RME introduces Babyface Pro

RME has unveiled its new Babyface Pro compact audio interface at this year’s Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound trade show in Frankfurt.

The unit features a redesigned XLR socket as the main I/O, integrated into the housing to save space. The two headphone outputs, offering TRS and mini-jack sockets in parallel, have separate driver stages to match low and high impedance headphones, promising sonic results no matter what type of headphone is used.

The user interface is designed to be informative and clearly laid out, aiming to make access to every feature and configuration mode of the Babyface Pro intuitive and easy to use. Even in stand-alone mode, routing and mixing of inputs to outputs directly on the device ‘opens a whole world of possible applications’.

Its two digitally controlled preamps provide individually switchable 48V phantom power and feature a gain range of 71 dB, adjustable in steps of 3 dB, plus a relay-driven PAD, designed for EIN (Equivalent Input Noise) performance as well as line overload protection with enough gain for the low level microphones. The unit also features super-low latency AD/DA converters combined with RME’s SteadyClock III technology.

Babyface Pro’s design ‘almost never requires an external power supply’, promising stability on USB 3 bus power and most USB 2 ports, with no degradation in any technical specification.

The feature set also includes an optical TOSLINK I/O for use as either an ADAT port with SMUX support or SPDIF for sessions up to 192 kHz. In combination with an external ADAT converter, the Babyface Pro supports 12 analogue inputs as well as 12 outputs, while MIDI I/O via an included breakout cable are also included.

Babyface Pro ships with RME’s TotalMix FX, available for Windows, Mac OS X and optionally iOS. The FPGA-based DSP mixer adds a 3-band parametric equaliser to inputs and outputs, while reverb and delay FX are also available. 

http://www.rme-audio.com