Hey, I think you are wrong about that. This is from the product description:
18-in/2-out USB 2.0 Audio Interface:
"The M16DX’s USB 2.0 port allows it to work as a multitrack audio interface with a digital audio workstation. You can assign any or all of the M16DX’s individual mono or stereo channels, and the main stereo mix, to their own recording tracks in your DAW. Imagine recording an entire band at once, with each instrument and vocal on its own track."
Also, I contacted Edirol and they said:
1) M16DX control surface works with LE8
2) M16DX is compatible with Leopard
3) Roland's tests show that speed and scope of data transfer with the unit do not vary greatly with their other firewire devices.
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What I'm still confused about is the 2 outs. It seems that two audio tracks can be routed back into the mixer from the computer to be mixed on the unit itself and then recorded back into the DAW. I'm not 100% sure how this works. At first I thought the 2 outs was referring to the analog outs (Alt outs), but I'm pretty sure that's not what they are talking about.
Anyway I'm going to go to the store here and talk to the staff about the unit.
For anyone else searching I just want to clear up this matter. I bought the M16DX and it does have up to 18 tracks simultaneous recording. For my own needs I will never approach this amount, but from my experiments thus far the interface works and sounds GREAT! No problems integrating with Logic at all. Basically plug and play. This is a great audio interface for people like myself who work mostly with synths, samplers, drum machines, etc. Probably not a great choice for someone looking to mic a drum kit because of the lack of preamps on many of the channels.
The only things that can be seen as a negative from my standpoint is:
1) As the specs say, you only get 1 stereo playback track from your DAW, which means you can't route individual tracks from your computer through outboard gear for processing and record back in to the DAW. Not a big deal for me because I do my mix down in Logic.
2) Not all of the line ins have gain control. Not a problem for most of my equipment, but the signal is weak on the unbalanced outs on my MPC1K. I solved the problem by using the digital in on the M16DX for the main out and I route the AUX outs from the MPC to the ins with adjustable gain control. Problem solved.
Other than that, it sounds amazing for the price, and I'm very impressed with Edirol's customer support here in Japan. I emailed them with a number of questions and they got back to me really quickly.
I got a b-stock model and got it at a $200 discount. Awesome deal. Very happy with the unit!
