Several years ago, Tom Sailor founded a company called X-Vision Audio that distributed products to the music industry. Synthax, the German-based global distributor of RME products, was one of his main business partners. Eventually, the two companies merged to bring together a collection of German products centered around native-based recording systems. With combined resources — including tech support — these companies and their niche products benefit from a shared Synthax support infrastructure.

This month we'll look at three products marketed by Synthax: the Fireface 800, Samplitude Professional 8, and Suzy. How well do these products stand up individually, and do they integrate easily with one another?

Last year, Video Systems gave the RME Fireface 800 a Vanguard award, which it richly deserved. Ultimately, audio interfaces are judged by the quality of the sound they pass, and on a price-performance scale, this device is hard to beat. Although lacking the creaminess of higher-priced converters like those made by Apogee, the Fireface 800 (which I own) is solid throughout the frequency spectrum. Many top-end audio houses own these devices.

The Fireface 800 includes connections for a pair of ADAT Lightpipe devices, eight balanced line-level inputs and outputs, SPDIF, and four excellent mic-pres. Currently, the Fireface 800 supports eight channels of 96kHz/24-bit recording and playback.

In addition to its sound quality, the Fireface 800 offers extensive routing through Total Mix, the companion software bundled with it. The flexibility that Total Mix provides — which lets you quickly route any input to any output, set up separate cue mixes, and easily keep track of your signal flow — will be most beneficial for music recordists, who may use Total Mix in conjunction with a digital audio workstation as an integrated mix environment.

Audio post engineers and composers will most likely set up their studio environment once, save this setting as a preset in Total Mix, and be done. For example, I route stereo audio in from my Mac G4 via ADAT input 1, and eight inputs from my TASCAM GigaStudio computer using ADAT input 2. I also leave a microphone input open on the fourth mic pre channel. Once I completed this routing scheme, I used the Fireface 800's control panel software and turned on phantom power to the mic pre and wrote that setting into the hardware's memory. Simple!

In summation, the Fireface 800 sounds very good, has all the connections most audio post pros will need, and comes with software that turns the hardware into a highly intelligent mix environment.

Don't you love those cheap little products that fill a need and require no brainwork to implement? If so, Suzy is your girl. Software DAWs are great, and it's remarkable how they have obviated the need for a hardware mixer, at least for those engineers who use a mouse for fader moves. Lots of people assumed that add-on control surfaces that provide faders in banks of eight would become indispensable, but tons of engineers seem to be able live without them.

However, when the inevitable computer crash comes, bringing with it that hideous, digital peaking sound (at high volume, no doubt), what do you do? I sprint to my monitors, which have on/off switches, and flip them as quickly as possible. If, like me, you find this solution unacceptable, then you need to place a device like Suzy between your DAW and your speakers. When things go bad, or if you simply want to attenuate the volume of your DAW without scaling back its master fader (for example, when listening to a CD outside of the DAW environment), you'll be happy to get your hands on Suzy's main volume knob.

Suzy is a small, trapezoid-shaped box with a pair of XLR and tip sleeve ring 1/4in. inputs on the left side, and corresponding outputs on the right. But don't make the same mistake I did. In my haste, I didn't notice that there is also a summed stereo 1/4in. output on the left side, and put one of my speaker cables into it. I scratched my head before I realized why I was only hearing one channel of audio.

The back of the device holds SPDIF inputs and outputs, and the front of the unit has a volume knob, plus mute, mono, and bypass buttons. No fuss, no muss, and Suzy is just the kind of hardware you'll find indispensable.

Although it is not as well known as some other digital editing environments, Sequoia (Samplitude's big brother) has long been revered by many highly respected mastering engineers. Samplitude Professional features the same audio engine and many of the features found in Sequoia. Synthax also offers Samplitude Classic for about half the price. The Classic version uses the same audio components, but has fewer channels and operators can't access its excellent Room Simulator reverb in realtime. (All of these products are manufactured by the German company Magix.)

Samplitude Professional offers a paradigm that is reversed from the one used by most DAWs. Historically, software-based DAWs have grown out of the MIDI sequencer model. On the Mac side, you've got MOTU Digital Performer and Apple Logic, for example. PC users can choose from Cakewalk Sonar, Steinberg Cubase SX3, and other applications. These programs all offer outstanding MIDI functionality and excellent audio recording and editing.

Like its big brother, Sequoia, Samplitude began as an audio environment. It is in the process of developing MIDI as an add-on. The quick take on this program is simple: The 16-bit audio (I couldn't get Samplitude to function in 24-bit mode, which I'll discuss in a moment) is excellent, and the onboard effects package (including equalization) sounds better than that of any DAW I've used on either the Mac or PC. On the negative side, Samplitude's MIDI functionality has a ways to go.

The blocks of Samplitude are called objects; audio and MIDI are recorded and edited as objects. Some apps require that you choose either a MIDI or audio track to record on. Samplitude makes no such distinction. Rather, in the properties window of a given track, you decide which kind of data will be assigned to it.

Setting up MIDI input and output destinations is straightforward, as is the recording of MIDI data onto a track. MIDI editing is usually where a sequencer shines, though, and Samplitude is lacking in this area. Quantizing of recorded MIDI performances, for example, can only be done against a hard grid (16th, 8th, quarter notes, triplets, etc.). Massaging notes by percentages toward a point in a beat, rather than taking them all the way there, is critically important. As of this time, Samplitude doesn't offer this functionality. Applying algorithms to alter MIDI performances is not possible either. In all fairness, MIDI is new to Samplitude, and I expect that it will be given more attention in the future. One final note: Be sure to download the latest version of the software. Before I downloaded the 8.2 update, my computer crashed every time I tried to use MIDI.

To me, the audio effects are Samplitude's great strength. Although you may love the sound of another company's software reverb or equalization, you won't have to use anything other than the outstanding elements that ship with Samplitude to get great mixes. I don't have the space to go into all of these plug-ins in detail, but pay particular attention to the Vintage Effects Suite and the Analog Modelling Suite. They are outstanding.

As I mentioned earlier, I could not get Samplitude to function in 24-bit mode. This was doubly surprising because the application gave me a message saying that the probable cause was the use of an audio interface that did not support 24-bit audio, which the Fireface 800 clearly does. Since a Synthax selling point is its ability to integrate the products of several German companies under one roof, and offer tech support for all of them, I assumed that this would be easy to clear up. However, I was told that I must have a hardware failure, and that there was no other explanation for the problem I was experiencing.

After spending several hours on this problem, during which time the Fireface 800 disappeared from my dual Opteron altogether (Cubase SX3 stopped recognizing it), I went to the RME website, downloaded the 800's flash update tool, and zapped the device. To be honest, I wasn't sure if this would have any effect, particularly since I had been told that the problem had to be hardware related. I found that hard to believe, since the crash that preceded the disconnect came while I was trying to get the Samplitude control panel to work in 24-bit mode. In fact, this resuscitation effort did work, and I was able to continue working, but only in 16-bit mode.

Notwithstanding this issue, anyone working primarily with audio tracks who is looking for an all-in-one tracking and mixing environment would do well to give Samplitude serious consideration.