Item : B00061ZM2Y Customer Reviews Perfect for my needs! by .. David G. Hanson () Quick preface: I don't play with a band, I simply write/record songs using Garageband, on an iMac. This audio interface is perfect for my needs. I don't record guitar by micing my guitar amp; I plug my guitar into an effects processor (I use the POD 2.0 from Line 6), and then plug that straight into the guitar cable input on this M-Audio Fast Track. When I want to record vocals, I plug my microphone into the mic input in the back. Everything works fine and there is no unwanted hiss or feedback when I am listening to the final mixes on my songs! Some tips in case anyone is confused on how to get this thing to work with garageband: 1) Make sure the Fast Track is set as BOTH your audio input AND output in the Garageband audio preferences (you can, if you're so inclined, even make the Fast Track your audio input/output for your entire computer, you'll still get decent sound, plus it allows you to play your guitar over songs from your iTunes library, which is a big help with guitar practice). 2) In your "Input Source" for any given instrument track, you have to select "Mono 2" instead of "Stereo 1/2" if you're recording guitar, and "Mono 1" if you're recording vocals (or anything from a microphone). You'll want to switch "Monitor" to "Off." Although I have discovered that if you're trying to simulate a bass guitar with your regular electric guitar, for an extra strong bass sound, fiddle with your effects processor to get as close as you can to a bass guitar sound, and then switch Monitor to "On," and use one of Garageband's prepackaged bass guitar settings on TOP of that. Gives your "simulated" bass guitar a little bit more oomph, if you're like me and don't actually play bass. Another cool feature on the M-Audio Fast Track is a "mix" knob which allows you to control the volume balance between the track you are recording and the playback from the rest of the song, so you can always make sure you can clearly hear what you are recording against the backdrop of the rest of the song! Anyway, like I say, this is perfect for MY needs, and I know there are plenty of people for whom this device would not be sufficient. But if you're a non-pro musician who enjoys making songs in your spare time with a "bare essentials" collection of equipment, then you might want to look into purchasing one of these!!!! Wasn't too impressed by .. Peter K. () First off, this thing is small. I didn't realize how small it was until I received the item. I own the M-Audio Fast Track USB Pro, and thought that the Fast Track USB would be of comparable quality. Not so. I guess that's why it costs half as much. But you get what you pay for. I returned the item and bought another Fast Track USB Pro. The Pro model has exceptional audio quality. I felt for the extra money, it was a better purchase in the long run. I was not impressed by the sound quality of this model. Amazon was great and allowed me to return this product for a full refund. Didn't work for me by .. C. Nielsen () It was a pain to install. The instructions said 2 different things, and I had to download a large file (after a lot of searching) from the M-Audio website to make it work. I'm running Windows XP (SP3), and it seems like the thing should be able to load right out of the box. One thing I didn't like is that it sets up your computer to run all of your audio through the interface. I couldn't put the interface anywhere near my CRT monitor, since it got extremely noisy. The only other place I had was on top of my computer, and it picked up the sound of the mouse. When I ran my audio through it, it made a loud intermittent static noise, and was unusable. I sent it back, and Amazon gave me a full refund with no problems. Maybe the the loud static noise was due to a defect, but the rest of the issues made it unusable for me. I'm going to try a Tascam product and see if that works better. not what I expected by .. David P. Dulin () it isn't the best, The start-up software does not work for all platforms im running windows vista 32 the software does not run with vista. So, if You have vista forget it, does run for xp though. Not so easy by .. mariya shall (Palo Alto) I have a few issues/problems: -m-audio on line registration does not seem to work. -i tried to call for tech support - was on the phone for more then 60 minutes - no answer. -was not able to successfully install fast truck on windows xp -m-audio nova mic does not work with fast truck