… is a gear junkie + Product Manager and wrote an interesting series of blog posts about the design and engineering process of M-Audio’s new audio interfaces.

Click here for the first post.

The C400 looks pretty nice and I really like the desktop design with the big volume knob at the top. At the moment I’m using a Mbox2 Pro but I’m unsatisfied with the bad Windows 7 drivers and its performance in Pro Tools 9. During one of the last sessions I figured out that my Pro Tools even runs smoother with a 3rd party interface (PreSonus FP10). I’m a bit disappointed about the fact that Avid neglects users with older interfaces. That’s why I have decided that I won’t buy an “expensive” MBox again. Maybe I will get a C400 instead. It has fresh drivers, an integrated monitor management system and is compatible to Pro Tools. Moreover it seems to be a lite version of the new MBox generation anyhow. The driver software looks the same, both interface generations have built-in DSPs for monitor mixes and since Avid = Digidesign = M-Audio I don’t expect big differences (except the casing and some converters).