Arturia AudioFuse 16 Rig

Arturia did a great job there on the matrix mixer.

I’m questioning myself if I really need to keep a physical patchbay with 16rig.

As an owner of a Motu 16A, I would prefer the Audiofuse over the 16A.
I never found Motu interfaces that stable. I have frequent disconnection problems, requiring multiple reboots. Also the firmware upgrading process is a nightmare.
On top of it, I find that the 16A inputs are not sensitive enough for most of my synths. I’ve got main gains almost at max (if not at max) for most of my synths. I wonder how it is for the Audiofuse.

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The latency sucks. In this price range I will still look at RME.

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If the 16Rig is anything like the AudioFuse Studio I expect the inputs to be good and have more than enough headroom.

I had a Motu 8A and can’t say I had issues with the inputs. I did find the drivers on Windows to be not great. Even the old Roland Studio Capture I used to have was more stable! It was better when I switched to a Mac, but I definitely would be hesitant on recommending Motu interfaces to anyone on Windows. It can be fine for some people, but they just have a history of not working as well there. And the latency isn’t as good as RME interfaces (Arturia is worse than both in that area).

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I wonder if SSL UF8 would be able to control 16rig

Yeah if you’re on Windows I also wouldn’t recommend Motu. On Mac however, I’d say it’s on par with RME. Very low latency and very stable.

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What is a good latency nowadays on a typical win11 machine?

Has anyone here picked one up yet? It appears to be available and shipping.

I’m really tempted by this, especially since it looks like its being sold at an intro discount.

I’ve not yet spotted the shortcoming that’s going to put me off buying it. There seems to always be something with audio interfaces or digital mixers that makes me cross them off the list. To be fair, I’m only really picky because I have a functional setup that mostly does what I need, so it only takes a small thing to make me think I’m better off sticking with what I got.

What makes you think it’s being sold at an intro discount? I haven’t seen any indications of that.

If user reviews are good over the next month, I’ll get one in December (assuming they aren’t sold out). The idea of consolidating from two 18i20s to one interface, and getting away from the god-awful Focusrite Control software while reducing the number of hardware failure points in my studio setup is very appealing. It would also free up one of my 18i20s for use with the Push 3, and allow me to sell the remaining one to recoup some cash.

I’m curious about how the AudioFuse 16 line inputs compare to the Evo 16 inputs with preamps in a setup of synths. Evo 16 + Evo SP8 is way cheaper. If one day 8 inputs are not enough for me, the input audio quality will be the factor to go either way. The AudioFuse 16 offers many other features, but either I have them covered already (MIDI) or I don’t need them. Still, the AudioFuse onboard / no-PC features are very interesting… for Linux users like me who can’t rely on any PC/Mac software provided for regular use.

I’m in the same boat. You could still connect one of the 18i20 to 16rig in another part of the studio to connect more distant synths (if that’s your case) and then connect push 3 SA to the other 16rig input. Now you can route through the matrix any 8 of the 24 inputs to push 3 on the fly.

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Sorry, intro discount is probably wrong way of putting it. In Australia there seems to be two prices across different retailers - $1999 and $2399. Some of the $1999 retailers are indicating it’s marked down.

I was really close to being set on this combo as well. It’s only about 20% cheaper here in Aus. I think its the extra front panel connectors on the Rig16 that sway me (plus I don’t want to be forced to use front inputs on the EVO to get 8 ins, because messy), and that it can eventually expand to 32 channels via adat versus 24 with the Evo line. Not because I need that many, but because I can position the adat expanders elsewhere and leave more stuff connected.

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That’s actually brilliant! Thanks for the idea.

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Would it be too over the top to use 3 x Xone K2 to control 16rig? You can get 3 of them second hand for the price of a MX12. Anyway this setup with 16rig + midi controller(s) is getting more expensive than getting a desk mixer with 16 inputs like Tascam model 16. Never fancied desktop mixers though.

I think the advantage for midi learn over some of the mixer controls is you can set it up with midi learn for just the controls you need rather than a predetermined control surface style layout.

I’m pretty interested in the idea of combining the 16 Rig with something like the Electra One mk2.

But you’re right, depending on what you need and your space available then something like the Tascam Model 24 is more affordable for some of the same features, just depends whether you need the other stuff the 16 Rig has.

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It depends on what is your goal, right?

If you are producing electronic music from scratch, then you probably want MIDI controllers that then you can reuse when mixing with the 16 Rig. If mixing/mastering or jamming/performing offline is mostly what you do, then a hardware mixer with or without an audio interface makes more sense.

I have been tempted in buying a mixer with an audio interface like the Tascam (maybe smaller) but I wouldn’t use the standard EQ section at all, and then I would have great faders, knobs and buttons that I could not use to control my gear via MIDI. For me it would be a lost opportunity taking too much money and desk space.

If you are concerned about price, maybe there are other alternatives that cost less per channel? But of course this is a matter of taste. In my case, I’d rather spend more for gear that feels good and I believe can last more years on my desk. (Unrelated: this is what brought be to the Electra One that @Stone262 mentions too, and I too am considering how it could play with the Rig 16.) :slight_smile:

Short article & unboxing video of the AudioFuse 16Rig from synthanatomy.com

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Probably an unrealistic desire for a variety of reasons, but I would love if this had a 9v power jack or two on the front panel to go along with the reamping outputs so you could plug a pedal straight in.

I am waiting for evaluations against the RMEs.

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