[ddots-l] Re: Good news regarding inexpensive interfaces
- From: "Gordon Kent" <dbmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 21:54:43 -0500
Bryan:
Yeah I've had a ua25 kicking around for years and it still works fine. They
are very solid. Mine is the original so it doesn't have the compressor.
Gord
----- Original Message -----
From: Bryan Smart
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 8:22 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Good news regarding inexpensive interfaces
Among the gloom and doom of inaccessible interfaces, I've had a recent good
find for those on a budget.
Cakewalk UA-25EX
This is basically a Roland-built interface. Has been out for a while, but I
must have just missed it. I have an Edirol FA66, and it looks very similar, if
you've seen that one before. It is also quite similar in construction and
appearance to the older Firebox, though with higher quality controls.
The most important things about it are that it uses a USB interface, so is
widely compatible, has stable drivers in both ASIO and WDM mode, is fairly
inexpensive (well under $200), and is 100% accessible. There are lots of
physical controls, but, for everything else, the control panel software uses
standard Windows controls that should all read perfectly with any screen reader
(tested with Jaws, NVDA, and Narrator).
There are a few drawbacks. It is a simple 2 in, 2 out interface, but, for
people recording at home on a budget, that won't be a big deal. It can record
at 96Khz, but there are some limitations. You can work without limitations at
48Khz or 44Khz at up to 24-bit, though, which will be fine for most people.
Assuming that those aren't a deal breaker for you, this is what you get:
· Solid all-metal construction
· Two front-panel combo jacks (1/4" line level, ¼" High-Z instrument
input, or XLR mic with phantom power).
· Digital in/out (optical)
· Hardware monitoring of the inputs, controlled with a simple
front-panel knob.
· A simple limiter/compressor for the inputs, controlled with a mode
slide switch and an amount knob.
· A ground lift switch, to remove hum that might be picked up from
your laptop's power supply
· Operates in a simple driver mode (class compliant), or in an
advanced mode (ASIO direct monitoring and other features, but requires UA-25EX
drivers)
· Simple MIDI (in/out)
· Physical controls for adjusting the gain of the individual inputs,
selecting mono/stereo mode for the two inputs, selecting between analog or
digital inputs, adjusting the limiter/compressor mode and amount, adjusting the
direct monitor gain, ground lift on/off, selecting the sample rate, selecting
the driver mode, phantom power on/off, and others.
It has drivers for XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Mac, including 32 and 64-bit. In
Windows 7 64-bit, I got stable performance out of it with 4Ms latency. That
isn't bad for a USB interface. Sound quality is really good.
The limiter/compressor is a nice feature, also. Particularly for novice
users, it is a really nice safety to keep you from accidentally clipping if you
aren't an expert in setting good levels. In limiter mode, the input signal is
smoothed out to prevent clipping, and the front-panel knob adjusts the
threshold. There are two compression modes that, when on, cause the front-panel
threshold knob to apply gain reduction and makeup gain at the same time. A
fairly fast attack and slow release are preset, so this is intended to help
smooth out input levels, rather than for squishing dynamic range. Used lightly,
I could imagine this being a big help to a vocalist for getting a quicky track
recorded. Of course, you can switch this off.
The whole thing, preamps included, is USB bus-powered, and the case is
extremely rugged (you could toss it around, drop it, sit on it, and it wouldn't
break). Several places are selling it for around $170 right now. That's a
really good bargain, I think, given the construction quality, stability,
features, and out-of-the-box accessibility.
By the way, my recent accessibility testing of interface after interface has
been brought to you by Dancing Dots. If you think that you might like to get
one of these, please consider supporting this sort of testing by getting one
from DD. You can send an enquiry to admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, or call 610-783-6692
during normal business hours.
Bryan
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