Edirol UA-5 and 25 USB recording is no good??

[Darren Nemeth]

I am building my own PC for the first time and got recommendations from someone who is a computer engineer by profession.

I told him that one of my prime uses of the new PC was to make analog transfers to 24 bit via the Edirol UA-5 or 25 through the USB connection.

He was very adimate that recording audio through USB is the worse and most unreliable method. He assued me that it was.

I wanted to post his reasoning but fustraitingly found I accidently deleted that email.

I want to make flawless, no samples dropped, no glitches analog > 24 bit digital transfers to my PC.

Due to electro mechanical interference issues with the analog converters in internal A/D soundcards I wanted to use the Edirol UA 5 or 25.

Are there really problems with using USB for recording pro-quaity 24 bit??

Deadheads and jam band tapers have been swearing by Edirol 24 bit UA-5 / UA-25 > USB > PC for years.(?!?)

Is this person right or wrong?

Can someone explain to me the pros and cons of USB a/d recording?

I have unique stuff like Drive-In theater reel to reel ads and analog masters to transfer and want to get started by spring.

Thank you in advance.


D

[;ivlunsdystf]

Okay, as a merciful act to halt the descent of your respectable question towards the bottom of the megaboard page and into oblivion, I'll tell you what I know (and there are others reading this who know so much more - please chime in): USB is so-so; firewire is the standard. You can get away with using USB when you are taking in 1 or 2 tracks at a time (eg audience 2-track recording a jamband on a laptop) but when you have a lot of bits coming and going over multiple inputs, sends, etc. you can't do much using USB.

If you are just doing transfers of 2-track stuff into 24-bit or 16-bit digital files, you will probably do fine with USB. Even a consumer USB soundcard eg Soundblaster should work fine for you. If you are doing 69-track multitrack recording of Freddie Mercury-style vocal harmonies, you will soon become acutely aware of the need for firewire.

BTW, jammers are curiously tolerant of many things that get slammed regularly by people on this board, including Behringer processors/converters/etc., and the odd practice of converting 16 bit stuff up to 24 bit for editing before reconverting back down to 16 bit for listening and trading. But they are generally very nice people and I admire their reverence for the music they love!

Who can explain WHY firewire is so much better than USB for MTR? I am in over my head on that topic.

[Darren Nemeth]

Okay, as a merciful act to halt the descent of your respectable question towards the bottom of the megaboard page and into oblivion, I'll tell you what I know (and there are others reading this who know so much more - please chime in): USB is so-so; firewire is the standard. You can get away with using USB when you are taking in 1 or 2 tracks at a time (eg audience 2-track recording a jamband on a laptop) but when you have a lot of bits coming and going over multiple inputs, sends, etc. you can't do much using USB.
[snipped] .

Thank you for the reply.

My recordings will be 1 and 2 track.

Will check the Edriol specs to see if there is also Firewire outs.

[creature.of.habit]

Darren,

you should check out a thread on the computer forum just below, called recording solutions for laptop. I said a few things about this matter there, and so did other folks, and im sure you'll be able to get some help there.

with this said..my gf has a UA25, works good, sounds clear and transparent. for me it's a boring sound, but i think it's beyond acceptable really. Edirol makes good products, that's my opinion. But you might wanna check out the new Alesis IO/2 interface...it's a tad more advanced than the usb 2 ins boxes on the market at this point. newer technology, and balanced inserts (a must for me, i can bypass the internal pres that way). mine arrives next week.

on the firewire vs usb 1.1 - well it's really like it was said. if all you want to do is 2 tracks in, it'll deliver. frankly it's more than enough, and you're not pushing it. the lexicon omega box gets 4 tracks in at the same time using usb 1.1. and has no problems. the problem with usb having a bad rep with audio is simply cause lots of ppl dont have good enough computers (they dont spec out to the interface's needs) or the drivers might be imature. but other than that, it should be ok..go for a solid company and you should be ok on the driver dep. usb 1.1 is more than enough for 2 tracks in...but you have to have a good machine running it. a bad one will do it too, but a very bad one wont be able to deliver and ppl will start blaming it on the interface, wich is not really fair in my opinion.

firewire is fast (400 and 800 bpms)

usb 2 is faster than firewire (440 or something, but works in peaks and drops, so it's not as constant as firewire).

firewire all the way if you're doing more than 2/4 tracks in. if not, save your money for something more useful.

that's what i think..but still check out that thread ok?
and good luck.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Is Edirol meant to be "Lo-Ride" backwards?