Audient’s ‘smart’ EVO 16 audio interface features a full-colour screen that provides real-time feedback

With the EVO 16, it appears that Audient hasn’t so much added to its EVO audio interface range as completely redefined it. Whereas the EVO 4 and 8 are compact, portable devices, its big brother is a full-on 24-in/24-out studio device that promises some rather clever features.

“Building on the success of EVO 4 and EVO 8, we wanted to super-size the EVO concept,” says Audient marketing director, Andy Allen. “EVO 16 offers the intuitive user experience, professional sound and technical quality you’d expect from parent company Audient, with plenty more I/O than its smaller counterparts. And yet it still fits firmly into the ‘affordable’ audio interface category.”

EVO 16 is designed to sit on your desktop or in a rack, and is notable for the inclusion of a full-colour screen. This is contextual, so will display different information depending on what you’re doing. 

 

The screen helps to enable a one-knob control system, and means that settings can be made without you having to look at your computer monitor. Adjustments are displayed in real-time, with Audient claiming that the experience is comparable to using a ‘smart’ device in the sense that there’s no deep menu diving required.

 

EVO 16 comes with eight EVO preamps that offer 58dB of mic gain, while the converters give you 121dB dynamic range. You also get the EVO range’s Smartgain feature, which can be used to automatically set the gain for all eight channels simultaneously at the touch of a button.

Expansion potential, meanwhile, is aided by the inclusion of optical I/O - you can add up to 16 extra channels of mic preamps via ADAT and SPDIF.

The EVO 16 is also compatible with the EVO Mixer software, which provides further options for setting up and routing inputs and outputs and low-latency monitoring.

EVO 16 is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2022 priced at $499/￡400/