RME, Metric Halo.

Yeah, that bugs me too. The satellite box is more or less a dongle these days because even cheap computers can run enough amount of plugins for mixing. Since I got my M1 mac, I´ve been totally fine without both UAD and Waves...

I agree.

I always thought they were in for the long run given their quality and mission to get vintage gear in the hands of the many.

Best: RME
Worst: Apogee

Historically, Motu was on top things. With M1 and Big Sur they're playing catch-up, which is surprising.

Yeah, Apogee is hit-and-miss... Too much miss these days, judging from the comments.

I have late 90s Apogee ADs and mic pres I love to death... What a sound. I wouldn't buy one of their interfaces, though.

When they joined Apple in what was supposed to be a close partnership I thought, this is going to be great. I was looking forward to fully integrated Apple/Apogee recording devices, the Star Trek of audio. And then...

Nothing. Not even a whimper.

They struggled to deliver drivers for new Mac models and operating systems. Customer support could literally not answer the simplest questions or help with compatibility. The standard answer was "Go talk to Apple, this isn't our problem".

What a monumental screw-up. I say this as someone who really likes the company and their design philosophy...

Well, MOTU just updated its mididriver for Big Sur and Apple Silicon. Just in time for the next versions of macOS, Monterey.

RME wins this. Only company I trust to support a piece of gear through at least two updates of microsoft.

MOTU is getting better.

Hey!

I missed this post earlier. Went to check out their drivers and it seems your interface is supported by the latest version of macOS. I’m not sure, however, if your interface will be supported on Apple Silicon.

Did you find out more?

If they support your interface on AS I’d say they qualify for our little list.

I am a big fan of Focusrite. I am a Windows user. I have a 10 year old Scarlett 2i4 that is still supported and used. Granted it is a 1st gen unit and I now have a newer 3rd gen unit as a main thing. I still use the 1st gen in my other office now. Not for mic vocals though.

Thanks!

On Mac, it’s still supported since it’s class compliant. So reasonably, it will be so on windows too.

So poked around the Focusrite website a bit and looked at what drivers they supply for older models. The old FireWire interfaces in the Saffire range were discontinued in 2019 giving them between 8-10 year support. Which is fine, really, but it is not RME standard. Especially since they “could” support their hardware if they wanted to.

Is 8-10 years enough to qualify for the list?

Apogee? Never had anything from them but got to say that Antelope Audio have given me a lot of grief over the years...

I'd never buy anything from them again which needed a USB cable which, unfortunately, rules out everything they make.

Thought I would chime in to this useful thread. I have had an RME for decades that still works flawlessly. In that time I have had 2 MOTU's become useless bricks due to MOTU coming out with mkII's and dropping driver support for the older model's. I will never buy a MOTU again. I have an old Roland Octacapture I use for live gigs that surprisingly continues to work with no issues.

I have wanted to upgrade my RME to higher end converters and have been considering Merging Technologies but I don't want to spend a fortune just to miss RME's rock solid drivers and Totalmix.
Anyone have long term experience with Merging's driver support? Hapi, Anubis etc...

I am also considering getting a new RME but the old one is so good the sound improvement will be minimal for the cost it seems. A good problem to have. So from my 30 years of experience running a studio and buying my first interface in 1997 I have to say RME has been a winner.