The Metric Halo ULN-8 3D is Steve DeMott's Hardware Product Of 2020, he explains why.

2020 was a year of change. One positive change for me was an overdue upgrade to my home/remote system.The upgrade was a direct result of growth, and the realization that I had outgrown my system as it was. I upgraded my computer, my monitors & my interface. I also added a handful of software upgrades to better handle the incoming work.

There is the one piece of hardware and one piece software that came into my life in 2020 that I feel made the biggest impact on my workflow - The Metric Halo ULN-8 3d

It will come as no surprise to anyone that has listened to me that I am a huge fan of Metric Halo hardware. I was an early adopter of their hardware back when they first came out with the Mobile I/O 2882 in the early 2000s. This year I was fortunate enough to be doing a lot of location recording, and I needed to expand my track count. I added 2 Metric Halo ULN-8 3ds to my rig, and they became my main interfaces, with the 2882 still being very serviceable for channels 17-24, when needed.

MIOConsole 3d

The ULN-8 is a simply stunning piece of gear. And the MIOConsole3d software is extremely flexible and infinitely useful, allowing routing from anywhere to anywhere. It even has Metric Halo’s +DSP Graph, which allows me to build my own processing blocks to create any type of processing I could ever need. It also includes a plethora of hosted plugins that run on the internal processor of the interface, including a hosted version of their Channel Strip 3. Couple that with 80-bit internal processing and pristinely quiet, yet musical,  preamps that deliver 91.5dB of gain, and I’m hard pressed to find any flaws in the design.

One of the biggest selling points of Metric Halo hardware for me has always been the upgradability of their interfaces. My original 2882 has been upgraded twice over the years to give it new life. Both upgrades were field install kits that replaced the digital daughterboard. I originally upgraded to 2d in around 2008, and then last year I upgraded the 2882 to the new 3d platform (now in public beta).

The Metric Halo philosophy of “future proof” is a rarity, and something I very much admire. Of course, that means nothing if the unit doesn’t sound good. And good would be an understatement.