I hesitate to write this review, because if people find out about the Aardvark then _everyone_ will have one, and they'll know our secret to killer sound

We opened a small studio and had a Roland standalone hard disk recorder to start with, and after about 2 weeks realized that it had to go, and we needed to move to something PC based.

Wanted as many tracks as we could afford and looked until we discovered the Aardvark. We've had our Aardvark for about 6 months and its been great. Everything we hoped for and more. Not a single problem or hiccup. Installation is textbook, install Card, install software.. and it just works.
Its recrding and playback are _crystal_ clear - just transparent clean audio. We're still amazed at clarity of the audio.
The dual-XLR-1/4"inputs are killer.. whatever the input or instrument just plug it in.. no adapters no fiddling.

We've used the guitar enhance on inputs 7 & 8 with pleasant results - recording Acoustic-electric bass & guitar, adds some fullness to the sound without having to go through a stomp box or othe amp/preamp

The setup and routing are intuitive and work well. And you can save setups and recall them - handy for revisiting a recording session

IMHO the audio is flawless. We've done all of our work at 16bit/44kHz - but the Aardvark moves just as easily at 24bit/96kHz.

I looked around for a few months before getting the Aardvark - against the MOTU units, and the Midiman 10 input unit, and the Echo units, and the Aardvark is surely the best audio interface under $1k. Especially considering you can put 4 in a PC, and they just keep on trucking - that'd give you 32 analog inputs and 8 digital inputs - sweet.

CPU Usage- this thing uses about 0% CPU when recording on a PII 550 MHz machine. Same with playing.

The Cakewalk Package thats bundled is also nice. Does multitracking and midi with no problems. Supports only DirectX plugins - although you can use a DirectX-to-VST wrapper program.

Things that could use tweaking:

Changing the gain settings - the Aardvark control panel uses a "knob" type control - (To the software developers out there - knobs are wonderful on real things, you turn them and something happens - and the look really cool on programs interface - but they absolutely stink as on screen input) - you have to move the mouse around in a circle, or is it up and down, or is it left right .. ug. .. The Aardvark allow you to use the arrow keys to bump the gain up or down - but you must first click on the gain knob on the channel you want to adjust, which could in itself adjust the gain .. A really long slider/fader would work so much better.

Thats about it. Its a great product and I higly recommend it. We've named our's the 'Possum" - seems more fitting in North Carolina - and don't know what we'd do without it.

Feature:
Can I get an 11 on this category? This eliminates need for a mixer before the 'puter, and gives you excellent preamps on top of that! If you don't have a board that handles 8 direct outs, a Layla (my second choice) won't do as good a job.

Quality:
If I spent twice the money I spent on it, I still couldn't do half the stuff it does, and I would have more equipment, a longer signal path, and more points of failure.

Value:
Can I get a 12 on this one? You can find these for around 750-800, and 8 track units that cost this don't usually include as many things as this packs in, and require a badass mixer board to run them, costing almost as much as the card.

Desirability:
Clean preamps, effects loops, phantom power, geetar inputs, and zero latency monitoring. How much more could you ask for the price?

Sound:
I have tried a digi 001 a friend had, a Layla 24 another had, and I owned a Darla24, and this one beat them all. It's the bomb....

Support:
Until I need to use them, I can't knock what I haven't used.

Overall:
I love it. It apparently has some issues with some mobo's that other sound cards have (VIA chipsets) and a few other smaller brands, but I avoid using some of them to make ANY computer. Building for compatibility is important. If aardvark tested every board under the sun, they never would manage to release a product.

Well....I have been working with the q10 as the heart of my recording system. I have it linked via SPDIF with a Aardvark 24/96 in order to give me 12 sim. inputs. A truly streamlined efficient system recoding to a custom built Pentium 4 PC. First Ill start with the positives of this card. The mic pre's are quite good...They have the gain and the clarity of a good solid state pre. Probably comperable to the Mackie VLZ boards. Very clear but slightly tight. Could use a little more openness. But for what you get here you REALLY cant complain. I like the inserts...an option not found on any sound card break out box that I have seen. It allows me to insert outboard gear for dynamics processing. The converters are as good as I have heard. Mind you I have never really heard SwissSonic or even Digidesign but these are plenty accurate for my purposes. I get fabulous sounds out of this unit recording in 24 bit/44.1...I opt not to record at 96 because it does get a little glitchy at this sample rate. The EFR option is very usefull with bass guitar in particular. I am pretty picky about bass and I havent used anything else since. Very warm clean punchy sound...Im not crazy about direct 6 string recording so I cant really comment on that. The routing is excellent on the unit...In addition to seperate controls for headphone and monitor volume, there are 8 output that can be used as direct outs for each channel or stereo outputs to go to different sources. I have three monitoring set-ups off the Q10!!! When used as direct outs you can use it to go out to an outboard mixer and use that as your monitor mixer which gives you even more routing options (depending obviously on your board). As a monitor mixer the "virtual mixer" is well designed and really does give most of the options of a conventional mixer.
The criticisms I have of this unit definetly come with the "virtual mixer". The gain controls are quite small and pretty hard to manipulate. A minor flaw but this gets quite annoying when tracking full bands and you have to make quick adjustments. Another flaw is that the "mixer" has no EQ...this is a pretty big problem considering in professional recording there is often a need to EQ on the way in...I get around this by using some outboard preamps that have eq but it is a simple feature that they did include on the 24/96 but not on the q10...Im not sure I understand why they left this out...On a positive note this does force me to get really good mic placement to achieve the sounds I want. Additionally, I am not happy with the fact that Aardvark clearly says that you may not hook up line level gear via XLR cables you must hook them up 1/4 inch. I know...why? I dont know but alot of quality audio gear is XLR line level...I know it just means adapters but how annoying. I know another minor grievance. I also wish they had done the main outs XLR.
In summary, the pre-amps alone are worth at least 450....include everything you get with the q10 and you really cant go wrong....You could spend ALOT more money on a recoding setup and not get an incling more quality. Although they left out some "professional" features it really is the best value out there for the project studio. Believe me...I have looked.

Feature:
Great features, the 4 phantom plugs are a great feature

Quality:
Other than the problem i am having now with it not working period its fine

Value:
Worth it all the way, user friendly, just need the support

Desirability:
Oh i'd bang this thing easy

Sound:
Sound was great, mixed whole demo with it listen for ur self @ www.multoc.com

Support:
I must have caught them @ a bad time or something, but as of 10/1 i had problems and emailed them, no response, called them 2 weeks later gotta call and it was fine, but then 2 weeks later the thing stopped working I called them, nothing ever......I went to ann arbor (i live 30 minutes away) they aren't in the building anymore, they moved out, id like to know where they went

Overall:
Great buy, suport sux but o well

Overall:
By far the BEST soundcard out there. I had the roland studio pack and it was just a PAIN to learn (even with the instructional video) it took too much time away from what I wanted to do, which is record music. The Q10 was a breeze to install and setup. I plan on gettin' another before the year is out. Customer service was more than helpful when I thought I had a problem with my Q10 (FREE OF CHARGE), only to find out it was my computer. For anybody lookin' for a GREAT soundcard for there studio, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE Q10!!!

Feature:
Cakewalk Pro 9 (full version) is handy for multi-channel recording.

Quality:
Solid & attractive; neutrik combos are high quality and save lots of hassles looking for the right fitting.

Value:
The number and quality level of features at this price point is impressive, particularly the AD/DA.

Desirability:
Passionate purple body, sexy silver faceplate, romantic red power-on light (with dimmer)!! What more could you want?

Sound:
AD/DA very impressive at this price range! Mic-pre amplification occurs in analogue stage & provides nice clean, full sound. Hi-Z input could be a bit warm for some tastes, but I loved it.

Support:
Virtually non-existent!

Overall:
Aardvark should bring out a PCMCIA or FireWire option. That would prompt me to buy another one for my laptop!

Feature:
The 8 hybrid line/mic pres were the selling point for me. The switchable hi-Z inputs on ch. 7 and 8 are a nice feature. However, I don't know why Aardvark doesn't UPDATE THEIR DAMN DRIVERS!

Quality:
Build Quality seems OK. I mean, don't throw it off a building or anything...

Value:
Again, the selling point for me was the 8 XLR inputs (I don't have to use my crappy PA mixer, w00t!).

Desirability:
um, I have it. (I don't have sex with gear either).

Sound:
Preamps sound just fine. They are a little noisy but it's not an issue. I hear major differences between the monitored sound (during recording) and actual playback, but this might be a common issue with soundcards (or I might have some wrong setting somewhere). Anyhow the recordings still sound fine.

Support:
E-mailed the tech people a few times and got responses, but they were sketchy about their drivers (as has been mentioned).

Overall:
If you've already got a decent mixer, or some really good preamps, you might look into the cards by Echo and MOTU. I didn't however, so this card was (sort of) perfect for me. And while the driver issues might be annoying they don't really interfere with the recording process if you work around them.

I tried Layla 24, Delta 1010 and Motu
those things are like being in stone age
compared to Q10. I love the sound quality,
I love the look, I love the flexibility,
I love the control panel, I love the engineering and the creativity that went
into the product. I recommend it to everybody
What a great product!