wheelema
Boner-obo
I was asked to provide a review of my new USBPre 2 soundcard / Sennheiser MK4 setup. This is the first post, more to follow.
The USBPre 2 requires 5v DC via USB to operate. I open with this little factoid because it's central to the USBPre 2's dual functionality and that dual functionality is largely why I purchased this unit to begin with... when plugged in to a USB battery the USBPre 2 automatically configures itself to operate as a two channel field mixer. When tethered to a computer (Macintosh or Windows or Linux or iPad) the USBPre 2 configures itself as a soundcard.
The first thought I had when I pulled this thing out of it's packaging (and the packaging was really well thought out) was 'small'... it's smaller then the palm of my hand, and I can only fit four fingers across the top. Now admittedly when you stand 6'5” you've got pretty big hands so the next time you're at the store place three packs of cigarettes side by side. There you go. Carrying this around on location (there are waterproof specialized cases with transparent covers for just this purpose) would be easy and it's huge meter makes setting the level a breeze.
Sound Devices is arguably the premier manufacturer of professional field mixers and digital recorders... these are the boxes that are used on movie productions... and it's easy to think of the USBPre 2 as the bastard offspring of their 744T digital recorder and their 302 field mixer. The USBPre 2 uses the 744T's highly regarded preamps and the 302's extremely visible 23-segment, multi-color LED meter. Sound Devices products are seriously over-engineered and the USBPre 2 is built into a robust aluminum enclosure. This is not a dainty consumer product concerned with looking good. All four sides of the USBPre 2 are packed with ports, switches, and controls. Heck... even the bottom is used to document the DIP switch settings. It's a rather unattractive piece of gear that attempts to cram all of the functionality it can into the smallest enclosure possible and frankly it crams in a lot:
This is the fifth or sixth soundcard I've worked with and it's never been this easy.
Next I plugged in the Sennheiser MK4 and it didn't work! Then I remembered that I had to flip the switch on the USBPre 2 to enable phantom power. Whoops.
In a normal speaking voice I was clipping with the gain set about halfway. The MK4 microphone was picking up all kinds of ambient noise while I fooled around with this on the front porch.
Since things were going so smoothly naturally I decided that I had to make things more complicated and I immediately installed the optional ASIO drivers. At the time I didn't know what the advantage was to ASIO (if any) nor did I know if Sound Forge Studio supported it but I figured, what the heck!
They installed no problem, and yes Sony Sound Forge Studio supports ASIO. Note that once the ASIO drivers are installed the original Windows drivers are no longer available... which after reading up on ASIO I've come to appreciate is no big loss.
I'll be attaching audio files to this thread next week.
The USBPre 2 requires 5v DC via USB to operate. I open with this little factoid because it's central to the USBPre 2's dual functionality and that dual functionality is largely why I purchased this unit to begin with... when plugged in to a USB battery the USBPre 2 automatically configures itself to operate as a two channel field mixer. When tethered to a computer (Macintosh or Windows or Linux or iPad) the USBPre 2 configures itself as a soundcard.
The first thought I had when I pulled this thing out of it's packaging (and the packaging was really well thought out) was 'small'... it's smaller then the palm of my hand, and I can only fit four fingers across the top. Now admittedly when you stand 6'5” you've got pretty big hands so the next time you're at the store place three packs of cigarettes side by side. There you go. Carrying this around on location (there are waterproof specialized cases with transparent covers for just this purpose) would be easy and it's huge meter makes setting the level a breeze.
Sound Devices is arguably the premier manufacturer of professional field mixers and digital recorders... these are the boxes that are used on movie productions... and it's easy to think of the USBPre 2 as the bastard offspring of their 744T digital recorder and their 302 field mixer. The USBPre 2 uses the 744T's highly regarded preamps and the 302's extremely visible 23-segment, multi-color LED meter. Sound Devices products are seriously over-engineered and the USBPre 2 is built into a robust aluminum enclosure. This is not a dainty consumer product concerned with looking good. All four sides of the USBPre 2 are packed with ports, switches, and controls. Heck... even the bottom is used to document the DIP switch settings. It's a rather unattractive piece of gear that attempts to cram all of the functionality it can into the smallest enclosure possible and frankly it crams in a lot:
- Up to 192KHz - switch selected in standalone, software selected while tethered
- A drop dead gorgeous 23 segment LED meter. It took all of five minutes to break my habit of watching the computer screen to adjust gain.
- Dual balanced ¼” in (+4db / line level)
- Dual balanced XLR in (-40db / mic level) – switch selected individually for 48v phantom power, low cut, limiter, and 15db pad
- Dual balanced XLR out - switch selected +4db or -40db (though why you'd want to output -40db escapes me)
- Coaxial and optical (TOSLINK) S/PDIF in and out
- Dual unbalanced RCA in and out (-10db / consumer level)
- ¼” and 3.5mm headphone jacks. Note that Sound Devices repeatedly cautions that the USBPre 2 is capable of driving headphones to dangerously high levels.
This is the fifth or sixth soundcard I've worked with and it's never been this easy.
Next I plugged in the Sennheiser MK4 and it didn't work! Then I remembered that I had to flip the switch on the USBPre 2 to enable phantom power. Whoops.
In a normal speaking voice I was clipping with the gain set about halfway. The MK4 microphone was picking up all kinds of ambient noise while I fooled around with this on the front porch.
Since things were going so smoothly naturally I decided that I had to make things more complicated and I immediately installed the optional ASIO drivers. At the time I didn't know what the advantage was to ASIO (if any) nor did I know if Sound Forge Studio supported it but I figured, what the heck!
They installed no problem, and yes Sony Sound Forge Studio supports ASIO. Note that once the ASIO drivers are installed the original Windows drivers are no longer available... which after reading up on ASIO I've come to appreciate is no big loss.
I'll be attaching audio files to this thread next week.