Does Art Tubefire 8 Convert Guitar Input to Midi Output

Art aim to evidence that it's improve by tube, packing eight valve preamps into a Firewire interface.

This new audio interface from ART is based around the manufacturer'south signature feature: valves. The tubes in question bulldoze eight preamps, the outputs of which are then converted to the digital domain and squirted down a Firewire cable to your estimator. Eight balanced analogue outputs can be fed either directly from the preamps or via D‑A converters from your sequencer. A uncomplicated analogue cue monitoring system provides true zilch‑latency headphone monitoring of your inputs against playback from the calculator while overdubbing, and an unusual headphone level control allows you to choose between a mono and a stereo cue mix, depending on whether yous rotate the knob to the left or right of its centre detent. It'southward worth pointing out that no digital I/O or MIDI interfacing is fitted.

Latency & Preamp Performance

Physically, the Tubefire 8 makes a big impression the moment you get information technology out of the box, on business relationship of its 6kg weight and unusual depth (it extends around 36cm behind the rack ears). Information technology's probably fair to say that this might not exist the first choice for a portable recording system! Art have sensibly provided fixing points for actress back up at the rear of the unit of measurement should you need them. Part of the weight is internal heat sinks for the circuitry, but there are no air vents in the case, so the unit does run quite warm.

The supplied software installer provides both WDM and ASIO drivers, too equally a small control‑panel utility for configuring sync, sample‑rate and latency settings. The ASIO commuter worked fine with both Cubase and Reaper on my auto, declaring effectually 3.5ms latency in the control‑panel utility for the everyman buffer size I could manage without driblet‑outs (154 samples). This figure is a little misleading, though, as it reports only the latency of one of the driver's buffers. Cubase, on the other paw, gave a much ameliorate real‑world estimate of 11ms for the total input/output latency, given that the full system monitoring latency (as measured by re‑recording the software monitoring signal) showed up every bit 13ms in practice.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the Tubefire 8'southward preamps reminded me a adept deal of the one in the Art Voice Channel I reviewed in the July issue of SOS, which as well has pretty low dissonance and enough clarity to cope with near home studio eventualities. A similar tonality is as well apparent, with a forwardness in the mid-range that suits sounds which benefit from extra presence and hardness in this region. I can imagine electrical guitars, drums, and some vocals benefiting here, but would probably seek out a different preamp for strings, contumely, or piano myself. Past juggling the 2 channel level controls (Gain and Output) you take some command over how hard you lot drive the 12AX7 valves in the circuitry, only even with fairly conservative settings y'all tin can't really say that this is a specially neutral preamp.

A potential danger in allowing you to adjust the valve drive in this way is that it'south possible to push a preamp into serious analogue distortion well earlier you clip its A‑D converter, just Art accept neatly anticipated this problem with the design of the LED meter on each input channel. Non only do the iv LEDs evidence the signal level as measured just before the A‑D converters (as you lot'd desire in social club to fix recording headroom and avoid digital clipping), just the little red Clip LED also lights upwards independently if necessary, to alert you if you're approaching the counterpart clipping indicate of the preamp.

Zero‑latency Monitoring

The rear panel is a simple matter, featuring just the eight combi jack/XLR inputs, the eight balanced outputs and BNC sockets for the word clock I/O.

The zip‑latency monitoring is a skilful thing in principle, especially for recording vocalists, simply its implementation here isn't ideal. For a showtime, the two gain controls on each preamp channel affect not but the zero‑latency monitoring volume, merely also the level fed to the A‑D converters for recording, so anything you desire to monitor at a lower level volition also effectively have to exist recorded at lower level.

My second concern is that the headphone preamp seemed rather under-powered with a diversity of headphones, including loftier‑impedance Sennheiser HD650s and low‑impedance Sony MDR7509s, so that I could only merely push the levels outside my comfort zone even when driving i of the D-A output pairs with a loudness‑maximised mix peaking at 0dBFS. In typical song overdubbing situations, for instance, a sensible mic gain setting for recording will give a zero‑latency monitoring bespeak that is almost inaudible confronting a backing runway which fully modulates the D‑A output. In practice y'all thus have to reduce the playback levels in your sequencer by around 18dB to provide a suitable cue residual, at which point the level of the backing track in the headphones will probably experience a bit puny, depending on the headphones you're using. I'd certainly non exist happy working with the Tubefire viii like that, so yous should probably upkeep for a separate external headphone amp if yous're planning on using the zero‑latency monitoring feature. You lot might also want to get ane with multiple outputs, in example you need headphones for more than one person, as the Tubefire only has one output.

The last monitoring consequence is that if y'all use the right‑manus side of the Mix Level control so that you tin can hear a stereo cue mix via the D‑A outputs, the mic inputs are all treated as stereo pairs: odd‑numbered inputs will be heard on the left and even‑numbered inputs on the correct. This configuration won't necessarily arrange solo overdubs such as lead vocals, because the performer will merely hear themselves on one side. Art suggest a workaround for this by patching the output of an odd‑numbered recording channel into the input of an even‑numbered channel just to even up the motion picture in the stereo monitoring, just that seems a bit of a faff for such a common recording situation.

Verdict

In the final assay, Art'southward essential 'valve sound for pocket money' philosophy has to exist considered the primal appeal of the Tubefire 8. The zero‑latency monitoring may as well win over some users, although the low headphone levels are a bit of a shot in the pes on that score and the DSP‑driven monitor mixers of the competition have the advantage of multiple independent cue mixes if yous're willing to tolerate their minor amount of monitoring latency. Then the £539 $699 question is this: how much do you want valve preamps? On the plus side, ART's designs are fully endowed with high‑pass filter, pad, and polarity‑inversion switches, they are by no ways short on valve character, and the dual‑control format provides some range to the sonic effects. On the minus side, though, is that the tonality of the circuits will brand some recording tasks less straightforward if this is to exist your sole sound interface, and that the valves come up at the expense of some other audio‑interface features that figurer studio owners take come to wait for this kind of outlay. If you have fairly strong views well-nigh valves, Art is simply the but proper noun in the frame for this kind of cash; if not, all the same, the Tubefire 8 could struggle to justify its price in terms of the remainder of its feature set, given the currently well‑supplied market in audio interfaces.

Alternatives

There are a number of areas where similarly priced or less expensive competitors steal a march on the Tubefire viii, most notably in providing digital sound and MIDI I/O and more all-encompassing bundled software. If such features are important to you, the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, Presonus Firestudio Project and K‑Audio Profire 2626 are all worth a look. What none of these offer, though, are the valves or the counterpart zilch‑latency monitoring, a combination that can't be matched by whatever other manufacturer at this toll.

Vital Statistics

• Firewire sound interface.
• Analogue inputs: eight, on combi jack/XLRs; front‑panel instrument inputs for channels one and 2, disabling the respective rear‑console inputs when used.
• Mic Preamps: up to 70dB proceeds in conjunction with Output level control; phantom power switchable in banks of four channels; switches for 80Hz, 6dB/octave high‑pass filter, 20dB pad, and polarity inversion.
• Analogue outputs: eight, balanced, on TRS jacks with global +4dBu/‑10dBV switching; headphone output with analogue true zero‑latency cue mixer.
• Other connections: BNC sockets for Word Clock I/O; dual Firewire sockets for daisy‑chaining upwards to four Tubefire 8 units.
• A‑D Converter: 24‑fleck resolution at 44.ane, 48, 88.2 or 96kHz sample rates.

Pros

• Eight fully featured valve preamps and 8 counterbalanced analogue outputs for non much money.
• Truthful nil‑latency analogue headphone monitoring on board.
• Discussion clock I/O.

Cons

• Although the preamps are clean and quiet, they're not the most tonally neutral.
• Headphone output under-powered, which compromises the usability of the built‑in zero‑latency monitoring.
• No digital I/O or MIDI connectivity.
• Surprisingly big and heavy!

Summary

The combination of valve preamps and true zero‑latency counterpart headphone monitoring puts this interface into a field of its own, but if neither of those features thrill y'all, Fine art'south competitors have more expansive feature sets on offer for less money.

information

Test Spec

• ART Tubefire 8 firmware v1.0.
• ART Tubefire viii Control Panel software v2.0.
• Rain Recording Solstice O3 PC with AMD Phenom Ii X4 810 quad‑cadre 2.61GHz processor, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 3.

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Source: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/art-tubefire-8

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