Great Interface with onboard USB hub and 5 pin MIDI DIN I/O

Akai EIE Pro is a great all aound companion for using a DAW and few or no external instruments, as it only has four mono in/out audio cnnections. It does, however have a four port USB hub and 5 pin MIDI DIN sockets. Some users run into issues after certain Windows updates with the EIE mysteriously halting any use and seeming dead. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. If this happens to you, REINSTALL the EIE Pro rivers from the original CD that came with the interface.Uninstall the EIE Pro driver that is not working first, then reinstall the original driver from CD. Many forums for this product are stumped and people pull their hair out over this- so hopefully Windows will fix this problem, if they have not by the time you read this. Send me a message or email if you do not have your install CD and I will send you a link to download an exact image of the install CD (you can no longer download the original drivers from AKAI, only updated ones) and you can either burn your own CD or extract the files from the download image to your hard drive and proceed. I have helped countless people ready to throw their EIE Pro against the wall with this issue and it works. Oh- yeah, the EIE Pro looks really cool with its lit up needle motion VU meters behind glass, chrome exterior and overall classic / classy look. And it sounds exactly as it should: perfect.

Was great at first and the USB hub is super convenient but the preamps are mediocre and various functions have stopped working or worked inconsistently over time

Like the summary says, I loved this interface at first but the longer I owned it the less I liked it. The first thing I noticed I didn't like was that the latency wasn't very good. Especially so when you have a lot of devices plugged into the USB hub since it's only USB 1.0. This would probably be remedied if they had released it with USB 3.0 but even 2.0 would be a big step up. Different functions of my interface started acting wonky or inconsistent after owning it for a long while before completely ceasing to work at all. Some examples of this would be various input channels failing on either of the inputs available with the combo jack. This means that on one channel it would be the quarter inch input that quit working and on another it would be the XLR input instead.

Good for Begginers but better ones out there

Id say this is an overall good product and would suggest it strictly to beginners or those on a budget if at all. I could only imagine there are better products out there for roughly the same price.

I must say. I love the USB hub in the back of this thing. Its so handy!!

Quite ok for a beginner

I like the oldschool look of this interface, besides that I had a lot of issues without knowing exactly from where these came from, maybe because of the ASIO Drivers but I don't have a clue. It is still very practical when it works, I won't recommand using the USB HUB that will cause lots of crackling then some growing numerical distortion then you'll have to press the power off button! (I tried to plug a M-Audio usb midi keyboard)

Great device, with bad support

I had some problems with drivers for Mac OSX Yosemite, and it took Akai about 9 months to roll out the proper drivers. Other then that it is a great device and is built like a tank.

Sounds good.

I'm not really picky when it comes to sound cards, because I don't use much outboard gear, but it sounds nice I guess. I've been having trouble using headphones though, especially when using 3.5mm to 1/4" adapters. I've only been able to get the headphone jack working with a small guitar amp connected using a 1/4" cable.

Broken once already...

Its well built but I often have issues with latency and audio dropouts.

shit.

I would not recommend this interface as it brings loads of latency.

AKAI EIE pro

AKAI EIE pro I only use this for midi because the Apogee Ensemble don't have midi in or out

Rad

The spine of my studio.