Is the Edirol UA-101 any good?

July 19, 2005 12:40 PM

Has anyone used a Roland / Edirol UA-101 recording interface on WinXP? Other USB2 DAW interfaces?

I am shopping for a USB2 interface, 8 or 10 input unit with a couple of XLR ins going to mic pre's (the other ins can be line-level 1/4 inch, balanced or un), spidf and maybe optical. My key concerns are A/D converter quality, consistent latency and stable WinXP drivers.

I am currently using a Tascam US-428 (USB1.1) which is noisy and has crapulent drivers. I desperately miss my M-Audio Delta 1010 which had amazingly clean A/D, solid dirvers, a great software mixer, and latency that never changed by more than 0.1ms (about five 44.1k samples). Alas, I am now on a laptop. The UA-101 has caught my eye but I can't spend so much without solid recommendations.

posted by damehex to computers & internet (3 answers total)

I've used an Edirol UA-20 with WinXP, and it was pure shit. Plasticky, appalling recording quality, low output volume, pain in the arse to install and uninstall and not even cheap. I know that this is a much more basic unit that what you're after, and maybe their other products are better, but I'm steering clear of Edirol from now on. Interestingly, I now have a Tascam, and I think it's great.
posted by nylon at 1:18 PM on July 19, 2005

Your laptop doesn't have Firewire? I've always heard Firewire has faster throughput for multi-channel audio, so seems a better choice if you've got the capability. I can't even think of any other USB boxes that support that many channels - you have many more 8-input options w/ Firewire.

That Edirol model is also new on the market, so you might want to wait a little while for some reviews to start popping up which should address drivers/latency issues (or see if you can play w/ one at a Guitar Center type place).
posted by p3t3 at 1:25 PM on July 19, 2005

Absolutely -- if latency is a concern, go with firewire. These days there is almost no reason not to. For what you pay for the Edirol, you are almost (like $200 more) to a MOTU 828MkII, which is an awesome-sounding interface with all the features you want and more suitable for multi-track work.
posted by realcountrymusic at 5:35 PM on July 19, 2005