Arturia Audio Interface AudioFuse Coming Soon

Arturia just spilt the beans. Welcome AudioFuse, their first audio interface. Here’s what we know so far:

• 2 DiscretePRO® microphone preamps take the best of yesterday’s vintage mixing consoles and today’s technology to provide a unique, totally discrete circuit that goes beyond the limitations of integrated circuits.
• AudioFuse’s 24-bit AD/DA (Analogue-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analogue) converters are of the latest generation, delivering audio with startling transparency (at up to 192kHz sampling rate). In conjunction with Arturia’s advanced clocking system they guarantee extremely accurate timing.
• AudioFuse also acts as a three-port USB/MIDI hub as well as offering a TALKBACK feature (to give directions to talent in another room using the built-in microphone) and INSERT connections (to add external line level devices, such as compressors or other effects processing, into the signal flow before the digital conversion stage). Enjoy zero-latency DIRECT monitoring of recorded signals then blend them into the COMPUTER mix courtesy of another clearly-labelled knob”.

Arturia emphasizes the advanced and easy control options that AudioFuse offers. It looks like everything is directly accessible and controllable, and not buried in submenus and such things.
Connections? Well, I can’t think of a compact audio interface that can boast a similar range of options: AudioFuse works with mics, instruments, turntables (yep!), studio equipment, Mac, PC, tablets, iOS and Android phones. With a round-trip latency as low as 3 milliseconds. The picture below is better than 1000 words.

The unit can be powered by a laptop or an iPad, and according to Arturia, most features will be available even with only the USB power supplied by a computer (by the way, using AudioFuse with the upcoming USB 3.1-based computers – like the rumored new 12-inch MacBook Air – will likely be an even better match, given the improved power delivery specs of this new USB standard).

We’re looking forward to giving the AudioFuse a spin. The price puts it, as guessed, in the Babyface/Duet territory. An interesting spring for audio interfaces, indeed…

Availability: Spring 2015
Price: €549.00 EUR/$599.00 USD

Old text below:

At ANR we usually don’t publish rumors or teasers, but this press release and the related video from Arturia definitely caught our attention, and we thought… what the heck, we really enjoyed their latest adventure into the analog world (see our Microbrute review) so why not giving them some credit?
So the thing is, Arturia has just announced (drum roll, please) that they are gonna enter the already crowded and highly competitive audio interfaces market, with a product that is supposed to “bring something new” and overcome some the problems or limitations current products have – “…take the mind-boggling number of audio formats out there. Think microphone, line, phono, and instrument inputs, each with different levels requiring different impedance. How about effortlessly connecting to Mac and PC computers, an Apple iPad or an Android device? Then there are all the digital audio formats (ADAT, S/PDIF, et al) as well as word clock to cater for those wishing to synchronise with the professional audio world. USB and MIDI might be useful, too! You get the picture.”
Well, talking of pictures, so far we can only show you the one above. Not particularly revealing, we’re afraid.
Judging from the slides used in the presentation you can see below though, it seems the device will enter the < 500 Euro market segment, that has the Apogee One & Duet and the RME Babyface among the top competitors.
Well, Arturia should spill the beans just in time for Xmas, while the device will probably be shown at NAMM 2015. We’ll keep an eye (and two ears) on this….