Audio to USB Adapter?

[ido1957]

I want to connect my Mixer to my laptop but the laptop has no line in. But it does have USB ports. There is a Audio->USB adapter for about 40 bucks available - just a little cable. I'm wondering has anyone ever used this. I'm curious how the system recognizes the connection and whether it will work with Sound Forge Studio 6.0 as it does with line in. And how is the A/D converter quality?

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/P...g=Online&category=Audio+Cards&product=2516520

Gerry

 

[brzilian]

Absolute junk.

Buy an Echo Audio Indigo IO PC-Card instead.

 

[dwillis45]

Several years ago I used something similar made by Edirol. Basically, it was a USB cable with RCA jacks. There were no software drivers that I remember and the system (an older Mac G4) simply recognized the input. Like the one you posted, the Edirol USB was also well under $100. It worked fine although the converter was nothing to write home about. I suspect you will get about the same results. After all, how much can you expect for 40 bucks! At any rate, given the price, there's really not much to loose by buying the cable, hooking it up, and testing it.

 

[tourettes5139]

Yeah, I wouldn't really bother. I doubt that the converters are very good for only $40. If it were me, I would just save some more money and get a *real* interface.

 

[dgatwood]

Absolute junk.

Buy an Echo Audio Indigo IO PC-Card instead.

Absolutely shortsighted. CardBus is -already- being phased out in HP's laptops in favor of ExpressCard. Other manufacturers will be following suit over the next couple of years. CardBus cards will not be usable in those laptops, as the technologies are not compatible.

So yeah, buy a PC-card audio solution if you want, but you'd better set aside money to replace it with something based on USB or FireWire the very next time you buy a laptop.

 

[brzilian]

Absolutely shortsighted. CardBus is -already- being phased out in HP's laptops in favor of ExpressCard. Other manufacturers will be following suit over the next couple of years. CardBus cards will not be usable in those laptops, as the technologies are not compatible.

So yeah, buy a PC-card audio solution if you want, but you'd better set aside money to replace it with something based on USB or FireWire the very next time you buy a laptop.

Yawn...

In a couple of years, any laptop bought today will be outdated. What's your point? How many ExpressCard soundcards can I go and buy right now? What if my laptop is barely a year old with a PC-Card slot and I plan to hold onto it for 2 more?

I'll spend an extra $160 anyday for decent WDM/ASIO drivers, good DACs, 24/96 audio and roughly 70x the bandwidth of a cheesy little USB device.

 

[dgatwood]

Yawn...

In a couple of years, any laptop bought today will be outdated. What's your point? How many ExpressCard soundcards can I go and buy right now? What if my laptop is barely a year old with a PC-Card slot and I plan to hold onto it for 2 more?

It's really simple. If you have a choice between two products, one of which will likely be usable with computers built for the next 5-10 years, one of which is already unusable on some computers and will be unusable on any new machine in a matter of months, it's really hard to justify going with buying hardware that's already obsolete.

I'll spend an extra $160 anyday for decent WDM/ASIO drivers, good DACs, 24/96 audio and roughly 70x the bandwidth of a cheesy little USB device.

That $200 is more than a lot of -good- USB interfaces with 24/96 audio. Heck, that's more than an Audiophile FireWire interface....

With the Indigo, you get 1/8" input and output (and eighth-inch jacks tend to be flimsy by their very nature), a deprecated card technology that is already essentially obsolete, and you get to spend TWICE as much as USB interfaces that don't have either of those limitations.

Musician's Friend has a sale on the M-Audio Audiophile USB for $99. That gets you stereo I/O with an S/PDIF connection to cascade additional hardware or whatever. It's USB, so it should be usable for many years to come. It's half the price of the Indigo I/O.

 

[brzilian]

You're funny.

It's really simple. If you have a choice between two products, one of which will likely be usable with computers built for the next 5-10 years, one of which is already unusable on some computers and will be unusable on any new machine in a matter of months, it's really hard to justify going with buying hardware that's already obsolete.

How many cards released 5-10 years ago are still supported with XP drivers? C'mon now...

Already obsolete technology? Give me a break.

Just did a quick survey - top of the line laptops from Dell, Toshiba, Alienware, etc ALL still have PC-Card/Cardbus slots. I hardly call that obsolete. I also see a bunch of laptops on HP's site with PC-Card/Cardbus slots also.

What was your point again?

That $200 is more than a lot of -good- USB interfaces with 24/96 audio. Heck, that's more than an Audiophile FireWire interface....

Yeah, is also doesn't require an external power brick. When bought at reputable online stores, the Firewire Audiophile is still around $199.

Musician's Friend has a sale on the M-Audio Audiophile USB for $99.

Yeah, for a reason! M-Audio can't get it together driver wise when it comes to their USB interfaces. It plain sucks. I'm guessing you've never actually used one based on your comments...

 

[ido1957]

Got one......but with problems

Several years ago I used something similar made by Edirol. Basically, it was a USB cable with RCA jacks. There were no software drivers that I remember and the system (an older Mac G4) simply recognized the input. Like the one you posted, the Edirol USB was also well under $100. It worked fine although the converter was nothing to write home about. I suspect you will get about the same results. After all, how much can you expect for 40 bucks! At any rate, given the price, there's really not much to loose by buying the cable, hooking it up, and testing it.

I bought an ADS TECH RDX-150 Instant Music RCA->USB (white box).
Hooked it up last night - pretty easy setup.
http://www.adstech.com/products/intro/products.asp
It worked pretty well but I used Sound Forge Studio to control the recording instead of their Nero ?? software.
I noticed a couple of songs had noise or distortion at a specific point in the recording though Like for a brief nanosecond, but enough to notice.
I'm going to try another pass at those songs and see if I can't get a clean copy through.
Anyone have any idea what causes those noises/distortions? If there's something I can do to prevent it that would be great.
Also, I had to disconnect my power supply and run on batteries on my laptop because there was a high pitched squeal being picked up on my mixer - any ideas what caused the squealing? It was plugged into the same power bar as the mixer.
Thanks!
Gerry

 

[brzilian]

I noticed a couple of songs had noise or distortion at a specific point in the recording though Like for a brief nanosecond, but enough to notice.

Probably bandwidth issues that will always exist with USB.

Also, I had to disconnect my power supply and run on batteries on my laptop because there was a high pitched squeal being picked up on my mixer - any ideas what caused the squealing?

You get what you pay for. $40 isn't going to get you quality DACs that cam shield RF interference from an AC power source.

 

[dgatwood]

Yeah, for a reason! M-Audio can't get it together driver wise when it comes to their USB interfaces. It plain sucks. I'm guessing you've never actually used one based on your comments...

You're right. I've never used one. Wouldn't use USB for audio in a million years. The fundamental design of USB doesn't lend itself to audio.... That said, plenty of people use M-Audio USB hardware successfully. Most people have problems because they forget the first rule of computer hardware: throw away the driver disk that comes with it and download the latest version of the drivers to begin with.

As for complaints about driver quality, I'm not surprised that different people have wildly varying results when using it. People have wildly varying luck with SoundBlaster drivers, too. People have wildly varying luck with a wide variety of drivers under Windows. If anyone wants a lecture on how not to write a driver model, I'd be happy to give it, but this isn't the appropriate forum....

How many cards released 5-10 years ago are still supported with XP drivers? C'mon now...

That statement is mind-bogglingly clueless. This past March marked the sixth anniversary of the announcement of M-Audio's Delta 1010, which is not only still being manufactured, but is still quite popular, and is probably used by a lot of folks on this board. Its younger brother, the 1010LT, turns four this November. I use that audio interface currently (along with an M-Audio Firewire 1814).

MOST non-disposable (e.g. not low-end preinstalled) audio hardware still has drivers at 5-10 years. Buying an audio interface that you expect to throw away in 2-3 years is nuts.

Probably bandwidth issues that will always exist with USB.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

You seem to be under the mistaken impression that bandwidth has anything to do with USB audio problems. It doesn't. Most people put their USB audio interfaces on their own USB busses, which means that even on old USB 1.1 busses they have ample bandwidth for two channels of 96/24 audio in both directions, with about 3Mbps to spare. With USB 2.0, 104 channels in each direction.

Bandwidth is not why USB audio is problematic. USB audio is problematic because:

1. The USB standards body, in their infinite wisdom, decided to allow USB device manufacturers to build audio devices without globally unique IDs.
2. The USB standards body, in their infinite wisdom, decided to not require time stamping at the protocol level for USB.

There are ways to work around both of these problems, but they are pretty hard problems. That said, if you don't have a broken USB hub between your computer and your interface (problem #1) and if you aren't taxing your machine too close to 100% CPU utilization (problem #2), USB audio should work just fine.