hi people, it's a newbie

i am deciding to get my first interface for recording my own stuff, i need to record vocal, guitar and midi........ however, i'm with a tight budget (within US$250)....

my system is a 1.25dp running OSX only, guess i will go for Cubase SX as my sequencer

after an extensive research of interface, i've got the following choices i guess......

Tascam US 122
Edirol UA 5
M-audio 24/96
Echo MIA

firstly, i'd like to sort out the compatability with OSX, any experienced user can state their opinion on their drivers ?

secondly, should i got for an USB or PCI ?
USB seems not really good at audioi, is PCI's better (portability is not a big deal for me)
but i've read quite a few tutorial saying that it's better to get an External soundcard in order to avoid the radiation within the MAC, any idea ?

as i've got a Behringer mixer, do i really need the interface with XLR input ? (US122)

i will monitor the audio with headphones, should i go for the USB interfaces output headphone plug ? (the PCIs haven't got it)

as i will do a lot of overdupping, should i go for the USB with zero-latency direct monitoring ? (not PCIs as well)

However, i've read quite a lot of user having bad experience with the USB interfaces
(both UA 5 and US 122),



Can anyone give me advice on choosing ? or any suggestion of other interface ?
any help would be greatly appreciated, cheers ~~~~

This post has been edited by k4444k: Thu 3 Jul 2003, 13:38

I tried the us 122 and the m-audio duo with good results in ableton live. usb is fine for recording and playback stereo - not much more. 24 bits/48 kHz is a realistic sample rate with this boxes (96 kHz works only oneway, in OR out). latency is like 5-6 ms. both interfaces work in osx. I think the duos preamps sound a bit better while the tascam is self powered, has instrument in and a midi interface. It's cheaper, too. I tried an edirol ua 5 before but couldn't make it work properly.

but why do you think you need an audio interface anyway? if your mac has an audio in you may not need such an interface. in my pb the internel card even manages shorter latencies than the usb interfaces.
it is 16 bit but I doubt you will hear it. I don't know for cubase, but live and reason work just fine with the internal card. you could use a preamp or your little mixer and a usb-midi interface or keyboard as input ressources. saves a lot of money. zero latency monitoring included (mixer to monitor)

This post has been edited by nosuch: Thu 3 Jul 2003, 15:57

I just got a US-122 the other day. It's only on loan to me, but already I'm inclined to like it. It's reassuringly chunky - I was expecting something slightly smaller from the pictures. It's about the size of a fat book (ie a biggish book, not an overweight book that could do with losing a few pounds) but not too heavy. Lots of ins'n'outs, but no digital as far as I can tell. Does have Midi, though. £180 is a fair price for it, I think. Good as a portable solution for field recording and certainly good enough for someone's first steps into computer recording.

I had a UA-5 for a while and I liked it. I had no problems, but now I have a MOTU 828, which I'm even happier with (although folk who describe it as portable are obviously carrying a bigger bag than I like to). FireWire is the ultimate, IMHO, but expensive. Go second-hand - I did and got a beauty.

I'll report back when I've had more of a poke at the US-122. The only thing I'd say is you get what you pay for, no questions, whatever interface you go for. Don't pay like £150 for something, then complain that its mic preamps aren't as good as your mate's Digi OO2 or whatever. Friendly warning!

hi, thx for your advice

nosuch, i guess getting a better interface is a 'must' for doing serouis work

rickenbacker, i do understand the budget problem, that's why i listed out those within my budget and ask for advice about them, i think i'm concern the problem of using in OSX and the stablity of the driver, i can guess the quality wouldn't be as good as those expensive one, i think as a beginner, i only need one of this price range, thx , i'd really like to have a chat with ppl here to help sorting out the problem, my icq is 5907 4332, any advice would be welcomed, thx !!

if your using the behringer mixer, direct monitoring and headphone output shouldn't be an issue. unless you're really sold on cubase check out the emagic 6/2 production kit, it's priced a bit lower than cubase sx + the interfaces you mentioned and from what i've read, should be more stable under os X than cubase.

my choice for an under $250.00 audio interface would be a used M Audio delta44. they sound pretty good and work well with every major piece of music software. if you only need stereo i/o they audiophile card would be even cheaper. you could add an edirol or m audio midi interface and still stay under budget.