Yo.
I purchased an M-Audio MobilePre USB sound capture card-in-a-box last week and I love it. It's not perfect, but it's not a perfect world.
THE #1 cool thing is that you get a 48 volt phantom powered preamp that connects to a laptop via USB and get's it's power there. NO WALLWART!!! Very nice when you're doin some mobile recording.
I can't elaborate on battery draw, but I have read that it's minimal. My battery died long ago and as most of already know.. you're better off pluggin in a laptop anyway.
One thing I did notice right away was the noise floor.... using the instrument input from the preout signal from a power amp induces a 60 cycle ground loop hum. It's not there on the mic inputs, only the preout from an amp into the instrument inputs. You see, the unit sets essentially above ground on a USB cable and the next best path is the signal path. There was also an audible hiss noise with the gain on full with nothing connected.
Fear not. There's a simple fix that I picked up years ago in the car stereo biz.
Simply connect a wire from the unit's chassis (a case screw on the back works) to the ground of an AC outlet. Usually this can be picked up on the screw that mounts the plate to the wall.
THERE IS NO NEED TO GO INSIDE THE OUTLET! STAY OUT OF THERE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOIN AND SHUT DOWN POWER!!!!
OK that disclaimer said, the noise went COMPLETELY away by grounding it there and the noise floor dropped considerably overall.
Remember this trick for other devices that persist in humming at the outputs.
OK back to the box. I've used it to capture my 5 string bass with the direct line in and it performs admirably. I've set up two mics in the room my band reherses in, and got some great ambient sounds that are well balanced on their own. The levels are best set with headphones on and a software capture program open and armed for record. The two level-lights per input on the MobilePre are green for 0 db, and red for clip. Use the software's level indicator and adjust the outputs that way. Much easier.
I never went above halfway with the pots and got a good warm sound from two Behringer B-2 Pro's. ( a great mic for the price BTW)
The layout at first seems odd but makes sense once you use it. In fact, I now see what a good idea it was to put only one instrument input and a headphone out on the front. The back has another inst. input, line out for the monitors and two phantom powered XLR inputs. There's a button on the front to switch the phantom power on & off. The four inputs CAN be used at once and it will sum them into two out. It fits in most laptop bags with ease and the only connection is one USB cable which it comes supplied with.
I can arrive at rehersal, get set up to record in about 5-10 minutes, tune up and hit record! I save the songs and reherse at home later, AND I have some great tracks to give back to the guys on CD in no time. Sweet!
I'm running it on an old Gateway Solo 2500 with a P-II 334mhz and 128 mb RAM. These are bare minimum settings and the only downside are the dropouts on playback ONLY. Now and then the processor/RAM runs out of space and there's a slight hiccup as it catches back up. It sounds like a minor skip on a CD. No biggie. Upgrade my laptop and that's gone. I know because I use the box on my desktop 800 mhz machine and it rocks.
$150 - $170 is a small price to pay for the benefits that this little gem delivers. 48,khz000/16bit is the max but this sounds fine. Latency is no problem thanks to some great software controlled drivers. I can run a track In Vegas and lay down another with NO latency. Ya gotta love it, and I do.
If you're looking for a mobile solution for your laptop for under $200 look at M-Audio's MobilePre USB.
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.main&ID=8eb1a9920df341303f81bca7ff458be3
I'm a musician with a day-job, and I want the most for my money. I'm very pleased with this unit.
I purchased an M-Audio MobilePre USB sound capture card-in-a-box last week and I love it. It's not perfect, but it's not a perfect world.
THE #1 cool thing is that you get a 48 volt phantom powered preamp that connects to a laptop via USB and get's it's power there. NO WALLWART!!! Very nice when you're doin some mobile recording.
I can't elaborate on battery draw, but I have read that it's minimal. My battery died long ago and as most of already know.. you're better off pluggin in a laptop anyway.
One thing I did notice right away was the noise floor.... using the instrument input from the preout signal from a power amp induces a 60 cycle ground loop hum. It's not there on the mic inputs, only the preout from an amp into the instrument inputs. You see, the unit sets essentially above ground on a USB cable and the next best path is the signal path. There was also an audible hiss noise with the gain on full with nothing connected.
Fear not. There's a simple fix that I picked up years ago in the car stereo biz.
Simply connect a wire from the unit's chassis (a case screw on the back works) to the ground of an AC outlet. Usually this can be picked up on the screw that mounts the plate to the wall.
THERE IS NO NEED TO GO INSIDE THE OUTLET! STAY OUT OF THERE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOIN AND SHUT DOWN POWER!!!!
OK that disclaimer said, the noise went COMPLETELY away by grounding it there and the noise floor dropped considerably overall.
Remember this trick for other devices that persist in humming at the outputs.
OK back to the box. I've used it to capture my 5 string bass with the direct line in and it performs admirably. I've set up two mics in the room my band reherses in, and got some great ambient sounds that are well balanced on their own. The levels are best set with headphones on and a software capture program open and armed for record. The two level-lights per input on the MobilePre are green for 0 db, and red for clip. Use the software's level indicator and adjust the outputs that way. Much easier.
I never went above halfway with the pots and got a good warm sound from two Behringer B-2 Pro's. ( a great mic for the price BTW)
The layout at first seems odd but makes sense once you use it. In fact, I now see what a good idea it was to put only one instrument input and a headphone out on the front. The back has another inst. input, line out for the monitors and two phantom powered XLR inputs. There's a button on the front to switch the phantom power on & off. The four inputs CAN be used at once and it will sum them into two out. It fits in most laptop bags with ease and the only connection is one USB cable which it comes supplied with.
I can arrive at rehersal, get set up to record in about 5-10 minutes, tune up and hit record! I save the songs and reherse at home later, AND I have some great tracks to give back to the guys on CD in no time. Sweet!
I'm running it on an old Gateway Solo 2500 with a P-II 334mhz and 128 mb RAM. These are bare minimum settings and the only downside are the dropouts on playback ONLY. Now and then the processor/RAM runs out of space and there's a slight hiccup as it catches back up. It sounds like a minor skip on a CD. No biggie. Upgrade my laptop and that's gone. I know because I use the box on my desktop 800 mhz machine and it rocks.
$150 - $170 is a small price to pay for the benefits that this little gem delivers. 48,khz000/16bit is the max but this sounds fine. Latency is no problem thanks to some great software controlled drivers. I can run a track In Vegas and lay down another with NO latency. Ya gotta love it, and I do.
If you're looking for a mobile solution for your laptop for under $200 look at M-Audio's MobilePre USB.
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.main&ID=8eb1a9920df341303f81bca7ff458be3
I'm a musician with a day-job, and I want the most for my money. I'm very pleased with this unit.
