ESI Gigaport HD+ review

USB audio interface aimed at digital DJs

  • £115
  • $269
By Computer Music
published
The compact Gigaport HD+ is well suited to digital DJs looking to connect to a hardware mixer

MusicRadar Verdict

This is a tidy little package for anyone after plenty of outputs on a budget.

Pros

  • +

    Excellent sound quality. Packaged software. Compact.

Cons

  • -

    Not the only interface you'll ever need.

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The ESI Gigaport HD+ is a dinky eight-output USB audio interface that is going to be of greatest interest to digital DJs looking to hook their virtual decks up to a four-channel mixer, which explains why the outputs are all RCA connections.

"Crucially, it sounds great"

It can also be used to hook a surround system up to a computer, or to feed up to eight DAW outputs to a studio or PA mixer. The two additional 1/4" headphone outputs serve up just channels 1/2 and the full eight-channel mix respectively, and a row of incredibly bright blue LEDs indicates channel activity.

ASIO and GSIF-compatible (and class-compliant for consumer applications), the Gigaport HD+ operates at between 16-bit/44.1kHz and 24-bit/96kHz, depending on how many channels you use.

Crucially, it also sounds great and ESI has even included download codes for Image-Line's Deckadance LE DJ and Toontrack's EZdrummer Lite software.

Computer Music
Computer Music

Computer Music magazine is the world’s best selling publication dedicated solely to making great music with your Mac or PC computer. Each issue it brings its lucky readers the best in cutting-edge tutorials, need-to-know, expert software reviews and even all the tools you actually need to make great music today, courtesy of our legendary CM Plugin Suite.