Item : B000Z8U0IY Customer Reviews Awesome product, had it since it came out without any problems. by .. Dmitri Zyuzin (Seattle, WA) I don't understand what all the fuss is about. I've gone through many different operating systems and computers, and drivers and have not had ANY issues with this product. It works flawlessly on XP/XP SP1/2 and Vista. It has a couple very minor issues on Vista X64 but nothing that would break the work flow noticeably. I'll begin by saying that it has probably the best layout I have ever seen on a sound card. It is also the most powerful at the time for USB sound cards all together. It has 6 1/4 inch inputs on the back very well laid out, and 6 matching 1/4 inch outputs on the back aswell... this setup keeps wires nice and neat (unlike others where you gotta plug stuff in all over the place in all directions..... on the front you could either hook up four mics or two mics and two instruments.... what nice is that the first two inputs can either be xlr or 1/4 inch..... All four inputs have knobs right there on the front to control the preamps for each channel individually. Also on the front.... TWO, not one, TWO headphone outputs with individual volume controlls and LED's to indicate clipping and signal (that can be assigned to play different channels alltogether). And of course there is a volume control, right there on the front. What I should note is that there are four buttons to switch from the front inputs to the back ones. Some other nice features include an input and output for an insert effect (so you can hook up for example a compressor)... the only flaw with it (actually what' nice is that I called m-audio and they took a unit from their warehouse, set it up, and tinkered with it trying to figure it out).... but anyways the only flaw is that it cannot be inserted to any channels but channels 1/2..... Of course the thing has phantom power but if you choose to run with it off you can still use normal mics... What's also so nifty is that if you want to go somewhere with a lap top for example you can ditch the power supply alltogether and still have channels 1/2 for input and output powered by the USB bus. The latency on this card is great... I can't say it's as perfect as I want it to be (especially with Vista x64) but I can safely run a 128 sample buffer running under 10ms completely safely and if no input is needed and those are disabled a 4 ms delay is pretty safe and works great.... Another great thing is the software mixer, you can route just about anything into anything else, it simply makes this card have no limits as far as routing (except for that insert effect thing but I don't really use it anyways since I use the daw for that) The only serious issue is that after switching to Vista x64 I have not been able to get the "High Performance Mode" to work which affects the buffer a little bit. Other then that, solid 5/5... I've recommended this product to many people, all have bought it, all had no problems. The biggest issue with this card is people, people that can't install the damn driver. It's a little bit more of a pain in the butt then simply installing a CD but if you follow directions it will work. Would buy again but I'm more then happy with the one I got :) Did NOT work with VISTA--not happy with Maudio but kudos to Amazon by .. J. Flach () After visiting the local music store I was told the only usb audio interface that they had, that would work with my Sony Vaio running Vista Home, was this M-Audio fast track ultra high speed 8x8 USB 2.0 interface. I was concerned about it working properly though as I had read about problems with it's drivers. The store didn't offer refunds either so I decided to go with Amazon instead (whose price was also $50 cheaper). I am glad I did! Just as the other reviewer said, the drivers don't work (documented on other forums online too). Even after uninstalling, reinstalling drivers and trying all the other "fixes" offered by the m-audio website it didn't work properly. To make sure it wasn't my computer, I plugged in my old tascam us-122, running usb 1.1 and it worked fine (but can only record 2 instruments max simultaneously). Not very happy with M-audio's product (hopefully they update the drivers because otherwise it seems like it would be a good interface) but Amazon's 2 day delivery/free return pick up and quick no hassle refund made everything right-- Excellent product, but documentation could be better by .. W. Burke () I've been using the Fast Track Ultra for about a month now. System: Gateway MC7801U Laptop Pentium Duo 2 core 2Ghz T5800 4G RAM Vista 64 Home Premium Sonar 8 Producer 64 bit I almost returned the product initially because it was locking up my laptop. After some persistent searching, I found a message buried on the MAudio website that fixed the problem: [The high-performance mode can be a bit tricky on some systems and what you are seeing is not a surprise. High-performance mode basically misuses the host computer CPU clock. On typical PC systems this allows the driver to increase the performance of the USB bus. On computers that are already tweaked for high performance or have high performance graphics cards or the like, this mode can !!!!cripple the operating system. It works best with older PCs!!!...] AHA! I had enabled "high-performance mode" and that appears to have been he cause of the system lockup. After uninstalling / reinstalling the driver AND LEAVING "high-performance mode" OFF, the unit has been performing flawlessly. I have enough confidence in it now that I will shortly be placing it into service in live performance for a weekly contemporary worship service. It would be beneficial if MAudio would update their documentation - or even provide a pop up confirmation / warning when the high-performance mode is enabled - to advise users of the dangers of "high-performance mode". 1 star deducted for not documenting this "feature". DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM!! by .. Jaykayess (Bombay, India) I want to start off by warning all prospective buyers NOT to buy this item. There are known issues with the software driver that the manufacturer has not been able to resolve, and several buyers (including me) have been forced to return the unit. Let me state that I am forced to make this recommendation even though the unit had every feature that I was looking for and met my exact needs. My usage scenario: I do a lot of amateur live recordings and needed an interface that was portable, had 4 microphone inputs, and had the capability to record directly to my PC via the USB port without going through my PC's sound card. The M-Audio Fast Track Ultra had it all, came from a reputed manufacturer, had excellent specifications, and was extremely affordable. I had done a lot of research before narrowing down to this particular model and bought it during a recent visit to USA (I live in Bombay, India). On my return to Bombay, I was extremely disappointed to find out about this major flaw that RENDERS IT COMPLETELY UNUSABLE. Unfortunately, the user forums on the manufacturer's website were not active when I did my research, so I had no advance warning of this flaw. The flaw is as follows: When you install the driver on any machine (Windows XP, Vista, and Mac), it works OK for the first use. After that, the driver just disappears from your PC - your PC simply does not recognize this device, and it does not show up on the device manager. You have to REINSTALL THE DRIVER EACH TIME YOU WANT TO USE THIS UNIT!! This is obviously ridiculous and unacceptable. I checked the online forums on the manufacturer's website, and they have recommended a whole set of steps to be taken to fix this problem. These are very drastic steps - disable your anti-virus, disable your firewall, disable the sound card, disable wireless, disable modem, disable Vista Aero graphics, disable power management from all USB root hubs, and then reinstall the driver. Well, I was so desperate that I actually did all this, re-installed the driver, kept all these features disabled, and tried again - but it still showed the same problem. I noticed that several other owners of this unit have faced exactly the same problem and have been forced to return the unit. M-Audio is a reputed manufacturer, and none of their other models seem to have any problem, so it was very surprising to find this type of a problem with this model. From the forums, it appears that M-Audio is genuinely trying their best to solve this problem, but has not found any solution so far. Sadly, this leaves me with no choice but to return the unit and give this rating, because I can't wait forever until they find a fix. EXCEPT FOR THE PROBLEM WITH THE SOFTWARE DRIVER, THIS UNIT DESERVES 4 OR 5 STARS. But if you buy something which cannot even be used for its intended purpose, 1 star is the only choice. If you want to take a chance and buy the unit - just in case the fix works for you - make sure you have an easy way to return the unit in case it doesn't work. As for me, I'm still struggling to find a way to return the unit, because I bought it in Seattle and I live in India. If I don't succeed, it's $350 down the drain...