warning: Don't use it live.

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