EVO 16-24 in/24 out USB audio interface with Smartgain

Product Information

Audient’s mantra with this product is ‘a new way of doing things,’ and it’s really clear that a lot of thought has gone into building a unit that isn’t just an ‘Evo 4 or 8 with more channels. Compatibility with current and future versions of your OS and DAW is essential, and you may even want to expand your interface with additional inputs at a later stage. Powered by Audient's lightning fast Smartgain algorithm, Smartgain uses advanced peak analysis to automatically analyse and set your gain to the perfect level in under 20 seconds! All you need to do is set up your mics, engage Smartgain and the EVO 16 will take it from there.Set the gain for all 8 Mic preamps with the touch of a button! Future-proof your Setup This is handy if you’re recording alone as it means you don’t have to play or sing, adjust your level, and repeat. There is also room for expansion with plenty of optical inputs and outputs, making it possible to record anything from just drums to a full band. Ensuring the studio can grow with time, there are both ADAT and SPDIF options to add up to 16 extra channels of mic preamps.

I like the flexibility of the software and the fact that it can easily be driven from the front panel. My daily driver is a (distinctly premium) Focusrite Red4Pre and I control that almost exclusively front the front panel. Having an easy to use interface with a clear and informative front panel display in a unit at this price is great. We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers, or subcontractors as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.Simple though this is, it’s made much simpler thanks to EVO 16’s LCD display. And this tiny display is not only crystal clear but thanks to the IPS technology, easy to view even when you’re way off axis.

The mic press sounded pretty clean, just clean and seemed decent enough to record a band or singer songwriter with ease. I suspect many will use their dedicated favourite preamps, but these sounded good and clean, offering 58dB of uncoloured gain. The operation of which is easily accessible by toggling between the numbered buttons 1-8 on the front panel and the main jog wheel for level adjustment. Levels can also be adjusted remotely from the EVO software mixer if needed. 48V phantom power is available on all mic pres if needed. The JFET D.I./instrument input works fine and sounds pretty decent, fine for recording clean guitars or synth for processing later ITB. The market for budget, entry‑level interfaces is mostly made up of newcomers to recording. These customers, on the one hand, benefit from designs that present the easiest possible learning curve; but on the other, they’re also unburdened by preconceptions as to how an audio interface should work. Consequently, Audient have put a lot of work into the usability and ergonomics of the EVO series, and they’ve not been afraid to depart from established convention. The EVO 4 and EVO 8 look nothing like any other audio interface I’ve ever seen, and present a refreshingly minimal and friendly user interface. Even when they’re not bringing anything sonically, their simple-to-use products make the set up faster and more efficient. The EVO series as a whole exemplifies this, and the EVO 16 leads that charge with all guns blazing. On the slim chance something hasn’t staged correctly, an error message displays and lets you know which channel the errors lie on. Having previously got out hands on the Evo 4 (and Evo Start Recording bundle) we had high hopes for the Evo 16 and it didn’t disappoint.

Performance

To put it plainly, Audient don’t always receive the recognition they deserve in the pro audio world. Working tirelessly to make products for the working creative, their designs are functional and expandable, while offering professional-level quality and sleek looks. The ID‑series interfaces are competitively priced, but on the pure value‑for‑money front, they are undercut by rival products that use mass‑market, off‑the‑shelf components and circuits. Hence the launch of Audient’s EVO series of interfaces, brought to market more affordably by the use of generic audio circuitry instead of the Audient custom designs employed in the ID series. But price isn’t the only thing differentiating the EVO interfaces from their ID brethren. Tabula Rasa I recently got hold of the audio interface to try out and see how it compares to its smaller Evo brothers. The core of the EVO range’s ease of use is Smartgain, a system that analyses the incoming signal and sets the ideal input gain for it. With the EVO 16, Smartgain can set the gain for all eight analogue inputs simultaneously, a massive time-saver especially if you’re a self-recording band or drummer. Just get connected, activate Smartgain, play for 20 seconds and you’re ready to record. Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

The mixer settings can be stored in the hardware as a standalone setup. You can then use the EVO 16 as a multi-channel preamp, router and rudimentary mixer without connecting it to a computer, which is ideal for location filming work. providing third parties with statistical information about our users (but those third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information); Now there is an argument that an automatic gain function isn’t a replacement for human ears but from what we’ve seen on the Evo, the Smart Gain feature is a massive advantage for anyone wanting to take advantage of the unit’s multiple inputs.The Motion User Interface (UI) feature is based around a bright central display which is very clear across a wide viewing angle. It homes in on specific aspects of the interface – channel input, for example – and displays key parameters which can then be altered with the single main dial on the front of EVO 16. This is a highlight, as clearly seeing what is going on makes you less reliant on having your computer close to hand. However, you will want to use the accompanying EVO Mixer software on your computer for more complex routing tasks.