Edirol UA-20 USB Audio User Reviews at zZounds

Edirol UA-20 USB Audio Customer Review submitted December 7, 2003

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Music Style: vocal-oriented industrial trip-hop.

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Sound: this box is not aimed at people who don't know what they're doing, as the above reviews seem to indicate. i personally had no problems with the UA-20. i plugged it in and installed the driver and with one system reset i was up and running. it seems to me that this box is aimed primarily at the softsynth user. I use Cubase SX, Reason, and AudioMulch for "real-time" soft synthesis. in AudioMulch using the UA-20's WDM specialized driver i can get my stable latency down to 3.2 ms. Reason reports a buffer of 144 samples or 4 ms. if you know what that means i assume you'd be impressed. i paid about $200 for mine, so for that measly sum i'm quite happy with the latency performance. the recording part of the box seems pretty good. because it supports WDM drivers, it has this weird live monitoring mode that you can use in any ASIO-compliant host application such as Cubase SX and AudioMulch. instead of 3ms latency you get something like .5 ms when monitoring a signal "through" the PC. it's pretty neat to be able to play a guitar or do vocals through the PC because you can use any VST or DX plug-in to process the signal, thus allowing you to explore a lot of different processing ideas. the only issues i have had with this box are: in Cubase SX when running about 80 VST insert plug-ins, i started having some issues and had to push up the buffer size a bit. i've got a fairly good system based around an Athlon XP 2400+ running at the stock 2 Ghz, with 1 GB of DDR 400 RAM. i should point out that increasing the buffer size doesn't change the "real-time" monitoring feature-it's still effectively in real time. the only gripe there is that to have your buffer settings take effect you have to close out all your audio applications and then re-open them. along those lines, i had occasional times when the audio just stopped working. that seems to be when the buffer just gets totally under-run, like when you patch in a particularly CPU-intensive effect. in Cubase SX, this sort of behavior is fixed simply by closing and re-opening Cubase. the other major issue with this box is when you use it to process an incoming signal and you put a lot of distortion or overdrive on the incoming signal. doing this reveals some noise that sounds like cross-talk from the host computer. of course, i'm talking about really intense distortion effects that magnify everything a whole lot. for those you really gotta put a gate on the signal. other than that, everything i've tried to do has been really nice. if you're a gigging softsynth user in search of really low latency, this box is a winner. Quality: the entire casing for this box is plastic, which i think puts some people off. i didn't mind it though. Value: find me a USB 2.0 box with the same low-latency WDM performance for cheaper and i'll buy that instead... hehe Manufacturer Support: this is the other thing that didn't impress me. there is one generation of drivers for this box, all at version 1.0 and all almost 2 years old. come on, Roland! gimme an updated driver! The Wow Factor: the blue status LED lights up constantly when your system is powered and the UA-20 is plugged in, which for me was cool.

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"Well Impressed" submitted January 27, 2004

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Sound: The 24bit is clear and using the Optical output makes it very good for sending your signals to Edirol's own Digital monitors (the first of many i suspect). Never had any suggestion of noise like some other review. Feature: No accessories Quality: Carryable and droppable Value: Really the most cost on the market effective for Midi and Audio in the same box. Manufacturer Support: They gave me a little support via e-mail and response came in two days from the UK The Wow Factor: Listening with Senn Headphones really really makes the sound sexy with topnotch VSTi's. They go far beyond the quality of original analog electronic equivalents. I even like the look of it because it matches the colur of laptop. Overall: I may get a Fire-wire or Pcmcia based card in the future but that is only because i am little suspicious that USB doesnot get the best out of a laptop. But the UA20 gets the best out of USB1 that's for sure.

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Edirol UA-20 USB Audio Customer Review submitted February 1, 2004

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

Sound: Having an output of 44.1KHz, the sound is "CD quality". I have it plugged into my hi-fi for playing mp3s and for listening to my Cubase output. Being able to plug headphones into it is very handy though so I don't wake the neighbours. It's pretty much noise-free, except when I apply a lot of Cubase distortion effect on a guitar input - then it seems to amplify some background noise which sounds like interference from the USB signal. Apart from that one instance, there's no discernable noise (to my amateur ears that is!) Feature: For what I want, it's perfect - the single pair of 1/4" inputs can be switched between line, mic and guitar signals. It doesn't have phantom power, so depending on the mic you are using, you may have to pipe it through a powered mixer first. Quality: Well it doesn't look like much and feels very light, but the knobs and connectors are all robust and don't feel like they going to break if I push them too hard. All in all, although in a plastic box, I'm very happy with the quality. Value: Excellent value, one of the few things I have bought and felt I got more than my money's worth. My laptop doesn't have line-in or line-out built in, so that was partly my reason for buying this thing. It's given me everything I need, and I've run 5 simultaneous copies of Absynth 2.0 in Cubase SX with only 25% CPU usage. Not bad for a laptop! (Laptop is a Tecra S1, Centrino 1.4MHz, 512MB RAM) Manufacturer Support: 5 here because I haven't had to contact them yet. That's good in terms of "quality" of course, and I'm happy that everything is working to expectations, but I can't comment on support (yet!) The Wow Factor: It's fine, silver/grey.. I wouldn't care if it was purple though, it works great. Actually purple would be an improvement over grey! Overall: Again for what I am and want it's perfect. I'm just starting out, so it's a good price for a beginner. No problems *at all*, and very good sound quality at the entry level - at 44.1KHz you don't want it for very high quality digital recording but it's perfect for those like me with a laptop who need line input to record their old vinyl albums onto CD! I'm running a Toshiba Tecra S1 laptop, Cubase SX 2, with an Edirol PCR-30 keyboard and I'm as happy as a pig in poo. Only one BIG tip - DON'T use a USB mouse, they're CPU-hogs! Any USB mouse movements max out the CPU, so change to a PS/2 mouse and you won't have any problems. This is one of the causes of pops and overloads in Cubase or any other CPU-intensive software. PS/2 mouse rules the day.

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"nice entry level box, but a little noisy" submitted August 22, 2004

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Sound: There's nothing wrong with the sound itself.. clear and accurate, but the noise floor is far too high. I hear interference of all kinds coming from it if i turn my amp up, interference which goes away when i mute the edirol's channel on my mixer. I find the same problem from the inputs, my VUs indicate about -50db background noise, far higher than the advertised -90something. Feature: the feature set is great, especially for the price. the headphone jack is underpowered, but that's to be expected. discounting that, the 2x2 audio with midi in such a small and cheap box is excellent Quality: feels durable, but there's something about plastic gear that makes me a little cautious.. Value: the features are well worth the money.. but the residual noise makes it an usuable piece of equipment in certain situations. Manufacturer Support: havn't had to contact them Overall: i liked it very much when i first got it, but, the more i notice the noise, the more i'm inclined to look for a replacement

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"Driver Nightmare - Avoid at all costs." submitted May 14, 2007

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Musical Background: Active Musician, have played for 30 years, been in bands since 1980

Music Style: Progressive Rock

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Sound: Sound wise, the unit seems fine. Good for basic use. Feature: It's okay. Not bad, not spectacular. Ease of Use: This gets a 2 because of my main issue with this piece of junk. The drivers are absolutely horrible. They don't install 90% of the time. I've tried installing this thing in four different PCs, and in all four of them I had isues with the unit just eventually "winking" out of existence. The driver suddenly gets corrupt and the unit won't work. Trying to reinstall the driver will only guarantee you membership in the nearest psychiatric ward. The drivers for this thing are total crap. It's not that I don't know how to install drivers for a USB device, I do IT for a living. Eventually, by what appears to be pure luck or chance, the drivers will "take"; but for the most part, you are stuck with errors like "The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software" even though I'm pointing it directly at the software directory with the proper .inf file. Usually I have to manually clean the system, weeding through not only the registry, but also C:\Windows\System32, C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\, and C:\Windows\inf\ directories to kill off the old RC files. There is absolutely no excuse for the nightmare driver install of this unit. Stay far, far, away from this thing if you value your time and sanity. Quality: Plastic. Not super cheap, but not extremely solid either. It probably won't stand much abuse, but sturdy enough to survive normal day to day use. Value: Not worth it for the driver instability issues. At any given moment, it could just wink out of existence on your PC. Hardly worth $150 for something that's completely unreliable in that sense. Manufacturer Support: Non-existent, basically. WHEN you have driver issues, (and you will !) you can be content in the knowledge that you're essentially on your own. They'll only ask you if you read the instructions and/or email them to you - even after you've already explained that you've followed all those steps and they don't work. Nice to know they don't listen. The Wow Factor: Pass this nightmare / headache by - there are far better units out there. Overall: I want to smash this piece of crap with a sledge hammer and then take that sledge hammer to the developers at Edirol who write the drivers. I've never, ever, had a USB device this unstable before. It boggles the mind.

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Edirol UA20 USB Audio/MIDI Interface 24/44.1kHz

User Ratings

Edirol UA-20 USB Audio Customer Review submitted December 7, 2003

"Well Impressed" submitted January 27, 2004

Edirol UA-20 USB Audio Customer Review submitted February 1, 2004

"nice entry level box, but a little noisy" submitted August 22, 2004

"Driver Nightmare - Avoid at all costs." submitted May 14, 2007