Echo Mia Or Edirol Ua-5? Options

[iDevGames.com]

Hi, I have a G4 (400MHz) and a Mackie mixer. I plan to run some sequencer and send MIDI out to a keyboard, sampler and sound module. They are all contected to my Mackie mixer which I want to connect to my Mac. I have looked at almost every option, and heard the pros and cons. If I had the budget, perhaps the MOTU 828 would be on my get list. But I have to spend less.

I don't mind recording only 2 channels at a time. So 2 channel in is fine. But I want them to be balanced inputs. I plan to burn CDRs of my music as well as record to an MD, so optical output would also be good.

From what I have seen, Edirol UA-5 meets my goals. For cards, the Echo MIA looks fine but uses a coaxial digital out. So I will need some small adapter there (around $30 or so?) The Echo has balanced inputs.

Like with many products now, both have beta Mac OS X drivers. I feel that latency would be low on the MIA card, and sound would be good. But I feel that audio cards have a hidden danger as new OS updates can often break their drivers. On the other hand, my guess is with USB based products, as long as the maker follows Apple's guidelines, not too much bad vodoo can happen, so the UA-5 gets nods there.

I looked at other USB devices and nothing catches my fancy. Ditto for audio cards.

Last point, I will of course need a MIDI interface (2/2) so I was thinking of getting the Logic model. I think that since Apple owns Logic, their approach to Mac OS X will be a tad better than other companies. And from what I heard, using a sequencer and MIDI interface from the same maker cuts down on headaches.

So, any reason NOT to get either the UA5 or Echo MIA? Price on MIA is lower, though ti doesn't have as much as fancy I/O.

Any advice welcomed.

Cheers

[ptilou]

Hi...

Any advice welcomed....

I bought an Edirol UA 5 two months ago.
I bought it because I was afraid to open again my G4/400 to install a card. And i thought that a good card was more expensive than the USB UA5. And i thought that the usb connexion would be more simple than the card.

I spent several afternoons to settle down the Edirol (driver Asio 1 or 2 / usb / OS 9,04 or 9,1 or 9,2 / Cubase parameters ) But i'm not pretty good on that matter... And the support service answer my E mail question within a satisfactory delay. In fact i spent a lot of time to understand that the audio out came back inside the edirol box... as the audio in...

Today it works
I didn't test all the possibilities of the box (frequencies / sample rate et so on) But it works (voice and guitar). NO dreadful latency detectable.
And sound seems to me ok. But i haven't lot of comparison.
It seems to be a good solution for me. But i'm not professional.

It's an opinion not an advice



cubase 5,1 / G4/400 with 386 Mo / oms 238 / os 9,0,4 / midisport 2x2 midiman /

[iDevGames.com]

Thanks for your post.

I have found that ALL of my emails sent to Edirol support have been promptly answered, which is good to know.

They said their Mac OS X driver is working and the next release the latency will be improved.

i'm not afraid of opening my machine... for me it is just the fear that PCI cards can so easily go down with a slight change in OS.

[rickenbacker]

I had a UA-5 for a few months and had no problems with it. In fact, I'd still have it if Edirol hadn't then released the UA-700, which I swapped the UA-5 for. It's exactly the same as the UA-5 in terms of ins and outs and sound quality, but it has the mic / guitar modelling sections and FX, all of which are pretty cool.

[iDevGames.com]

The UA-700 looks nice. I think I have settled on the UA-5 along with their UM-2 Midi device. It talks about FPT (Fast Processing Technology of MIDI transmission) and that sounds interesting. My email exchanges with Edirol have been really good.

Cheers

[Levon River]

I had a UA-5 for a few months and had no problems with it. In fact, I'd still have it if Edirol hadn't then released the UA-700, which I swapped the UA-5 for.

Just out of curiosity, how do you swap a UA-5 for a UA-700? I mean in a way that doesn't involve a firearm.

[rickenbacker]

No firearms, just a pleasant telephone manner.

I had a UA-5 on loan from Edirol for evaluation purposes, then got sent a UA-700 for the same reason. I've now decided (as no permanent freebies were forthcoming!) to actually buy the 700.

It was either that or they wanted it back (how unreasonable!) and then I'd have nothing to record on, so I had to bite the bullet and pony up the asking price. Never a favourite pastime of mine.

Love the 700, though.

[littlewonder]

Hi everybody,

For those who have a Edirol UA-5,

Does it have a pre-amp?
I mean : is it possible to plug a micro (to sing) or a guitar jack directly in the UA-5, or do we need another (pre-)amp ...

I mix all up when they talk about "48v phantom power for microphones" on the edirol website <here> They do not talk about pre-amp. Is it the same thing?

In a <Sound on sound article>, they talk about "Edirol's UA5 is a stereo USB interface offering mic preamps with phantom power" ...

So, can you please help me to understand all this?

Thanks in advance,
Thomas.

[rickenbacker]

Yes, you can plug a guitar or a mic directly into the UA-5 and record. You don't need anything else.