Help me :^) Newbie researching ~$150 USB interfaces
Home > Home Recording Forum > Gear Gab > Help me :^) Newbie researching ~$150 USB interfaces
Posted on Feb 23, 2010 09:24 pm
Zane Gray
Member Since: Feb 23, 2010
Hi everyone,
I'm new to home recording. Will record primarily acoustic instruments to Cubase
lite or something like it. [Win XP]
Looking for a USB interface with two XLR inputs and a headphone jack etc.
Good mic preamps are an important factor.
Here are the items I've found.
Would love to hear your recommendations.
MAudio MobilePre USB ~$129
Presonus Audiobox USB 2x2 ~$149
Lexicon Omega $179 (Win XP driver problems?!)
Emu Tracker Pre USB 2.0 $150
Yamaha Audiogram 6 $149
MAudio Fast track Pro $199
------and maybe others I've missed?
thanks-much appreciated
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Feb 23, 2010 10:15 pm I use a line 6UX2. I like it a lot. I'd stay away from the Lexicon Omega. It seems like the highest number of interface problems people have come to this forum over have been over that Lexicon Omega.
I owned the MAudio Fast Track Pro. I wasn't very impressed at all. The drivers certainly aren't as fast as the Line 6 gear. Kind of a pain occasionally (i only had it for about a month). Idk. One cool thing about it was the XLR input an the 1/4" jack were the same jack. Kinda nifty lol. But thats about the extent of pro's i'd say over the line 6 gear.
Yamaha gear is almost always good, i've never really heard of someone having issues with any Yamaha gear
Feb 23, 2010 10:34 pm I have to agree with Fragile. Stay away from the Lexicon Omega.
I also would agree with him on the Line 6 UX2. I just sold mine because I upgraded to the UX8, but the Ux2 is a very solid unit. I recorded 2 pretty big projects with it, one was for my own band.
Another option if you have a 6 pin firewire input is the Presonus Inspire 1394. PreSonus hardware are pretty good, and they also have solid pres in them.
Feb 24, 2010 12:40 am Thanks Fragile and Rockwood610 for suggesting the UX2
I thought of the Line 6 stuff as being for electric
guitar, and didn't look closely at it. Bet that's a topic
at their product management meetings...
Was getting the sense the Lexicon had problems.
Thanks for confirming.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Feb 24, 2010 01:08 am Would you ever need more than just 2 mic inputs for anything? Like would you ever record a live performance, or a drum kit, or a jam session or anything?
I ask because now is the time to consider future expansion for your setup. I really think that a 4in/4out setup is a good starting point for a home studio. It's one of those things where you never think you'd use it but one day you're wishing that you had more inputs/outputs. Maybe it'll never happen to you but I'm just saying.
Honestly I think that in this price range, just about all of the USB units have pretty equal amounts of driver problems. I do see quite a few Lexicon issues, but same goes for the PreSonus, EMU, and M-Audio USB devices. The Lexicons probably appear to be the worst because they sell so many units. They probably don't have much worse of a ratio of users to problems as the rest. I don't have any numbers to back that up though.
I think that for preamp quality, the Presonus units take the cake. I've heard recordings done on their units and they do sound pretty good. Plus the Presonus line has several options depending on your needs and budget.
I got my interface before the USB and FireWire craze set in. So I have kind of a built-in skepticism about the USB interfaces after seeing how much trouble they cause their owners. My PCI interface has been rock-solid since day one and it has never been the source of any issues I've had with my recording rig. But I understand that PCI interfaces are being phased out and are being replaced by USB and FireWire devices.
If I had to upgrade now, I'd go FireWire personally. FireWire PCI cards are cheap and they open up your options considerably.
Just a thought. I don't wanna sway your decision if you've made up your mind, but its at least another avenue to pursue.
Good luck!
Feb 24, 2010 01:29 pm I understand where Tadpui is coming from. PCI cards are the 100% best way to go about it, but over all firewire and USB have come a long way over the recent years.
My first external interface was a PreSonus 1394 Inspire (firewire oc course) and I had some issues with it. The first computer I had didn't like it very much, I would get it installed and everything would be good to go, open my worstation and get ready to record something, and it would record for 3 seconds and then stop communicating altogether with the computer.
I only had this issue on a couple computers, but overall you got to figure that the drivers have to be compatible with a lot of things, and everyone's PC is setup differently and has different things... especialy the motherboards.
When i jumped to the Line 6 tone port and then the UX2, I used them all together on maybe 12 different machines; 3 being my own and 1 laptop. Never had an issue. And Line 6 is always sending out updates through their easy-to-monitor Monkey software. The USB units, especialy if you have a solid 2.0 USB card installed on your machine, are very stable and pretty solid. Never had an issue with any of my Line 6 units, and the UX8 I just got is no exception. I have only had 3 weeks, but have used it A LOT and still nothing has come up. I love it.
Now, as far as the inputs go, I agree with Tadpui 110%. When I bought the UX2, I was always wishing I had more inputs on it. So, depending on what all you plan on recording or doing with it, you may want to save up for a unit with a higher input number. They just dropped the UX8 to $500.00 from its original $700 I believe it was.
Line 6 drops prices a lot. And you can always find deals on these random music store sites like American Music Supply and Musician's Friend.
Hope we're helping ya here haha.
Feb 24, 2010 01:30 pm But we, at HRC, highly recommend www.zzounds.com
just sayin...
Nate Mc.Formally Hydrial69Member
Since: May 06, 2009
Feb 24, 2010 02:53 pm im a fan of tascam products, not sure how popular they are among others
May 20, 2010 03:26 pm I've got a killer Focusrite Saffire LE that I will sell for $100.
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
May 20, 2010 04:35 pm Just to chime in on the line6 stuff. Yes there is a ton of stuff for electrics/bass/vox as far as modeling goes but... you can bypass all that and just use the dry preamps just like any other 2channel interface.
