Customer Reviews

Edirol by Roland UA-25EX Audio 2 Channel Interface

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This product is compatible with Windows 7 64-bit. Seems to be working fine for me. You do need to download the Windows 7 drivers from the Roland website (they are not included on the packaged CD) but it works great. I haven't put it through all its paces yet, but the setup was a breeze, the sound is crystal clear in both recording and playback, and I'm not getting any pops or dropouts.

I got this to replace my old Tascam US-122 because they weren't staying current with drivers and it was wonky under Vista and totally unusable under Windows 7, so Windows 7 compatibility was really important for me.

I'm so pleased with this device, after 6 months of working with other audio interfaces and sound cards that offered subpar performance.

This device worked correctly upon the first attempt -- no need to adjust sample rates or ASIO buffers, and the recording quality and low latency is superb.

I'm using Windows XP (Media Center Home Edition) on an HP dv8000. Recording software: Cakewalk Home Studio 6 (with 6.2.2 support patch). I have not tried MIDI functionality, I'm all analog.

Happy recording!

Review from a very picky person: It worked right out of the box with Windows 7 x64, has crystal clear sound quality, feels like zero latency at 24-bit * 96KHz, it's built like a tank, ground lift if you need it, the connectors are high quality... Hi-Z for instruments, drivers are solid and reliable, good headphone amp, good Roland support... what else can you ask for? Plus it works fine as a primary Windows sound card even in games, I have it driving my powered monitors directly. Goodbye old trusty mixer, one more analog link out of my signal chain. Paired up with Reaper ($60 and awesome) and Studio Devil ($50 and awesome) it makes a great guitar rig too.

I used this unit for about 3 weeks before finally returning it. It does work with Windows 7 64 bit and has excellent drivers. After about the first week, I started getting a lot of pops and clicks in my DAW while trying to record at 48/24 bit rate. I tried all the sample rates after, and found out that the only rate this unit could record in while experiencing 0 problems was the basic 44/16. For anyone getting into recording, 24 bit is absolutely the way to go, so that is why I ended up returning the unit.

Somethings you need to know before purchasing
1) To record at the highest settings you essentially need to switch from record to playback mode if you want to hear your recording. The problem with this is that every time you switch a setting on the UA-25EX you need to basically close your DAW and restart it. But the huge problem is that with these usb sound cards you really risk screwing it up if you just pull the usb cable out while the computer is on, so you should almost always shutdown the computer before. So essentially in order to hear what you just recorded, you have to shutdown your whole computer, and switch the interface to playback. Keep in mind this is only at the highest recording settings the unit offers (but it clicked like crazy, and I had dropouts even just during playback).

2) This is not usb 2.0. While most people say that it doesn't matter because there are only 2 inputs and outputs...my reasoning is why would you pay $230 for older technology, when you can get something with usb 2.0 for cheaper. If you want to record at the highest rates possible, then im sure usb 2.0 makes a difference.

There are definite benefits to this device:

1) It is built exceptionally well. I think if you are satisfied recording at 44/16 then you will be satisfied.
2) The pre-amps and sound quality are clear. I wouldn't go as far as saying they are crystal clear, but they do sound nice.
3) Excellent drivers and it does work right out of the box after installing the latest drivers.

Basically, in my experience with the item, I think it is a good unit for recording at 44/16, but extremely weak for the highest settings. I personally would go with a usb 2.0 interface if possible.

This baby is LOADED! I hooked it up to my RE-20 mic and the results were amazing! The driver installation is a snap, the manual is easy to understand and I was up and running in 5 minutes! The built in limiter and compressor makes it simple to get a perfect take on vocals every time. If you need to hook just about anything up audio to your pc this is the way to go. This is state of the art tech and worth every penny if not more for what it delivers!

I bought this Roland Edirol audio interface for my home music production studio because I have a Roland keyboard synthesizer, the Juno 106 and I have the Roland Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer DAW software. I'm glad I did because they work VERY WELL together and there's not much of anything else that matters!

This unit is great if you want to record music at home, but don't want to settle for lower quality products like the M-Audio Fast Track. Very solid construction, and even though it looks busy, it feels professional.

Sound quality is exceptional with almost no noise to speak of. It will even double as an external soundcard for your computer.

It is a bit tricky to get started with, just because there are a few settings to understand first, but the included product manual is great, and will get you up and recording in no time.

This Roland unit is of good build quality metal construction with nice knobs and buttons. The driver installs without problems. In fact, you don't need drivers if you can live with the "standard" mode at 44.1KHz. Most people will want the "advanced" mode to take advantage of the full set of features. It works reasonably well with a condenser mic; tested with CAD M179s rated at 16mV/Pa. For dynamic mics, it does not have enough gain; tested with EV767a rated at 4.5mv/Pa. Even at the highest gain setting, it's not loud enough. It gets about -18db to -12db. With the condensers, it is adequate but you will need noise removal in the post-edit. There is no downward expander or other noise reduction feature. The reason is the condensers are more sensitive, so if you crank up the gain you will increase the noise significantly.

It has a clip mitigator in the form of a compressor. The problem is the compressor really makes the audio very muddy sounding. Just kills clarity, especially if you already have a smooth voice. For shrill or tenor voices, it might just work. I've tried different threshold levels to see if I can make it work, but the results weren't acceptable. Not to my ears at least. This obsession with deep/big voices is becoming a circus of sorts lately, kind of like the enlargement solutions in other departments. Some people have deep/resonant yet pleasant voices. The rest/majority don't. You can boost the base, compress it to bring it out etc. all you want, it's not going to work. You give up detail and natural sound. On higher end equipment, you can make it work a little bit, but then we're talking about very precise equipment that costs 10x more.

The audio on the headphones also lack high end. I don't mean when monitoring a compressed voice you are recording, but rather music you are playing; you can use this device just like a soundcard since it is one, an external one. I tested it with my SRH840 headphones. First I thought the cans went bad. Plug them back into the ASUS Xonar STX, and everything is crystal clear again. High end gets chopped off.

It's a stretch in this price range, but this product could use a variable high pass filter to cut out some of the low end. Otherwise, the compressor is a pretty useless feature. You need to be able to compress without turning everything into mud. Having said that, the preamps are average quality, a cut above the junk you find in Steinberg CI1 etc. They are usable if you can live with the low gain. The noise is relatively low.

Another drawback is USB 1.1 instead of USB 2.0. In fact, you cannot record and play at 96KHz. You can do one at a time if you wish to use 96KHz. 48K mode works both ways. So the limited USB 1.1 bandwith is a problem. The rumor is Roland will come out with USB 2.0 editions of their gear in the summer of 2011. It's a little late considering that USB 2.0 has been out for several years and USB 3.0 is already on newer systems. On the other hand, USB 3.0 may not be necessary for such a limited device just as USB 2.0 can alleviate these issues. Remains to be seen.

One last thing, you don't have to worry about monitoring latency on this device. Also, the digital/optical in/out feature is a nice edition. You would think we would have optical I/O on everything in the 21st century, but that's not the case unfortunately.

Mine didn't come with a USB cable. Other than that, this thing rocks! Easy to use and super small! Built with strong metals that wont break when dropped.

I obsoleted a series 1 Mbox running Protools with an upgrade to Windows 7 (64 bit). I was never a fan of Protools anyway for adding some audio recordings to midi productions originating from Reason software. Transferring a partial project from Reason to Protools using Re-wire is doable (I've done it many times), but painful. Once a lot of audio work and mixing was done it was doubly difficult to re-wire live into Protools to add more contributions from Reason to the project.

Then along comes Reason+Record, an answer to my dreams of audio recording within the Reason software. Newer computer is 3 GHz duo core E8400, 8 GB ram, and series 5 RAID running Windows 7 Pro. I can barely register any CPU use on the resource bar with lots of Thor synths and other choices that used to bog down my old system. So the missing piece remained a USB audio interface for the new system to replace the Mbox (I didn't want to install firewire and take up a PCI slot in the system if I didn't need to). After reading many blogs about all the problems people have had with Windows 7 (64-bit) drivers for USB audio interfaces, I was very concerned about finding something compatible. While there are many helpful reviews out there, the several on this site were quite specific regarding easy success with the Roland UA-25EX and Windows 7 (64). Reviewing the frequency of driver updates by manufacturer for new OS releases was also helpful.

Downloading the driver package from Roland's site and installing it was very straightforward. There was no need for the disks that came with the product. I'm using and highly recommend ASIO4ALL V2 for managing my sound devices on the PC. Reason+Record places it onto my tray and if I click on it I have a tree of all my devices and their I/O features that I can click on to enable or disable. After installing the UA-25EX, it appeared as an additional device in ASIO4ALL and all I had to do was select it instead of the corresponding audio in or out on the motherboard or LCD, and Reason+Record was ready to record and playback using the UA-25EX immediately.

I took things one step further because I also use this computer for applications other than music recording. I use a SIMA A/V component selector which is a 1x4 Svid/Component passive stereo switch connected to my Mackie HR824 monitors to switch between the PC's sound card and the UA-25EX audio outputs. I bought this a few years ago for $30 for use with the Mackies and the MBox/PC. So if I'm not using the UA-25EX, I have the button pressed on the component selector which connects the PC's sound card to the monitors. If I want the monitors to play what's coming out of the UA-25EX I just press the next button. Can only stand headphones for a while and prefer the monitors for many things anyway. With the ASIO4ALL, you can even be monitoring out the PC's sound card and the UA-25EX's headphone jack simultaneously if you want to by putting the A/V selector back to the PC's sound card. Hi Z and low Z inputs work as suggested by other reviewers and the unit is a breeze to use. And it's a sturdy unit. I'm very pleased with the quality and very low latency of the system.

My thanks to the other reviewers who blazed the path testing with Windows 7 (64)!