M-Audio Fast Track

M-Audio recently updated its popular Fast Track audio interface, and since it's been six years since we reviewed the original model, we thought it was time for another look. Fortunately, the new Fast Track ($149.99) still holds up to scrutiny. It's a fine choice for home music recording, making podcasts, or any task where you need a budget-priced audio interface for a PC or Mac, and don't need to record more than two channels of audio simultaneously.

Design, Inputs, and Outputs
The Fast Track is an unassuming gray plastic box that looks right at home next to a modern desktop or laptop PC. It measures 5.9 by 4.1 by 1.7 inches (HWD). The front panel contains a single XLR microphone input, a 1/4-inch input that works as a direct box for a guitar, a Direct Monitor button for zero-latency monitoring while recording, and a single 1/4-inch headphone jack, along with various LED lights to indicate phantom power, clipping, signal, whether direct monitoring is switched on, and power. On top are three big, meaty plastic knobs for dialing in mic gain, guitar gain, and overall output level. Sadly, there isn't a separate output knob for the headphone jack, but that's one of the concessions you make on a small interface like this.

As before, the new Fast Track offers 24-bit recording at up to 48KHz. That may not look impressive on paper, but it's plenty for solid recordings. As with the original version, the Fast Track is still USB-powered, and comes with a USB cable in the box. It's a two-in, two-out interface, so you can record either a stereo instrument, or a vocal and another instrument simultaneously, providing that the instrument is in mono.

The Fast Track offers switchable +48V phantom power, so plugging in a condenser mic like the Rode NT-1A or an AKG C3000B isn't a problem. You can also turn this off for use with dynamic mics like the Shure SM57 or SM58 . Another downside: there are only stereo RCA outputs, and not balanced 1/4-inch output jacks. That means you'll need appropriate cables or adapters to hook up a professional pair of studio monitor speakers, unless those speakers also have unbalanced RCA inputs. Other than the two stereo RCA outputs, the back panel contains the USB port and the switch for phantom power, but is otherwise clean.

There's no built-in MIDI interface. But with the plethora of USB-powered MIDI controllers on the market these days, that's only a problem if you have a much older MIDI keyboard, or an oddball controller like an electronic drum set (in which case you'll need a separate MIDI interface in addition to the Fast Track).

Testing, Pro Tools SE , and Conclusions
I had little trouble installing the Fast Track drivers on two MacBook Pros and a Windows 7 laptop. The PC required more fiddling than usual to get it to work with SONAR X1 at acceptable latency levels, but an uninstall and reinstall resolved the problem.

Sound quality is fine for a budget audio interface. In a back-to-back comparison, the Fast Track is somewhat fuller sounding than the headphone out jack on a MacBook Pro , which is actually quite clean by built-in laptop audio standards. There's a good amount of bass punch, if not quite as much definition as you'll hear on higher-end interfaces. The high range sounded a little crispy and veiled compared to a $500 Apogee Duet I had on hand, but the Fast Track definitely gets the job done and it's plenty sufficient for proper monitoring. For recording, the mic preamp won't set any records for gain or clarity, but you can easily get usable results out of this thing, which is all that matters. By the time you get to the point where the sound quality of the Fast Track becomes an impediment, you'll have plenty of experience in recording, and will likely want a better audio interface for other reasons (such as needing more inputs).

On the software side, the Fast Track works with just about any recent piece of music recording software, from Pro Tools and SONAR X1 to GarageBand. That said,?M-Audio throws in a copy of Pro Tools SE (pictured, above), which is a severely cut down version of Avid's professional package. But even in this state, it's still quite usable, with 16 tracks of audio and eight virtual instruments tracks, plus over 100 bundled virtual instrument sounds, a reverb, and EQ. It also comes with 3GB of loops you can use in your own compositions. Pro Tools SE is obviously artificially handicapped, and designed to get you to upgrade to a more expensive version, but when used within its limits, it's a nice freebie nonetheless.?

Overall, it's tough to fault the M-Audio Fast Track in its current incarnation. It won't stand up to more expensive interface in sound quality, but it sounds damn good for $150, and works with both Macs and PCs. And with the bundled version of Pro Tools SE, you can get started recording music immediately. I would have liked a few more controls on the box, but that would undoubtedly raise the price, and bring it closer to premium models like the more flexible Fast Track Pro and more transparent sounding Apogee One. As it stands, though, the Fast Track is quite a good buy.

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