Audient usually makes great gear, the last gen Evos were the first products they released that I felt iffy about. These look good though, seems like an upgrade to the older Evo concept in every way.
Class compliant?
Yep apparently, but they have their own drivers which they say are recommended
btw, the Evo 8 is currently being dumped for around 90 euro’s , f.e. on Amazon
“ However, due to limitations in Core Audio, OBS for macOS can only access the first two inputs of any multi-channel audio interface, and so cannot access the EVO 16’s loopback channels. Despite this not being a fault of the EVO 16, nor an issue unique to it, Audient is nevertheless hoping to include a solution in a future firmware update.”
Anyone know what this means in practice/is referring to?
I thought I’d let people know I got one of these and I’m sending it back. Bit of a shitshow to be honest.
The main issue is it makes constant noise. We’re not talking an “only teenagers can hear it” - we’re talking “even my disinterested life partner who thinks I’m too fussy” can hear it, she normally thinks I’m really OTT about noises, but the evo 16 even annoys her when it’s turned on and no audio is running through it.
I thought it was power supplies or cables, there’s some weird combination of things that can make it go away, usually some sequence of powering off the device for a while and disconnecting the USB cable from the computer - but that’s not even reliable. Sometimes it just stops, sometimes it won’t go after multiple power cycles. It’s just wild.
There have been other bugs too; random resets to the initial setup, sound routing sticking at low volumes, pops and clicks when turning on, and a real scratchy pot, which sucks when there is only one.
And some weird design decisions. Each channel has gain and volume decoupled, but you can only adjust the volume of the channels from the unit itself… the master channel you can only adjust the gain, not the volume.
I contacted support, after a few days they got back to me asking for a serial number, I sent it bay with an exhaustive bug report (something I sometimes do as part of my job). That was last Tuesday, nothing since.
This is only my second audio interface, the first a 2i2, so I’m not very qualified to give broad comparisons, but the experience has been bad.
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if someone here uses the evo16 WITH the additional 16 digi ins pls have a look if digi channels 15&16 (23&24 in live or) work with you.
i can only record and hear loopback on these channels, not the signal that’s actually there (which shows in the evo mixer and the converters but not in ableton) and after weeks of waiting (!) the audient support wrote me that it’s a known bug…strangely i haven’t read about it nowhwere and i was really wondering, is nobody using it for the extra 16 ins or am i the only one experiencing this?
I’m considering buying this audio interface. I need 8 inputs, the price vs feature set looks impressive, and it works on Linux. What it misses vs the other alternatives I have looked up (especially the RME Fireface UCX II and the MOTU UltraLite MK5) are things I don’t need, and the price difference is significant. Some users seem to have found problems, some seem to be very happy. Given that most happy users don’t write about audio interfaces on the internet, I’m ready to give it a shot. 
Just a question, given that I have only synths and no plans to get a guitar / bass / drums… All these preamps, “Instrument mode”, “JFET”… can’t harm, right? I mean, I wouldn’t mind having 8 plain Line Ins but (according to my research) I will end up either paying way more (while getting more stuff I don’t need) or ending up with something that won’t work with Linux.
PS: and just for collection purposes, there was this comment somewhere else months ago:
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EVO16 user here since late May this year with multiple keyboards connected. Just to be safe, make sure you do not activate phantom power (48V) on the inputs, aside from that there isn’t really any way for you to damage equipment. It is disabled by default.
Might as well add in some thoughts in this thread considering there aren’t that many. Noise issues were present on all analog inputs and seemed to be connected to the digital gain and phantom power judging from how the device responded to an input signal and the toggling of phantom power. Made this slightly squiggly sound (think of an LFO). Logged a ticket to support (firmware 1.16) and got a response a few hours later with new firmware that wasn’t yet available on the website and instructions along with it. Haven’t had any issues since. Good quality conversion both ways and surprisingly fast to use considering it only has one knob. Upgraded from an old MOTU UltraLite-mk3 and am happy.
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Thank you for your quick feedback! 1.17 was released a few weeks ago, so should be good: https://support.audient.com/hc/en-us/articles/8601986617492-EVO-16-Firmware-Change-Log
And thank you for the comment about the preamps. No phantom, it’s clear. Last question and just out of curiosity: is there a noticeable difference between plugging synths on the front or the rear preamps?
The front ones have instrument input as an added toggle (for guitars and such), but aside from that there is no difference between the front and back inputs. All can be switched between mic and line level inputs at will.
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After one day using this interface I’m… very happy! No audio problems that my ears would notice. I find the sound very clean, also when using the preamps. There are many reviews out there that insist on the same good points (that so far I’m confirming) and there are more factors that fit very well with what I was looking for:
- Everything works on Linux. I used my windows partition to update the firmware and set the default routings, and that was all I had to do before running it on Linux plug & play.
- I find this single knob UI very well done. Easy to get in and in just one day I’m using it without thinking much. I was a bit skeptical, and initially I was looking for an interface that would offer several knobs for inputs for direct access.
- The buttons have a good feeling. This is something that no video can tell. It’s an important detail considering that with the single know you use those buttons regularly.
- The whole build has good feeling.
- Standalone mode (use with computer switched off) is priceless, and it was a requirement in my search. Very easy to set up.
- The device sits on top of four small legs and there is enough gap to pass a regular cable underneath. This small detail allows me to put a controller right in front with a small separation, and its USB cable just vanishes underneath, remaining straight and contributing to keeping the desk visually cleaner.
- It’s my first rack form factor device and I was concerned about the surface it takes on the desk. Then I saw that Audient places an iMac-like monitor on top of it in their advertisement. These monitors aren’t light, so I have placed a not light either synth on top and I’m happy with the result. No extra space taken on my desk!
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That’s great! I think I suffered by being an early adopter.
Have they changed the way gain/volume access works from the front panel (see my post above - Audient evo 16 - new audio interface - #16 by Boxymusic)?
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I think the functionality is the same as you describe but isn’t that the normal setup of an interface? I’m no expert either, but in my case it works. From the device you can control de gain input of each channel, and then the volume of the outputs (headsets and speakers).
You can set a default volume for each channel in the Audient mixer on your PC. I set them to 0 dB, and that’s all I did. If I’m using the DAW, I tweak the volume of each channel in the DAW. If I’m not using the DAW (i.e. standalone) then channel gain + speakers/headsets volume works for me.
When I had it you could only control the volume output, not the gain input from the front panel. Which meant you couldn’t stop something from clipping by turning a knob, only reduce the loudness with which you could hear that clipping!
Highly possible I was being a dufus, but I did make that assumption at the time and couldn’t figure it out.
That would be really weird… Can you control the input gain at all then?
I don’t have it anymore because of all of the various other issues I listed earlier in the thread (including hardware issues confirmed by EVO) - but I literally bough it the day it came out, so there’s a very good chance it was all teething issues.
Didn’t you just clip the output of your (digital) instrument?
No matter what, now you can control gain input and volume output from the device itself, without needing the computer (at all, can be done standalone as well).
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Maybe it was the other way around to what I was saying… but in any case
- sounds like its not an issue now -which is great!
- that’s not why I sent it back, it was because of the ground noise issues
- good chance I didn’t get to know it well enough, I spend most of my time trying to isolate the very audible noise
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