It looks wonderful, like a fortuitous meeting… … in a home studio between a sound card and Kubrick’s monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Which is the case with the Fast Track C600 we want to review today. The controls and lighting indicators are bigger, there is more space between them, and sometimes even more features. This way, the unit can’t be rack mounted but it gains in ease of use. The principle of a desktop interface is simple: instead of having the controls on the front panel like an effect rack, all controls are placed on the top panel while connections are located on the front or rear sides. Where does it come from? Hard to tell, even if Mackie’s Onyx Satellite came out in 2006 and TC Electronic’s nice Konnekt 6 (2008) are precursors, recently followed by Steinberg’s CI2 & CI2+, Lexicon’s I-Onix U42S and Roland’s Capture series, and now by the Steinberg UR28M, Propellerhead’s Balance and M-Audio’s new Fast Track C400 and C600… Another follow-the-leader example is the introduction of dozens of pocket recorders following the success of the Zoom H2.Īnd now, I’m pleased to announce the arrival of a new trend, this time in the world of external audio interfaces: the “desktop” interface. Treading in Samplitude’s and Altiverb’s footsteps, all manufacturers wanted to have a convolution reverb in their product range - nowadays replaced by the “algorithm reverb is definitely better” trend. A few months later, and by unanimous decision, a new wave of pocket amps and all-tube 5-watt amps came out.
![avid m audio fast track driver avid m audio fast track driver](https://m-audio.com/assets/images/mtrack8x4m/MTrack8X4M_Angle_Media8x10.png)
Not so long ago, Line 6's modeling amps set a trend followed by all manufacturers, from Ibanez to Vox, Zoom, Fender, and Marshall. Just like the textile and record industries, the small audio world has been hit by popular trends as we can see every year at the main international trade shows, like NAMM and Musikmesse.