Pitch & Tone

I decided to upgrade my sound card shortly after I moved to Montreal. Since I didn’t have any friends with home studio setups at the time, I really had no opportunities to try out different models in person. Instead I’d have to rely exclusively on online reviews and the specs laid out on company websites.

After significant research and with my $500 dollar or less budget in mind, I decided the Fast Track Ultra was the card for me. I managed to pick one up for just over $400.

I noticed some similarities in design to the Fast Track Pro, but was assured this model brings a lot more to the table. The unit still falls into the low-cost consumer bracket but certainly pushes it to the limits. The Fast Track Ultra boasts considerable features and significantly more inputs than I’ve seen in previous models.

The Look

One important feature that attracted me to the Fast Track Ultra was the amount of inputs.

The unit comes with:

4 XLR mic pre-amp inputs – 2 of which double as 1/4″ (front)
6 Analog Inputs (rear)
6 Analog Outputs (rear)
2-channel digital S/PDIF I/O
MIDI-In and Out
2 Independent Headphone outputs

Because the Fast Track Ultra isn’t rack sized, it does pose problems when you have all the jacks filled. The unit is very lightweight, which of course is great for ease of transport, but the unit gets pulled around by the cables and has trouble staying put. The unit feels decently well put together but it’s made of plastic so I question whether is can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. That being said, I really like the look of it.

The I/O

All 4 front XLR inputs have a channel switch to their left which allows you to switch to the rear analog 1/4” inputs. Each of the 4 channels is controlled by a knob on the right of the unit. A cool feature is the 20dB pad that’s activated by pulling the knob out. Very useful when recording at high volumes. I found the knobs themselves to be quite robust and sturdy.

The back of the unit has a stereo S/PDIF input and output and a MIDI I/O. These two bring the total channels to eight, all of which can record simultaneously. Another thing to note is that all channels can record at 24/96k resolution! Pretty impressive on a bargain unit like this. There is a switch for Phantom power in the back that powers all 4 front channels.

Plugging it in

When I plugged the unit in I was surprised at how easy the driver installation ended up being. Instead of installing the drivers on the CD I went straight to the M-Audio site and picked up the latest version. The install took only a few seconds. The drivers comes with some really lightweight software that monitors all 8 inputs. Has only basic mixing options like fade, solo, mute etc. but is quite useful and easy to use.

While the unit comes with a 5V power adapter, I didn’t need to plug the unit in to use it. Without the AC plugged in, I was still able to get sound from 2 of the channels from just the power coming via USB cable from my computer. Although Phantom power wasn’t possible until I plugged in.

How Does It Sound?

M-Audio in general is a pretty safe bet. It’s one of the main reasons I went with the Fast Track Ultra in the first place. When it comes to M-Audio, it’s not really a matter of whether it sounds good or bad but more of whether it sounds great. That being said, it definitely exceeded my expectations! It really does sound great. The pre-amps are stellar and latency is never an issue. The independent headphone outputs really are the icing on the cake.

For the price, I really can’t recommend it enough.