M-AUDIO AIR 192x4 USB-C Audio Interface for Recording, Podcasting, Streaming with Studio Quality Sound, 1 XLR in and Music Production Software

I bought this interface in January 2021. I have used it for for guitars plugged directly into the interface, and I have used it with Shure SM57 and SM58 microphones. I have been very happy with the sound quality, the ease of use, the reliability, and pretty much everything else about this interface. I have moved it all over my house and taken a few places in my backpack with no problems. I bought this interface because I wanted something that would be easy to adjust while playing a guitar or keys in low lighting. The Air interface has a giant knob to control the monitor volume, and the input knobs are easy to see and far enough apart that I can grab one without bumping the other. Everything is very spread out, and I can do what I need to do without thinking too much about the interface. I am going to upgrade to an interface with two mic inputs in the next few months. I have looked at the Air 192|6, which has two mic inputs, but am still undecided. I have been happy with the 192|4, but the new Focusrite 2i2 has some cool features and the UA Volt comes with a lot of good plugins. The Air interfaces come with some nice plugins, but they are the same ones you get for free with pretty much every other MIDI controller: MPC Beats (always free), Ableton Live Lite, Mini Grand, DB33, etc. I'd be way more excited if their interfaces came with a choice of a free plugin, because Air makes a lot of amazing effects and instruments. On a side note, if you a just getting into music production and MIDI controllers, I can't recommend Ableton Live Lite enough. It's a great choice for newbies, because there are so many how-to videos on YouTube. TLDR: this a very solid interface that does everything well

updated review: After working with M-Audio support, I was given an RMA to return the faulty interface, they didn't just replace the interface but they actually sent me an entire new vocal studio pack even though I only sent in the faulty part. Replaced unit is working great so far. old review: Things were ok for the first things months although after about a month, you had to have the mic gain to the max to get any sound from the mic - and yes with phantom power on. Then suddenly the Windows machine no longer sees the usb device, and the power light on the M-Audio AIR doesn't come on ... but phantom power does. Tried another port and another cable and it seems to have a failed usb and is just passing through power.

Space it takes up: I was hesitant to purchase this interface due to the size. Many YouTubers said it was bulky and took up a lot of space. This may be true when comparing it to Focusrite Scarlets or other interfaces but as my first interface, I can’t imagine it being any smaller. It fits perfectly on my desk and doesn’t take up much space. Build quality: This interface is light weight but feels very solid. The knobs are this very nice quality plastic but have resistance you would find on a professional mixer. The main frame of it is metal. The only cheap feeling thing is the large knob used to control it’s output for studio monitors. Ease of use and features: This device offers you a ton of control in terms of it’s monitoring. You can adjust the headphone volume as well as balancing the audio from your computer or the direct monitoring from the interface. The headphone amp is powerful enough to drive my ATH M50Xs. I’m not sure how it works with higher ohm headphones. You can have a guitar/bass plugged in along with an xlr mic or something that uses line input. The Air driver you can get once you register it on the M-Audio website works excellent for FL Studio and other DAWs I’m sure. Overall: This interface has a great feel and works as advertised. I have no complaints about it. The headphone amp paired with lower ohm headphones and lossless audio quality music can make for a good HiFi audiophile experience. Also, I found the serial number for my product on one of the user manuals in the box rather than on the box. You’ll need that to get the plugins and driver.

I've been mostly happy with this purchase. I had a fringe use case for this device with using it for a VFIO setup. I know libvirt can make things that function fine in Windows all screwy when in a VM so I went in knowing it might be an issue but ultimately have had it working pretty soundly for about a week. If I run into any other issues I'll update review. Pros: - Great price for a USB DAC with nice built in preamps and XLR out. - I like the design of it. The knobs are not crammed on the front so if you have the room on your desk it's a nice layout. - The preamps specifically are nice because I have a Shure SM7B and wanted to avoid adding on an extra preamp if possible and this DAC boosts enough to not require an additional preamp. It seems like you can run most dynamic mics raw with this mixer and get appropriate levels barring the quietest of whispering. Cons: - Drivers suck. It's been said before in other revuews but holy hell the M-Audio drivers that Windows pushes are terrible. I was getting crackling audio from my speakers and my mic was disconnecting every few minutes when I was using this mixer in my VM. Tried a whole bunch of fixes between switching ports, changing sound virtualization, and fiddling with sample rate and buffer size. Finally figuered I'd just try reinstalling the drivers which I didn't expect to be the problem given the mixer worked fine in baremetal windows. With no drivers installed the mixer worked flawlessly. I don't even. - The control panel is threadbare and the GUI looks half functional between all the options grey-out for any given reason. It's a glorified hotlink to visit their tech support site. - Pre-packaged software and demos is 100% wasted on me. Could be some really good offers for Protools in there but my eyes glaze over when I see this stuff as I just assume it to be demos looking to push a purchase on you. I bought this mixer because I needed a mixer, not because its Protools certified and comes with a trial version of an extra plugin to make farts sound wetter. Overall, the hardware itself is nice and navigating the quirks can give you a nice mixer. It's just navigating the quirks that can turn owners into refunders.

Users with poor reviews seem to be suffering from user error. My model worked perfectly fresh out of the box. Just as well, I decided to update the drivers. The drivers clearly state your PC must be restarted to work and be active. There are currently (as of 4/26/2022) no drivers specifically for Windows 11, however, the Windows 10 (64-bit) drivers worked perfectly for me. Zero knob wobble, tight and smooth knobs. Smooth switch for phantom power. Tight connectors with zero wobble. The drivers actually enabled 32-bit, which is incredible for specific audio needs to avoid losing data. My PC is a Ryzen 5 5600x, so Ryzen systems are, in fact, perfectly fine. I have Windows 11 Pro, and the Windows 10 Drivers are excellent and hassle free. The software subscriptions are all optional via their website, so you do not receive ANY bloatware or unwanted apps. There are 2 included USB cables; 1 usb-c to usb-c and 1 usb-c to usb-a. I am using a different branded usb-c cable rated for 100W, so the claim that a "usb 3.1" cable will not work is false. The audio quality of 32-bit 192,000 Hz is phenomenal. I purchased this unit, marked as "USED" from Amazon Warehouse. The item came re-packaged in a general brown cardboard box, with all items sandwiched between two styrofoam blocks. All items were included, and the item is apparently brand new (cellophane still in tact on face). I am ecstatic to have purchased this item for $72.64 instead of the full $119.00; what an absolute bargain. Would recommend for an initial audio interface; I wanted a MOTU M2, but this was nearly 1/3 the cost.

Great quality

I got a new Windows laptop recently, it's a 10th gen I7 which is fairly respectable so I was surprised to find that the audio-processing latency was horrendous out the box (with the builtin wsapi device). I improved it a bit by switching to ASIO4all but I was getting a lot of crackles and quality degradation when I switched to low-latency settings. This little audio interface solved all those problems. I actually wasn't even expecting it to, since I only bought it for the purposes of recording, but it ended up killing two birds with one stone. Even if I don't use either of the recording inputs on this, just the fact that I route my computer output through it dramatically reduces my latency when doing effects processing in Ableton or modular synth in VCV Rack. As for the recording itself, well I can't speak too critically about it because I am not a pro recording engineer or anything. But I will say that I haven't noticed any problems at all in terms of hissing or anything. On the other hand, the 8-input Tascam interface I bought before this crapped out super quickly and stopped registering any input at all. So, as long my M-Audio continues to just work, I am happy with it.

Good interface but the top, scratch too easily, still good.