Edirol ua-1000 or Motu Traveler on a Dell Laptop

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:29 pm

Hi I already posted once regarding some doubts about some audio interfaces. Finally I decided to go for the traveler, but after doing some more research on the internet I am beggining to have some seconds thoughts about it, mostly becouse of the compatibilitiy issues. I am planning on using the interface on a dell inspiron 9300 laptop but I havent had any clear answer form dell on which firewire chip I have, and in the motu web site it is said that if i have a nec chip problems will occur. I really wish i could get the motu, but i dont want to risk it if i dont find what time of firewire chip i have. As an oher option i thought that maybe the edirol ua-1000 will be a good choice althougth its has a usb 2.0 connection. It looks as it it will have less problems with my laptop.

The problem is that i havent found almost any review on the web about it, nor good or bad. And everyone i talk to about it, tells me to stay away from it just couse its usb, even if they havent read about it. But it states clearly that it can achive even faster transfer rates then that of the firewire.

So my dilema is should I go for the Motu and have the risk of not working on my laptop or get the edirol. I prefer the motu, it seems of better quality, but i feel safer if i get the edirol.

What should i do, and does any one of you have ever used the ua-1000 and what are your thoughts about it.

Thanks a lot, Alejandro Ilukewitsch

Keep The Funk.....

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:56 pm

OK, first take a deep breath ...

I have a Dell Inspiron 5160, and I use my motu 828mkii with it all the time. You shouldn't have problems with the firewire chip.

USB2 is rated at 480mbs vs. FW at 400. However (and don't ask me to explain this) somehow the firewire protocol is better for the transfer of A/V material. Every studio that I've been to uses firewire drives. That closes the case for me.

Both MOTU and Edirol seem to get generally good reviews for their gear. I had a silly question about my 828 and called their office. I actually got a live person, left a message for a tech guy, and he called me back within hours. I was impressed.

Good luck with your decision. Remember, you should be able to return the item if it doesn't work. Just check your retailer's policy.

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:08 pm

I use the traveler with a TI firewire chip and it works great. I did have a problem with the supplied firewire cable, though. It was causing short dropouts. Personaly, I think the traveler is a great interface. It has the most complete set of i/o that I've seen.
JJ

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:47 pm

Sound on Sound had a review of the UA-1000 here:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov03/articles/edirolua1000.htm

Another one from Electronic Musician

http://emusician.com/hardware/emusic_edirolua_win/

One thing that speaks to the stability of the USB drivers on Edirol equipment is that they are a participant on the Microsoft USB Standards committee.

This seems so far to have given them an edge in writing really stable drivers. As long as you're not trying to simultaneously record audio to an external disc at the same time you're encoding/decoding the audio datastream, I don't think you will have a problem with the UA-1000.

My over-simplified version of the ongoing argument goes something like this:

Firewire is like the story of the little girl. When she's good she's really, really good, but when she's bad.. you get the idea. Firewire has lower theoretical (specified) data throughput compared to USB 2.0 but the realworld performance seems to be very good. Firewire A/D's also seem to have an ongoing and unresolved issue with chip compatibility. Some PC's work fantastic and some have problems.

USB 1.0 devices are out there by the dozen, so we know they work. There are not a lot of USB 2.0 devices out there and their theoretical throughput advantage does not necessarily play out in real life usage. USB has also been accused of being more of a CPU hog than Firewire.

I purchased an Edirol DA-2496 because it was ridiculously cheap, but before I found that unit I was very seriously considering the purchase of the UA-1000's little brother, the UA-101.

Edirol seems to be commited to USB. They just released USB drivers for 64 bit processors.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:42 pm

Thanks to all for the replies. I decided to get the edirol ua-101, maybe it wont be as good as the traveler but it seems to have really nice options to, and for a less price. It should be arriving to Venezuela about 2 weeks from now.

Very Happy

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:48 am

Since I posted a couple of years ago, I've purchased a used UA-1000. The install went off without a hitch and I instantly had sound.

The sonic improvement was definitely heard over my previous DA-2496 with slightly more detail and clarity. The soft mixer/patch bay isn't as full-featured as the DA-2496 driver's was (no meters, but I can use the ones in SONAR) and it has supremely flexible patching capabilities which I haven't fully figured out yet.

I have to remember to switch it on before my computer or it won't be recognized which is just a workflow issue. For what I paid, I'm quite happy with this unit.

I was actually looking at the M16DX digital mixer when I bought this. The fact that I had some outboard pres that I'm reasonably happy with plus the fact that I didn't know anything about the all-new M16DX led me to jump on the UA-1000. Edirol has already written Vista drivers for it, so it should be a current piece for a while yet.

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