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Dorchester Center, MA 02124
To fall of 2006, I thought emo was out and IDM Fueled by the prospect of becoming the next Four Tet or Aphex Twin, I marched down to my local Guitar Center and bought an audio interface to tune my guitar and vocals to one and zero, then tune in. Ableton Live.
When I got home, I plugged the new M-Audio Fast Track Pro into my Windows computer and immediately hit the brick wall of driver update hell. I eventually got the thing working after hours of troubleshooting, but the latency – the difference between when you make the sound and when it hits your computer – made the box unusable.
I was tempted to throw Fast Track on the screen and show the sound of it hitting the track with an analog recorder. Instead, I went back to Guitar Center, traded in the Line 6 DL4’s slow pedal mode, and focused my attention on ripping the Blast Up in the right direction.
With something as fast and painless as the Universal Audio Volt 876 available at the time, who knows where my life would be now. I might not have been opening for Four Tet and Fred Again… at the O2 Academy, but my foray into digital music would have gone much better than it did in 2006.
About Mass
Audio channels have come a long way since then. Prices are down, quality is up, and latency is negligible in most home environments. The interface that integrates with brand software and drivers is still there, but the ability to follow the class – meaning that you can connect a device to your computer without the need for the above – makes it easier for audio equipment manufacturers to create boxes that are not difficult to plug-and-play for many production systems. Even iOS and Android, in most cases. Anyone can find a sound system on Amazon for $200 or less and plug it into their iPhone, then plug in a cheap microphone and make their way to TikTok superstardom.
Photo: Pete Cottell
