Alesis IO14 14-Ch Audio/MIDI Interface User Reviews at zZounds

"Really nice unit, well worth the money, works as advertised" submitted March 6, 2008

By a customer from csc.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: hobbyist, podcaster

Music Style: podcaster

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Sound: Great fidelity, records at twice CD sample rate. Good quality, low noise. The pre-amps are weaker than I expected, but can equalize with Cubase and then do the usual compression and loudness maximizing to get the right signal level at finish. I fyou use dynamic mics, you may want a separate preamp. Feature: The inserts are a great feature, as is the dual XLR/TRS plug-ins for the channel inputs. Some features seem illogical at first (the main volume), but once you've worked with it, they make sense, and they are what you want it to do, not what you wanted at first. This is perfect for two musicians with vocals and instruments. Also great for multi-mic podcasts--isolate each mic channel into your PC for excellent post processing--and the free Cubase included will let you do a great job with that too. Ease of Use: Surprisingly easy for my first firewire interface. No real problems. Have to unplug the Ethernet and disable my (laptop) PC's wireless network card--otherwise the interrupt handler (I think) interferes with recording. Disconnected from the network will record 4 channel audio without any problems directly to Cubase. Quality: Solid, low noise, everything works as advertised. My platform is a laptop PC running Windows XP. Value: Really great, outstanding value, just what I wanted, and under $200. Manufacturer Support: Boy they need some help. I couldn't get inserts to work due to bad cables and bad advice from their e-mail help desk. Would still be going without my compressor if I hadn't found a good guy in a user forum who put me on to one of the Alesis engineers. Alesis engineering is fine, but the help desk, at least my interaction, was weak. The Wow Factor: Small form factor, doesn't need a lot of room. Decent looking I guess. Overall: Good quality, great sound, excellent features, solidly built. A go-to device for must-work events with clients, and the most important device I have, next to my PC, for audio work.

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"I used this product routinely and reliably recorded rehearsals onto my Mac Powerbook G4 to Cubase SE." submitted October 17, 2008

By a customer from shaw.ca

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Sound

Features

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: active musician

Music Style: Rock

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Sound: Sound quality is good. Feature: Accessories: decent firewire cable, if in the correct orientation. Power adaptor improved reliability. The computer monitoring was very useful for playback during rehearsals. Ease of Use: Connection with Mac (OS X 10.4) was not so straightforward. I eventually got the device to work after installing Alesis 1394 interface (appears in System preferences under 'other'. Quality: product is made well. Buttons controlling impedence for channels 1 and 2 can be accidently bumped, and may lead to clipping if you are not paying attention. Value: I got it on sale, so it was a good value. Manufacturer Support: I like Alesis products, overall. They just need to improve their customer support. The Wow Factor: Desktop format has reasonably small footprint for a 4-track. Not practical for transporting.

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"Could be your dream " submitted December 29, 2008

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: producer, beat maker

Music Style: hip hop

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Sound: wicked mic pres Feature: everything u need Ease of Use: gotta get used to the mixer Quality: wobbly fire wire plug Value: all the goods Manufacturer Support: website isn't to great, they did e-mail back though The Wow Factor: had it...getting it back

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"Will it ever communicate?" submitted March 28, 2008

By a customer from fastermac.net

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Features

Ease of Use

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Musical Background: Engineer

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Sound: I have NO idea how it sounds. With the current driver, the Mac won't talk to it. Ease of Use: Three months and I've yet to use this thing. It does not communicate with my Mac's FireWire. It gets power, but NO communications. Quality: It looks to be fairly well constructed. If it could only talk to the host. Manufacturer Support: They returned my email request quickly enough, sending an application which is supposedly better at removing the old driver. I can only hope that removing and completely re-installing the software solves the communcation problem. How much time must I waste before the unit either works or is proven to be defective? Overall: I'll reserve judgement until the thing actually works.

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"Great interface for a good price" submitted March 19, 2007

By a customer from gmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Active Musician

Music Style: Rock

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Sound: Using the io14 for the last month I would have to say that it is very transparent, meaning it adds nothing to the sound going in and out of the device. I use soft syths (MIDI) and play guitar. They both sound great through the io14 Feature: The accessories included are adequate. Amazingly it includes a firewire cable. One thing that I wish it did have is 4 analog outs instead of only 2. But I can live with that. Ease of Use: Istallation was easy. Windows XP installed the drivers and recognized the device. All you needed to do then is to configure your audio software,Cubase in my case,to use the io14. Latency is 5-6 milliseconds. Quality: This thing is built like a brick house. It really is solid. It's nice to be able to plug in multiple devices and not have to chase it all over the table top. It just stays in one place. Value: I believe for the price this is a really good choice. It does what its supposed to do and does it well. Manufacturer Support: Haven't had a need for support at this point. The Wow Factor: I own it and so far it works as advertised. For someone coming back to the music making arena after many years, most of my previous experience was all analog recording to tape, this is just wonderful. The io14 makes it easier to record and above all it sounds great. No more hiss! Overall: If something happened to this device, barring it just flat stopped working, I would replace it with this same device.

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Alesis IO14 14-Channel FireWire Audio/MIDI Interface

User Ratings

"Really nice unit, well worth the money, works as advertised" submitted March 6, 2008

"I used this product routinely and reliably recorded rehearsals onto my Mac Powerbook G4 to Cubase SE." submitted October 17, 2008

"Could be your dream " submitted December 29, 2008

"Will it ever communicate?" submitted March 28, 2008

"Great interface for a good price" submitted March 19, 2007