Roland UA-30

H

Hector Burns

New member
This is my first time posting a question. Is anybody out there using Roland's UA-30? I'm thinking about purchasing one. I've got a Tascam 424 Portastudio that I've been using for 10 years. All I want to do is mix it down to the hard drive on my laptop (the laptop is also dated: IBM Thinkpad 26ll, 366 Celeron processor, 64MG Ram). Is the UA-30 the way to go? Can it handle an analogue source?
 
i posted a Q about this around 6 months ago - you can look it up. The thing will handle a mono analog signal. It looked like it was an ok choice, I think one of the cheaper ways to go, though for $150 more you can get the Tascam USB product that is much more flexible.
 
Hi Adam. Thanks for your reply. I read several threads before I posted my message and I think I came across your post. I was under the impression that the Tascam USB unit was more for recording indivual tracks on the hard drive. All I want to do is mix down to the hard drive. All of the actual tracks will be on cassette. I want to run from the RCA jacks on the 4-track to the RCA jacks on the UA-30 and mix everything down to the hard drive. I basically just need a line in. Has anybody out there tried mixing down their 4-track using the UA-30 as the input device? If so, how were the results? I'm just afraid I'll buy the UA-30 and it won't do what I want it to. Thanks for your time.
 
sorry to misunderstand your post. if that is all you need, the ua-30 could be the way to go. also, check to see if your computer has the necessary usb driver. the ua-30 will only work with one or 2 different drivers.
 
UA-30 with ALi Chipset

So I picked up a UA-30 at a guitar shop here in Japan and it is working well. My laptop has an ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller. I had read that there are problems using this controller with Roland's UA-30, UA-100, and U8. The fine people at Roland informed me that the problem is that with ALi chipsets the USB sometimes shares an IRQ (Interrupt Request) with the video, etc. (You can check this by clicking START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, SYSTEM, DEVICE MANAGER. Click on one of the various devices and the click on "Resources" - it will show you what the IRQ # for the device is.) In my case, the USB was on it's own IRQ, so I was able to use the UA-30. I realize that this is unsolicited information, but maybe it will help another rookie like me. Cheers
 
Ah - not all is rosy with the UA-30 and the ALi. The recording end of things is fine, but playback is a problem. When playing a track back with the UA-30, Cool Edit crashes. Another problem is that the UA-30 is not plug and play with my system (though it's fine if it's plugged in before I turn on the laptop). It's not a complete disaster - I just record with the UA-30 and playback with the soundcard that came with my laptop. I've heard that pausing during playback is one of the problems with using a UA-30 with an ALi chipset. Anyway, be forewarned...
 
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