The glass may get scratched though, just a heads up. Its a nice form factor though, the buttons and knobs are sturdy, its small and seems decent for travel. I have yet to drop it, so I cant vouch for if dropping it breaks it. For all I know everything could be taped down. However it is heavy, and I have no clue what the insides look like. It feels like a tank, and seems built that way too. With part aluminum, a tad of plastic, and a glass? top, its a sleek looking interface. This is unacceptable, however I do not know if it is Native Instruments fault, itunes fault, or my motherboards fault, perhaps microsoft too? Again. The only solution in this scenario is to restart my computer. Its annoying as hell, and even closing, and reopening itunes doesnt help. This sounds like a 2ms "drop" of all audio coming out of my KA6. Who knows.Īnother "driver related" problem Ive had, is when my computer has been on for multiple days straight, and I plug my KA6 in, and begin to listen to music I sometimes will start getting USB I/O Errors, one every minute or so. Remember, these are NOT buffer IO errors or underruns, it seems to be a weird driver/communication problem. However, if I close my flash windows, and close and reopen itrunes, the problem is gone. It seems one of the programs is messing with the clock on my KA6.tisk tisk. Checking the KA6 control panel showed zero I/O errors and zero buffer underruns. after about 10-15 minutes I start getting pops and clicks in my songs. When I have lots of flash player tabs open at once, and I also have itunes open.
KOMPLETE AUDIO 6 MAVERICKS DRIVERS
Regardless, it seems my KA6 drivers dont like Itunes and/or flash player. Ive been trying to recreate this event over and over, but I still havent completely narrowed it down yet. Plugged in the KA6, installed the drivers, and presto! It worked. It worked on both, so I decided it was my computer that needed cleaning, not the KA6. Tried it on one more laptop, and one more desktop. So I tried another laptop, didnt work, it gave me the same blinking USB light, which means its not being driven by the drivers. Returned it, got a new one, fresh from Native Instruments. Id go into details, but trust me when I say I know my computers, and I tried EVERYTHING. I installed the firmware updater, it froze my computer, and it would no longer recognize my KA6. Got KA6, plugged it in, it worked (USB light was NOT blinking).
The drivers definitely have their draw backs, and Ive read people on the forums, and online with even worse problems then me. The two back unbalanced inputs worked great for my record player, they capture even audio at a good quality. Its up to YOU to take your recording and make it sound good in the DAW. Hopefully you understand what I mean by this. I did notice the TINIEST bit of noise coming through (mainly when it was set to HIGH gain.) but I could also attribute that to my guitar/cables. By that I mean they are decently sterile (not perfect) but they dont really distort the sound, and hardly add any warmth to it. The front instrument inputs sound pretty good.
So far the only inputs Ive really tested are the instrument inputs on the front, for guitar, and the two unbalanced inputs on the back to hook up my record player. I will be recording some vocals tonight to upload (along with a picture or two) using an SM57, and a couple of cheap condenser mics. This device has 2 front inputs, that can either be Line or Instrument inputs. Could use a little more gain, but Im not complaining, its bus powered. Sound works fine out of the headphone jacks too. It was better than my other interfaces, but not by much.Īs far as the knob goes, and the gain, I get a decent volume for mixing/music lisening around 11 o'clock on the dial. Although, even with good monitors, unless the track you are playing is extremely well made, or high quality, its going to hard to judge in this category. Definitely better than my previous interfaces (lexicon's, and a tascam us 800.) It was spacial, and sounded pretty on point. The main-out sound quality coming through my HS80m's was pretty damn good. KA6 firmware version 42, with latest drivers.
KOMPLETE AUDIO 6 MAVERICKS WINDOWS 7
Windows 7 with service pack 1, all latest drivers installed I wont go into details of why I decided to go for the KA6, but I went with it. It was the NI KA6, or the Roland Quad Capture.