Anyone still(or Ever) using Roland Octa-Capture?

[Pathfinder]

Curious. I have one pretty much new in the box. Presently I am using NEW Fousrite 18i20 3rd Gen. Not happy with it, mostly my shortcomings, not the Focusrite.

Thanks

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Curious. What's wrong with the Focusrite?

[Pathfinder]

59 minutes ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

Curious. What's wrong with the Focusrite?

I am guessing I got so use to the ease of EVERYTHING with the Echo Layla for well over a decade that the Focusrite is just, well \, not user friendly, for me that is.
Overkill is another word that comes to mind. I am a Fractal Audio user since 2009. Presently have FM9 and new Turbo FN3. They have zillions of parameters that can be fooled with. I don't, I use the units like a real amp mainly. Just because a unit has a zillion controls does not mean you have to use them. As you know of course.
My point being, that procedure just does not work for me with the Focusrite. I will be selling it. It is pristine used in hone studio ONLY.

Guess not too many using the Octa capture.
Oh well. I am going to try the Octa capture, was just wondering about the advancements in AD|DA conversion and if the Octa capture is OK in that respect. They still sell them for $599.00. Guess I'll see. Will now unplug the Focusrite and put it neatly back in the box pending local sale!

Thanks for the reply

Edited October 14, 2023 by Pathfinder

[Sidney Earl Goodroe]

I have used 2 Studio-Captures synced together for 32 ins/20 outs. Had them since 2013 and they have been rock solid!

[Pathfinder]

39 minutes ago, Sidney Earl Goodroe said:

I have used 2 Studio-Captures synced together for 32 ins/20 outs. Had them since 2013 and they have been rock solid!

That's great to hear.- I am mainly midi. The only audio I record live are vocals and my guitars. Electric and acoustic!

Thanks for the info

[Sidney Earl Goodroe]

I use a great deal of midi as well! Never a problem!

[Pathfinder]

1 hour ago, Sidney Earl Goodroe said:

I use a great deal of midi as well! Never a problem!

Hey,

What I am\was? concerned about are the audio digital converters-as in old tech. I do have the newer (well 2021 I think) Fousrite 18i20 3rd Generation. But I just do not get along with it. 
But I guess I shouldn't be worrying about converters because if I had a PCI slot for my Echo Layla 3G I would still  be using it. The piggyback with adapter was OK but just not stable enough for me.

Hence the Roland emerges out of the closet....................Thank You for your input-Greatly appreciated!

[Pathfinder]

@Bristol_JoneseyProbably a simple explanation, but little things like this is why I am moving from the Focusrite 18i20 3rd Gen: There are many of thesew for me anyway.

Playback of daw is set to 1& 2 in focusrite PC  control panel.  Daw playback meters IN PC Control panel show movement, etc. Why isn't there any meter movement on the hardware meters themselves? Everything else (guitars and vocals have meter movement on hardware. I get the guitars and ocals are connected to INPUTS on the Hardware, but still? I know the audio playback is going thru USB but still wouldn't you want the meters on the hardware itself giving you an indication of the signal?

Edited October 15, 2023 by Pathfinder

[John Vere]

The whole control panel concept is why I didn’t look at Focusrite when I was looking at new interfaces a couple of years ago. My M Audio and Tascam interfaces were way easier to set up headphone mixes when tracking.
I had to read the owner’s manual at least a dozen times for the Scarlett 6i6. 
So I bought the Motu M4 which was super easy to set up as well. 
It has other issues however so now I just bought a Zoom L8. 
 

But all my old interfaces still work except the M Audio is stuck back in W7 land. 
There’s been absolutely no real changes in things like converters in interfaces and Roland is a company that has usually used quality components in their gear.

Its really about your workflow and how your chosen interfaces integrates into it for you. The Scarlett didn’t and that’s one reason I shelved it. That and it doesn’t have Loopback which is now important to my workflow. 
 

Funny how most people purchase an interface based on recommendation instead of sitting down and making a list of options that you need. Everybody’s workflow is different. 
 

So your title would probably have you purchase an interface that works fine for the person who recommended it but it might be totally wrong for you. 
 

There’s nothing wrong with that old Roland and who knows what the actual quality of any of the lower price point interfaces are these days.
What is most important is if you are happy with the recordings it produces. 

I always felt my Tascam had better sound than the Focusrite.  I only shelved it because it’s sort of too big for the desktop. And at the time the drivers needed a little work. They fixed them a few months later. 
Which is another important point. If the unit becomes unsupported and the driver is not updated anymore then like the M Audio a Windows update will break it. 

[Pathfinder]

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

The whole control panel concept is why I didn’t look at Focusrite when I was looking at new interfaces a couple of years ago. My M Audio and Tascam interfaces were way easier to set up headphone mixes when tracking.
I had to read the owner’s manual at least a dozen times for the Scarlett 6i6. 
So I bought the Motu M4 which was super easy to set up as well. 
It has other issues however so now I just bought a Zoom L8. 
 

But all my old interfaces still work except the M Audio is stuck back in W7 land. 
There’s been absolutely no real changes in things like converters in interfaces and Roland is a company that has usually used quality components in their gear.

Its really about your workflow and how your chosen interfaces integrates into it for you. The Scarlett didn’t and that’s one reason I shelved it. That and it doesn’t have Loopback which is now important to my workflow. 
 

Funny how most people purchase an interface based on recommendation instead of sitting down and making a list of options that you need. Everybody’s workflow is different. 
 

So your title would probably have you purchase an interface that works fine for the person who recommended it but it might be totally wrong for you. 
 

There’s nothing wrong with that old Roland and who knows what the actual quality of any of the lower price point interfaces are these days.
What is most important is if you are happy with the recordings it produces. 

I always felt my Tascam had better sound than the Focusrite.  I only shelved it because it’s sort of too big for the desktop. And at the time the drivers needed a little work. They fixed them a few months later. 
Which is another important point. If the unit becomes unsupported and the driver is not updated anymore then like the M Audio a Windows update will break it. 

Hey John,

Yes I just cannot bond with the Scarlett. The Roland Octa-Capture 1010 $639.00 on Sweetwater is actually more expensive than the Scarlett 18i20 3rd Gen $599.00 which doesn't mean much in real life.
I bought the Roland mainly as a backup and MOBILE backup for my EchoLayla 3G, which was a PCI card. The EchoLayla 3G has been the most user friendly of them all in my experiences. Just got tired of the piggy back add on card to accommodate PCI Express-. Boy I do miss it. I still have it of course. I am going to sell the Fousrite, that I have decided for sure. It's pristine in the box..

Thanks as Always John for the replies and helpful info.
Frank aka Pathfinder

[MGC59]

I still use the Roland Octa-Capture. Aside form my system being old and a bit of lag on big projects, it has served me well.

The only issue I ever had to really deal with was with Roland's driver installation. After much painstaking research a few years back, I learned that when you install or update the drivers you have to use the original USB port that the previous installation used. I'm not sure that this is a problem for everyone, but it solved a lot of issues for me with driver crashes.

Other than that I have no complaints with my Octa-Capture.

[John Vere]

Ya the old PCI cards were pretty bulletproof and usually had best performance with latency.
 

I have a PCI sound card from 2004 called Card Deluxe. The company even updated the driver to W10. It’s just a 2 x 1/4” TRS in and Out with SPDIF as well so worked great with my Yamaha 01v digital mixer.  It’s still installed and working on my old retired DAW machine. 
Everything I own made by Roland still works. Some is from the 80’s. 
 

The Zoom was a surprise because they used to have budget low end rep and the ASIO drivers were not very good. Seems they sorted that all out because so far after 2 weeks this puppy is a dream to work with. It’s really a mixer. So it more like a downscaled integrated  system for everything 

[Pathfinder]

@John Vere 

That Zoom L8 looks pretty nice. I have been thinking, well planning, on doing my one man thing, some vocals\acoustic only and some with backing tracks. Was planning on using my old reliable Mackie 1202VLZ4-has nice mic pre's for what it is(onyx?)
I am going to see if GC near me has one I can look at, etc.
Honestly, the I do NOT need anymore Audio Interfaces, my Fractal Audio FM9 & FM3 Turbo both have really nice AI stuff- But I only use them for guitar. So that makes 4 AI's. I was just thinking the Zoom L8 would be cool for doing my one man gigs.

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Pathfinder

[John Vere]

Not sure if you saw the videos I made last week about the L8.     https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7YqVth30eGs-D7nsBl0iPsavrtpnrrsg

Now I've done one gig with it I'm going to make a 3rd sort of as a overview and review. 

I first bought it as a mixer. You can see in the picture how I need everything to be very compact and fit on the little table. I have 2 small Mackie mixers one has no effects and the other the effects are terrible. So I have used a Voice Live pedal for vocal effects. That is a nightmare of connections as well as I've started having issues to complicated to list. One being if you look at the picture you will see my X keys USB footswitch on the floor. The Voice live was beside it and sometimes my pedalboard. Three times at a show I accidentally stepped on the X keys instead of the Voice live and my backing track would stop! It's a good thing that show was not a dance or a 300 person outdoor concert!!  This is just another sign of old age because I had rarely had this happen before. So the Voice live has gotta go! And you can see I also put my pedal board out of harms way. 

I have other larger mixers and only my Yamaha 01V has effects I can use. I've played in many bands and used all sorts of different mixers, the effects are not what I like, ever.  Thus the search for a small mixer with good effects.   In all the YouTube reviews of the L8 they praised the effects so that got my attention.  Got nothing to lose because of Amazon return policy so I ordered it. 

I was blown away that there was a pre set, Vocal 2, that was almost exactly what I like. I only had to tweak it a bit.  

Anyways the board was amazingly easy to set up and use at the gig. 

Then the bonus. I often record my performances to see how I'm doing and make improvements. For that I have to connect my Tascam DR 40 to the RCA tape outputs of my mixer. This gives me a "board mix". This is now built right in. The Zoom took 20 seconds to set it up and I recorded myself into 6 tracks. If you look in the picture you will see a camera on my lighting stand. It's a terrible angle but for what it's worth I could now dump the recording into Cakewalk, tweak the audio and produce a live video with killer sound. 48/32. That's right it records at 32 if you like.  

I also dumped 30 backing tracks on to a SD card I had on standby just in case my Laptop finally died> You can play these directly from the mixer.  

Originally I was not thinking of it as a serious Audio interface. But my Motu is now sitting up on the self next to the Scarlett. I will probably sell it and keep the Scarlett as at least the Scarlett was more dependable and has SPDIF. The Zoom doesn't have Midi so I need to keep an interface that does. 

As an interface it is a better workflow for me due to all the inputs and having complete control over my monitor and headphone mixes. I realized I could also connect 2 more Monitors pairs as well. No need to change the Master output to 3/4.  Just turn a knob. I'm running my sub off Mix B. 

I can now run at a lower buffer setting as well. The ASIO driver is a good one. Zoom has come along way in that regards

. 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by John Vere