By: Erik Vlietinck
Tue, August 02, 2005 - 8:28:00
Pros: 0

Score: ">

The Miglia HarmonyAudio is a FireWire audio interface especially suited for Mac OS X, although it can be used with Windows PCs as well. The HarmonyAudio is Miglia’s first adventure with audio, and it’s a serious amateur’s bull’s eye right from the start.

The HarmonyAudio comes in a nice-looking brushed aluminium casing. It fits a G5 perfectly, although the finish of the metal is different. The HarmonyAudio has two analogue inputs on quarter-inch jacks and eight outputs on mini-jacks. Inside is a very British product: the Oxford 970 FireWire controller chip. If you know your HiFi but even a little, this fact alone makes you expect better-than-average sound quality.

The two inputs are equipped with rotary Gain knobs, a Hi/Lo switch and a SoftClip switch. It’s the latter that makes the HarmonyAudio stand out from the crowd. SoftClip prevents loud sounds from pushing the signal into the red, but (as the name implies) without abruptly breaking off the sound. The result is astonishingly good.

I tested this feature with Logic Pro and a Sony microphone, and it worked like a charm. SoftClip also enables you to fine-tune the incoming signal better than with the Gain knobs on their own --and without the need for a degree in audio engineering.

What else is there? The HarmonyAudio gets its power from the FireWire port, so you don’t have to carry a power adapter with you, if your computer’s FireWire port can provide the necessary power that is. On a G5, it’s not a problem at all. On Powerbooks I’m not that sure. At the back of the unit there’s an extra mini-jack stereo input with two Trim knobs, one for each channel. 

HarmonyAudio sits between GarageBand, Logic Express or Pro, and your instrument or microphone. From a professional point of view, the system is limited in its abilities. However, Miglia doesn’t aim the HarmonyAudio to professional users.

Professionals will lack XLR and even balanced connectors, they will need phantom power for professional microphones and they will probably find the mini-jacks unsatisfying. However, a serious amateur (or even a semi-pro, if you ask me) or “podcaster” won’t mind at all.

For example, the Sony microphone that I used for my tests is a F-99EX stereo microphone which has a signal that’s too weak to use with any Power Mac’s built-in audio-in mini-jack. However, this microphone worked great with the HarmonyAudio.

The mini-jack input with Trim knobs can be used to record audio from a cassetterecorder, or probably even a pick-up (couldn’t test that, though). The Trim knobs will allow you to correct for a bad stereo image.

Conclusion

The HarmonyAudio may not be professional audio gear, but it certainly has some great features that make it stand out from the crowd. The SoftClip feature will please every semi-professional recording engineer as it allows you to record signals that would otherwise be distorted.

The HarmonyAudio looks good, it has a fair price, and it can be put to good use, ranging from sound recording to podcast recording.