EVO 16 by Audient: 24x24 audio interface for EUR 469

23 May 2022 by Lyubomir Dobrev |

5,0 / 5,0 | Approximate reading time: 3 Minutes

· Source: EVO

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EVO 16 is British manufacturer Audient’s creator-oriented gear brand’s newest announcement – a 24 in / 24 out Audio Interface with 8 preamps, modern converters, and the bespoke Smartgain feature operating across all 8 mic channels simultaneously. If you still want recording easy, but also big, the EVO 16 is an interface for that.

EVO 16 audio interface

EVO wanted to come up with a super-sized incarnation of its easy-to-use recording gear concept. Up till now, it was exemplified by the simple and portable, but also capable EVO 4 and EVO 8 audio interfaces. The EVO 16 doubles the latter, but the size increase is manageable. The unit fits both desktops and racks (rack ears sold separately) and its chassis is made of solid steel chassis with non-slip rubber feet. That’s just respectable.

The EVO 16 also breaks out the hi-res, full color screen which I still associate with pricier units. It seems decent screens are finally starting to trickle down more affordable models. The screen is being put to use by EVO’s all-new Motion UI control system. It uses to intelligently display information about your session ‘as and when you need it’. Apparently, the experience is comparable to using a Smart device. You know, the sort that kind of knows what you’re going for most of the time and tries to deliver that on tap, with little menu diving required.

: Front & rear view · Source: EVO

: Side view · Source: EVO

Like its smaller brethren, EVO 16 has the Smartgain feature which automatically gets preamp/line gain in the right ballpark with the touch of a button. This can happen across all 8 channels at once, which could make life easier for drummers, advanced streamers, synth players, and other users gobbling up line inputs. The EVO preamps offer 58dB of gain, which is non too shabby – you might need an external inline booster to help some dynamic mics. The converters top out at a decent 121dB dynamic range.

The presence of ADAT and SPDIF is also a nice touch. It means the EVO 16 has some room to grow. You can add up to 16 extra channels of mic preamps or other compatible gear. On the side of software, there’s the EVO Mixer which works under MacOS and Windows to help setting up and routing inputs & outputs.

With rack ears (brackets)

With Audient parenting EVO, there’s plenty of that brains and technology going the EVO 16. However, it stays affordably priced and novice-friendly. An uncomplicated interface with lots of room to plug stuff into that’s non-expensive is definitely something I can get behind. Is there anything in the unit itself stopping one from making the next chart-topper? I seriously doubt it.