Very clear sound. Noise at full gain when recording from a microphone, but back the gain down a little, and it has no noise.

The built in pre-amps work only with a condensor mic. I bought a stereo pre-amp from radio shack for 25.00 (that was actually listed as for speakers) use it between my Sony ECM 909A stereo mic., and the results are very clear, very high-quality.

Well made. Aluminum cover. Seems very sturdy.

I haven't used any other audio interface, but my online shopping seems to indicate that UA 25 is a very good value.

I called support because my microphone did not record loud enough and I wanted to be sure the built-in pre-amps were not usable with this microphone (They arent't). The technician I talked to was very helpful, patient, knowledgable. He looked up relevant information and told me the pre-amp I had, from radio shack was compatible and gave me other information I needed.

Looks good. Looks sturdy. It's aluminum case is attractive and sturdy.

Songwriter

Hard to classify.

Pros: - Mic pres are fairly quiet - Very nice soft limiting of analog inputs - Headphone output is quiet Cons: - Line inputs a bit hissy when gain is applied

Pros: - USB interface - USB powered, even phantom mic voltage Cons: - USB interface is 1.1 only, which limits 24/96 operation to in or out, not both - Use of the optical SPDIF input creates a loop, so you can only use in or out, not both - Analog outputs are variable, not straight line level - Headphone level is tied directly to analog output level - Direct monitoring feed is only a volume, not a mix control - No coaxial SPDIF or AES/EBU I/O

Rugged case, controls and I/O nicely laid out

If I were designing this box the coaxial connections on the back would be SPDIF I/O; using the SPDIF input wouldn't create a loop; the analog outs would be line level only; the output volume on the front would control the headphones only; the direct monitor control would be a mix control between direct in and out; and the USB interface would be 2.0 or Firewire. Two headphone outs with separate volumes would be a real plus. Stand-alone conversion between analog <=> SPDIF would be really nice as well. For that I'd pay $50-$100 more and the box would be a true Swiss army knife.

No email tech support that I could find. Kind of pathetic in this day and age. Drivers version remains at 1.0.0 (which is good or bad depending on how you look at it).

As it is, this box is great for remote recording i.e. with a lap-top, and the soft limiting can't be beat. But it sucks for mixdown due to the SPDIF loop, the combined headphone / line output level control, and the poorly designed direct monitor.

Hobbyist

Folk, Classical, Electronica

For the pricepoint, I'd say this one sounds more than decent. I do a lot of vocal recordings with my Mac laptop (dual boot MAC OSX and Win XP) and it has never disappointed me. The limiter can really handle those loud peaks but I'd rather turn the gain knob a bit to avoid clipping altogether. It has a pretty good noise filter which I'd say is one of its key features.

MIDI, phantom power, 2 XLRs for stereo recordings...everything I need in a small box! And since it comes with SONAR LE, this is a real bargain for the mobile musician. Using Sony Vegas...I was able to use almost 40 plus tracks without a hitch! Imagine that for such a small device. Wow, I'm beginning to sound like an advertisement...

You gotta reset Windows after installing the drivers. Sometimes though, it doesn't power the unit right away. Resetting fixes it. Works great with Sony Vegas and Sound Forge. Just choose the appropriate audio driver in the sound menu and you're good to go.

It seems pretty sturdy. I stepped on it once (it was inside the bag). It looked pretty much the same (and functions the same!) when I took it out. I used to have a mixer with the same casing...rust started to form when it got wet so I'm making sure that this baby is humidified properly.

Never needed it...well, so far.

This is a well-made, well-thought of product. Compact and just the right weight. It's my best audio purchase for the year.

Producer

Pop, Classical

Exceptionally clean and transparent mic pre-amps... the soft knee limiting works well for spoken word. I use it primarily with a Rode NT-2a (I think that is the correct model number..) anyway a Rode large diaphram multi pattern, bass roll-off etc. The interface is easy and records cleanly into my laptop

compression circuit, phantom power, recognized by computer, haven't used the midi. overall very good... low latency... even the headphone out powers my hungry old AKG240's

no problems... just check that your USB Universal controllers are supported... the website and your device manager in Windows will tell you quickly.

Excellent fit... knobs feel good... some sharp edges

It's all about the clean sound... can't beat it without spending a lot more.

Web support beyond drivers looks to be non-existant. Haven't had to call

Pro voice over - side projects

voice work

This is more than adaquate for live performance. I needed a a new device since new laptops have gone away from PCMCIA and this seemed to be the most cost-effective.

More I/O than I ever plan to use. Simple interface, Vista drivers available.

Plug'n Play. I installed the drivers, plugged it into the laptop and was ready to perform. Used it the same day on the job. Much easier than my pcmcia card when I need to change volume.

Solid. My stuff takes a beating. This will hold up.

Latencies in Sonar are nothing like they claim. I have to set them considerably higher than my pcmcia card to avoid freeze-up and audio dropout. I am hoping my new laptop (a little more horsepower) will improve this.

Not turned on.

Working musician

Jazz, R 'n B, standards

I'm only giving this an 8 because my computer is partially responsible for the drop-out I get from running the edirol with a mic and a guitar plugged in. The sound is crystal clear on the best computer days. the sound of the edirol by itself is a bit sparse, but also, this could be my speakers. I noticed a big difference playing back through the edirol versus playing back through my audigy soundcard. I haven't used it live, but it is quite durable and I imagine it could withstand a lot of abuse before it gave up the ghost.

It is so darn easy to use. Just install the driver with the cd, use the manual and hook up your instruments already. I use sonar cakewalk xp which I think is a little too powerful for my computer, thus the dropout and fast skipping recording I get at times, but overall, in the beginning, this was the easiest when I had the simplest cakewalk program for getting me on my feet recording my voice and guitar through my computer without any latency or feedback. It isn't bothered by other electrical things around it either, which is great. I keep it right on top of my computer box and haven't had a problem in the two years I've owned it.

This product is made very well. It is much better from what I can tell than the similar interfaces protools has been offering. It is great for the pc and great for getting you set up through your computer instead of an eight track, tape deck or whatever else you've been using up until you just forked over the $229 for the edirol. I see the price hasn't gone down in two years. I think this is because it is a very high-quality product for your money.

Yes. Definitely worth the price. Definitely rivals other software out there. I think the mbox is just not as good is this, the only thing that makes it so pricey is that it comes bundled with protools whereas with the edirol you're just buying the audio interface, which is fine if you have your own computer, software and instruments you just want to be able to record without using your soundcard.

Very practical. Very sheek. Sexy.

Active Musician

mine

The sound is exactly like I play it on the guitar. My style is unique in itself and this gets it all on the computer.

It does not come with any software but Cubase SE works great with it.

It would take a lot of abuse to break this thing.. the aluminum chasis is indistructable in my eyes.

Yes

Have not had to deal with the company.. no need so far.

Works for me

Active Musician/Hobbyist

All but Rap and Jazz

For some reason while recording, I experience popping. I use Mac OS X and have used from Garageband v2 to Logic Pro, both experience the popping but then diconnecting the USB stops the popping.

Good enough, especially for the price.

Well built and compact. The USB connector at the back though may seem a little flimsy, but still I'm always picky.

For under $250, it's the way to go.

Haven't had the neccesity to call for any type of help. The driver though is still at version 1.0, which either shows Edirols reliabilty or laziness.

Not the best looking product.

Recording Engineer/Mixer

Acoustic/folklore

Great quality for recording anything to electronic drums, guitar through the HiZ line, excellent preamps for the mics line in, decent limiter included

for that price??? couldnt find anything better!

The manual is crystal clear and installing the asio drivers is dead easy. Adjusting buffer size, switching to direct monitoring...no problems!

nothing amazing..but definitely solid looking and all the ins/outs are of good quality and made to last

Simply put..this is the best value for money device i could find!

no need for support so i cant really judge here. A new version of Asio drivers would be a nice christmas gift!

maybe not that sexy looking but it s soooo easy to use that it is in a way a small wonder!

Active musicien

rock

For a low cost device, this sounds okay... not near the quality of my MOTU 896.

I was disappointed to find out this won't actually do overdubs at 24/96. That's right - despite advertising as a 24/96 device, it will only record -or- play at 24/96, not do both simultaneously which is essential for those of us working in that standard format.

I struggled with this until I realized it's really intended to overdub at 24/48 (or lower), then it works fine. The ability to control your input and playback level monitoring right in the device is easy and useful.

It's very solid.

It should be 24/96 for that price.

I was able to talk to someone at Roland (Edirol's parent company) and they confirmed that the fine print says you cannot overdub at 24/96. It does not say this on any sales web sites or the Roland site to my knowledge.

Not a good buy for most people.

Home Songwriter / Engineer

Roots

Clean; no pops or clicks

Just picked this box up after trying an Indigo Echo I/O and an M-Audio Firewire 410. Loved the Indigo I/O but didn't have the inputs I needed. Nothing but headaches with the FW 410. Couldn't even get the latest driver to work properly. Installing the drivers for the UA25 was very easy and straightforward. Step by step instructions in the manual were helpful. I was up and running in 10 minutes! No ground hum (unlike the fw 410), no pops or clicks. Getting around 3ms latency, although I haven't tweaked enough to get lower. I love the features that this portable box offers. The portability is a big plus. I was skeptical of a USB interface, but so far so good. I'm going to try vocal recording this weekend and will update review with my observations. Software used: Sonar 3 producer; Live 3; Reason 2.5 - all with no problems.

Haven't dealth with support.

I have it.

The sound of the unit is a surprising step up from the pcmia sound card I had been using for recording. I thought THAT sounded good. I record with a laptop: 2 gig clock, 2 gig RAM and 160 gig hard drive so the horsepower issues I hear about with other users are no prob. The sound as recorded is very sharp and crisp, and probably will take some getting used to compared to other equipment I had. I also use the bundled Sonar LE which is an upgrade from the Cakewalk Home Studio I previously used. The Home Studio kept crashing probably because it was an old product. The mating of the two is nearly perfect for me. I record a theater organ in my house, and possibly some re-voicing of the instrument will be necessary because of the crisper audio response. This is often done with studio organs. I did not just by this unit for audio, I wanted bundled Audio/MIDI since my Theater Organ is fully MIDI-ed. The console requires 6 simultaneous channels for control. I do audio recording while the sequencer plays back MIDI recordings of my live performances. I do this so that key and pedal clacking from the organ's console are not picked up.

There are a lot more features and routing options on this unit than I will ever use. My uses are simple: Plug in condensor mics with XLR connections, phantom power the mics, trim the input, listen to the output. All those bells and whistles are there. Simple stuff. On the MIDI end, the unit must handle 6 channel simultaneous In or Out while processing audio. So far, no prob. I love the phantom power cuz I'm sick of buying batteries for the mics. There is a mic upgrade in my future to units that are phantom power only, and this unit is ready for that. Sounds like a simple application, and for the most part, for me, it is set it and forget it. But that's a good thing. With a 3 manual 25 rank theater organ on my hands, I got more to worry about. The unit does its job and it transparent to the user. What more can you ask for?

There was one glitch in initial setup of both hardware and software that got to me, and to the guy who was selling the unit to me. One call to Edirol squared that away instantly. When you load the drivers, MAKE SURE THE 'ADVANCED' SWITCH IS ON!!! This instruction should be plastered across the unit. Most of us don't know that switch is there, we start loading drivers and if in a hurry, as we did in the store, did not read all instructions first. No harm comes to the unit without this switch set, it's just your drivers don't load. The other glitch came upon first use in my home studio when the MIDI IN would not function. The usual computer fix: Turn off/Turn on fixed that one. After that, for my simple applications, the unit performs beautifully and as I said earlier, is transparent to the user. If you are setting it up with the bundled software, read about setting up a hardware profile in the Sonar LE. If you don't do this, you will get a nasty clicking in the playback pry because of latency or buffer settings. The Sonar hardware profiler will take care of this automatically, BUT....you have to know it's there, just like the 'advanced' switch I mentioned before.

This thing's built beautifully. Rugged case, good feel to the controls, and the components such as sockets and the like seem good quality. I was a bit apprehensive about the plastic XLR sockets, I am used to all metal, but nothing has broken yet, and I don't plan on beating on the unit. Looks good, works well, what more can you ask. Also, the bundling of Sonar was what put me over the edge. This is excellent quality software. Of course as a Cakewalk user, I am biased, we all like what we are used to using, pleasant surprise that I got a 'free' upgrade with the interface. Perfect package for me.

This unit is a bit more pricey than others I looked at by about 25%. It does come bundled with exactly the software I would have chosen for it, so that makes the price increase worth it. It works in my application without crashing, that is the most important thing.

I had to call the factory even before I bought the unit because we were doing 'trial runs' of hardware and software at the store. I have NO idea what other reviewers' complaints are. I called when they open, (7:30 PDT), got help right away, and my driver install problem was solved in 5 minutes. They even gave me advice on recording software issues. No prob.

THe unit looks good without being packaged in a 'glam' case which would turn me off. I like the look of the case, control surfaces, look and location of hte indicators. Good lookin good workin. That's what I need, that's what I got. I really would not need this unit since I had separate pieces that together do what it does, just not as well. The Sound + MIDI + XLR + Mic preamps AND phantom power all in one did it for me. Lower component count.

Active Musician, Amateur recording. 40+ years a keyboardist.

I have played everywhere from a roadhouse blues band to the Vatican in Rome. Also Theater Pipe Organ

Excellent interoperability with my software (Sound Forge 7.0) & Vegas 5. Their driver is really good too, I have no complaint.

Get good value maybe even compared to any tool that's $400 or above.

Hobbyist & Recording Engineer

ADR, Video

This product does not live up to its advertisement, high latency problems no matter the config, 2Ghz processor 1/2 gb memory all services off in msconfig. Still wont perform properly.

features are useless if the product waon't work

spent many hours trying to config.

Ok, looks good.

don't waste your time

Support is virtually non existant, techs were not willing to help beyond, "Is there sound coming out of the computer."

Active Musician, record much music.

all kinds

Im totally dissapointed with the sound quality it provides, i must say i dont even notice much difference between the sound of my standard sigmatel card and this. im mostly dissatisfied about the low freqentie response, if you want to play digital music with a lot of low end energy, this interface totally fails, and i think the rest sounds empty as well. maybe for 70euro it would be a good product but i payed over 200 for it, my 100euro m-audio audiophile 24/96 card for my desktop really sounds ten times better than this piece of garbage.

i really only care about the sound quallity so i didnt use all of the features, though the pre-amp didnt function.

it seems like its a constructon that lasts long, and i think it looks good too.

because the sound quallity is so poor, this product is useless to me. and i think 240$ is still a lot of money for what you get.

i like the metal construction and the shape of it.

music student

drum n bass, breakcore, tekno

I would say the sound quality is pretty good i have been using it a few days and overall im satisfied with it.

Has every input that i need so no connectivity problem for me.

very easy i had it up and running on my vista laptop in about 3 mins after downloading the vista drivers very stable i might add.

the unit seems to be of good quality my only complaint is that the usb cable that ships with the unit fits to tightly so i needed to use another

i think its a pretty good value its a little more expensive than other models i looked at but its also better quality so i expected to pay a little more.

havnt needed them other than to download drivers for vista but i will say the drivers were very easy to find.

well as far as sex appeal im not going to sleep with it but its a nice design with good looks

hobbyist

gospel

Very clean inputs, fine signal, but the output is kinda low leveled, probably because of USB bus power. But its still enough for everything, and it gives fine signal.

Everything u need in a such a small box...

Install, plug n play...

Very good quality, aluminium case, small, perfect for live aplications and outside recording!

Great value for the price, not so expensive, but pro quality audio - midi interface.

Didnt need one.

nice looking device, fit perfect with my laptop... :D

active musician, sound designer

regge, dub, trip hop, jazz...