Audient EVO 8 USB Audio Interface

I purchased this Audient Evo 8 interface after doing a ton of research to replace my old Motu M8.This unit has some serious quality-of-life aspects worth considering. First, the build quality is excellent. The control knob is an excellent feature, allowing you to control several parameters beyond just master volume. It's very intuitive and it syncs with your DAW and OS seamlessly.Admittedly, the auto-gain feature was low on my priority list (if you know how to set gain it's a no-brainer). But it's absolutely worth considering, the ease and convenience of being able to hit one button and set levels for all channels on-the-fly is incredible! It's such a simple feature, but don't overlook it! It helps a ton to keep you focused on the creative process and less time sound designing when you're working on material.I'm a huge fan of the 1/4in guitar input on the front of the unit. It's powered by a JFET as a preamp, so gain staging is true-to-form with other high quality JFET amplifiers (think Orange amps, Quilter, etc) and in my opinion is a criminally overlooked feature. I didn't realize how much my DI tone was lacking until I plugged into the 1/4 guitar in jack and heard my guitar come to life with ease.Additionally, the headphone out's on the front of the unit are just as incredible as the 1/4in in! I'm not sure what Audient uses as a preamp, but this unit absolutely brings my high impedance headphones to life with crisp highs and articulate low-midrange.In comparison to other interfaces I've used in the past (Motu, Focusrite, M-Audio), the impression I got from Audient's entry-level Evo interface has impressed me so much that I plan on using strictly Audient interfaces from here on out. There's something about the quality of preamps that they used, coupled with the seamless integration with my various DAW's and across operating systems that makes me wish that I knew about Audient sooner. Can't recommend this product enough, for beginner and professional.

I was looking for the most compact and hopefully good sounding audio interface out there... This is it!Firstly, it's quite small! I actually like the minimal control surface. Bought a case designed for the Marshall Emberton speaker and stretched it a bit so it could fit the Evo 8 comfortably. It's not perfect but now I have a nice portable setup that I don't have to worry much about damaging.The Evo 8 sounds really great. For the price? I'm thoroughly impressed. The preamps are what I expected, low noise and very clean. Perhaps too clean? This is subjective of course. Compared to the preamps I use in my MR816x the preamps in the Evo 8 lack a bit of mojo. At home I'm recording with the MR816x instead of the Evo. I still haven't used the instrument input much so it's hard for me to describe other than that it sounds quite acceptable to me with my electric guitars going into amp sims. The instrument input didn't wow me or anything, it just works. The auto gain feature could prove useful to others but in my case I never use it.The Evo 8 line outputs and headphone outputs sound amazing! They really give my MR816x a run for it's money. In fact this Evo 8 has replaced my MR816x entirely for listening/mixing duties ITB. It sounds better, there's more detail, really I'm hearing stuff I wasn't hearing from my MR816x. Does that mean more accurate? I don't really know. But I do know I'm more excited to mix on the Evo 8 and my work doesn't end up sounding drastically different on other systems compared to working on the MR816x. Results are similar so I think it's great.There is one issue with the Evo 8 and I assume this will occur with the Evo 4 as well. The chassis doesn't appear to be shielded in a way that would prevent a cellphone signal from popping up in your audio. I've tested the Evo 8 using a power delivery passthrough USB C hub and my android phone. Phantom power was available for all mic inputs and using Audio Evolution Mobile Studio with their USB driver allowed me to record just fine at low latency. However as I already mentioned, there was cellphone interference bleeding into my recordings and outputs. I haven't tried to resolve this issue myself yet since I've primarily been using the Evo 8 with a desktop and a laptop. I would use a longer USB cable and make sure the cellphone and Evo are far enough away from each other that there's no interference. I have no interference from my cellphone being on me while I'm using the Evo with my desktop or laptop. So I dunno, maybe the Evo being connected to a cellphone at all is causing problems. If I find out more I'll update this review.All in all I can't believe Audient have packed so much into such a small audio interface. There's nothing out there like it when you account for it's portability. The zoom stuff is cool but the sound is lacking to my ears. This Evo 8 sounds incredible and I'm definitely checking out other Audient products in the future when I inevitably need to replace what I have in the future. I think the folks at Audient really know what they are doing.If I could say anything to Audient about the Evo 8 it would be... "Shield that thang!". Still, I'm giving the Evo 8 a full 5 stars.

I went from a Scarlett 2i2 to this to affordable get 2 more mic presPros:1. Software installed no problem, no issues on my pc2. 4 mic pres at a really good price3. Clean sound, no weird noise that I notice4. Smart gain is a nice featureCons:1. Volume knob on top is a little funny to me. Preferred it on front on the Scarlett2. Volume knob has a lot of “throw”. Gotta turn it a lot3. I don’t like the volume controls in general. You have to independently control the volume of each speaker, which is a little annoying and have to select the mic. I knew this when I bought it though.4. Light and fairly compact especially for having 4 mic pre portsUltimately, the cons are not actual cons that will be detrimental to my flow, but it’s just small nit picky things.Overall, this is an excellent interface at a great price.

What I like1. simple design with good software2. quiet preamps3. great price for 4 preamps4. usb output is multichannel5. works great with new iPad ProWhat I don't like1. cheap build quality2. some controls..such as monitor out...needs software to work.Overall, lots of feature for the price. At first I wasn't thrilled, b/c compared to my other interfaces, it's a bit too simplistic in both good and bad way...but it's great b/c I can set up a multi channel podcast using garage band on my iPad or MBP and have up to 4 mic inputs. It's very quiet and can drive the re20 mic without issues. I paid $169 for a 'like new' condition from Alto Music ..... it came still wrapped tight brand new...$169 for a 4 mic interface is excellent.

The EVO 8 has a great sound and is well built a little power house!!! PS I found an under desk mount from Germany loving it !!