Feature:
It does exactly what it claims to do. Two microphone ports, two line-in ports (one of which is switchable to guitar), one headphone port, one line-out port, two MIDI ports (one in, one out), and USB 2.0. There is no way to put phantom power on one microphone port but not the other, but I don't use ribbon microphones so this is not a problem for me. The MIDI in/out were the original reason I bought this, and it performs very well with minimal latency.
Quality:
On the US-122L unit itself, there are no cosmetic issues. It appears to be well-finished. The LD-74 has a minor cosmetic blemish in the exterior shell over the transducer. I don't intend to use a condenser mic in public, so it's not too much hassle for me; as well, I cover it with a foam windscreen so it's not even visible to me in the studio.
Value:
I cannot speak to other items -- but I have not had any complaints about its value.
Desirability:
The color scheme matches my (burnished aluminum) MacBook Pro almost precisely. Technically, this does exactly what I want and need it to do.
Sound:
This is simply a ADC/DAC -- it seems to render exactly what it gets, faithfully. It provides 46V of phantom power, at 2.6mA. I purchased the TNT bundle, with the LD-74 condenser microphone. I find it to be extremely responsive to my singing, much more than any dynamic microphone I've ever worked with. The rendition as it comes in to the software is very good.
Ease of Use:
I'm using this product with a MacBook Pro and OS X Tiger 10.4.10 (initially 10.4.8). I had to update the firmware in the device to 1.02, and the driver as well. Finding the correct driver and correct firmware is more difficult than it should be. As well, the included version of Cubase LE is for PowerPC-based Macs only -- it will not work on Intel-based Macs, period.
It is necessary to become familiar with Audio MIDI Setup in order to use this device. It acts as an "aggregate device", which means that its input and output are consolidated into a single device interface (unlike Apple's standard driver design). It /requires/ its own driver, and will not work with any standard USB audio interface drivers.
It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how the controls worked. The manual didn't appear to have the information that I needed on how to set it up, though I will admit that I didn't look at it too thoroughly.
The individual channel level knobs have LEDs next to them on the top, with standard green/yellow/red semantics -- though without a more analog level meter, it's difficult to get a sense of how well the levels are set. You MUST pay attention to clipping information in your application.
Also, I have experienced (very sporadic) freezes on driver-load when plugging it in, both with and without a music application open. I wish the specs were available so that an external, more-maintained driver could be written.
Support:
Finding the driver update was difficult, though I have not attempted to contact them outside of their website. I have had no issues to require warranty service.
Overall:
I expect that I will be satisfied with this for my (relatively modest) needs for quite some time. The features I'd want in an upgrade would be more simultaneous tracks recording at once, but that would also require a much more capable piece of software.
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