Lexicon Omega vs. Tascam US122

diogo

diogo

New member
hello everyone...

im wondering if the users of both these fine machines can lend a hand here...i have a few questions regarding both units in my search to find out wich one sounds best and wich one will be more suited for my needs...

ill be using this with a laptop (windows xp), more than meets the req. so no problem there, only need two inputs recordable at the same time so usb and its price is more than welcome..im gonna mic everything (guitar amp, acoustic guitar, vocals, etc) with a pair of condensers and a 57. ill also be using two midi sources...a drum machine and an old synth. monitors will be Esi near05. no use for the instrument input whatsoever..

1. i have to successfully bypass the pres in the unit..will use an M-audio DMP3 as my main pre, not the pres in either unit...im wondering if the the line ins of both these units will provide enough gain for me to max out the potential of the pre when going into the unit, or not..for instance i know that the lexicon unit will only provide 22db of gain in the line inserts, and im felt wondering wether or not this will affect the external pre's hability and gain. wich unit will be more "bypassable", i guess thats what i wanna know...and with better results at that..

2. with that said, wont plugging in the outboard pre to the xlr inputs and simply turn down the gain of the built in pres, harvest more or less the same results?

3. is the reverb provided with the lexicon unit that good? i mean, wont i get similar results with SIR and some impulses? i must admit that the reason im considering the lexicon unit is the reverb plug in, wich is supposed to be very good. but it can only be used with cubase right? so i would making a commitement with a software i never worked with, when i have samplitude 8 and cool edit pro at my disposal...i wonder if this is worth it based on the reverb alone...

4. in general, the lexicon unit looks more professional, but is it really? one thing that also bothers me is that the US122 is usb powered, and the lexicon has an adapter...its supposed to be a much more powerful solution in terms performance (the adapter that is)...i guess thats kind of why the lexicon can record 4 inputs at the same time, and the tascam only 2...but im not sure if thats the reason or not...or if the power thing is gonna be a big issue or not..usb powered looks atractive, but if itll yield problems, then its something to consider...

im sure ill have more questions as some answers come along...

many tanx in advance for any help u guys might give me..i already posed a nr of questions about both units to ppl that own them or know about them, but im very interested in a direct comparison by some folks that may have tried both...

is the lexicon really worth the extra money?

many tanx!


ps - with all this said, i could consider those alexis usb mixers as well...at first view, they seem to be a better product than the us122..but there's this on going general doubt on wether or not they can multitrack...also, i really dunno if this would work as an interface or a simple mixer connected to the computer..if its the latest and a soundcard would be needed, its pretty useless to me :/
 
I just took a while to answer the cut-n-paste of this post in the 'Computer Recording and Soundcards' forum.

What you are doing is called 'crossposting' and is not welcome here or on most other bbs's. You won't get a faster or better answer - just pick the most appropriate forum for your question and post once.
 
sscientist man,

i know, and im sorry for that..i just couldnt figure out what would be the best forum for this..if i put it in the tascam, lexicon users wont reply..if i just put it in soundcard/computer forum, tascam and lexicon users may not reply, cause tascam has its own forum, and the lexicon omega i not widely used here...i was just trying to broaden the spectrum a little bit..im sorry.
 
hello fernando...

even used with an external pre?

i would be using it with a laptop, specifically for recording audio...

tanx!
 
fernandoesmaron said:
don´t buy the tascam us-122. Big Latency Problem and the sound quality isn´t good enough.

I don´t know the lexicon omega.
Click to expand...

Could you clarify what you mean by not "good enough" and explain the latency problems you had? For an all-in-one unit (phantom-powered pres, 24-bit converters, MIDI, monitor & headphone outs, etc.) under $200, I think it is hard to beat. The unit also has built in zero-latency monitoring that works very well if your computer is even remotely decent. If you know of a better option at a similar pricepoint, I'd love to hear about it.
 
fernandoesmaron said:
a friend of me did buy this tascam and did send it back for those reasons. Now he have an mackie spike and is happy until now.
Click to expand...

So, just to clarify, you have no actual experience with this product, but have concluded that it must suck because of one person's opinion?

I have not used the Spike, but as it costs twice as much as the US-122 for essentially the same functionality, I would hope it sounds good. I have tried Tracktion (which comes with the Spike) and really prefer Cubase, however.
 
scrubs your argumentation is ok and you are right. Cause i could write it better than i did it. Sorry for that but i am not someone who recommends something from which i know those things. That´s a musician friend with which i am talking nearly every day about producing music and our problems with that.
 
fernandoesmaron said:
scrubs your argumentation is ok and you are right. Cause i could write it better than i did it. Sorry for that but i am not someone who recommends something from which i know those things. That´s a musician friend with which i am talking nearly every day about producing music and our problems with that.
Click to expand...

No problem. I just wanted to clarify. I still contend that the US-122 is a perfectly decent piece of hardware for a great price. Certainly, there is better stuff out there for people making professional quality recordings. However, for home studios that may need portable options, it is a cool thing to have.
 
hey guys...

tanx for the replies...

i guess its down to wether or not the great reverb and also an apparent much better build quality and routing can justify the 80 euros more it costs, in comparison with the tascam unit...

i guess it can...but i really need to know wether or not the final results will be THAT different...80 euros is not a lot more to pay for something that might be better, and that will allow me not to depend on plug ins for reverbs, etc...

if only some omega users showed up.. :rolleyes:
 
i just picked up the lexicon omega today. tried it briefly at lunch with great results. there's a couple small issues i noticed in the small time i had, but i hope to iron them out tonight. the sound quality was superb.

the reason i bought it was because of the six simultaneous inputs, and the mixer-based routing, instead of patchbay-based routing. the inputs are directly routed to the outputs, so you could technically use it as a 6in 2out mixer without a computer attached. zero latency monitoring was essential for me.

i'll try to post any results i have later on, but it's looking good.

there's an excellent review of the omega in mix magazine:
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_lexicon_omega_portable/index.html
 
Be careful with the US-122, I use it a lot now, it definitely has some latency issues. I was attracted to it because of the price, and I do a lot of my recording on my laptop (can take it anywhere!) so the USB interface was a plus. The computer has decent hardware (P4, 2.4 GHZ, 512mb ram), and I use Cool Edit Pro 2.0 for tracking (which in and of itself is rather buggy). It's nice because it's USB powered, and the sound I get it from it is pretty clear, but the latency is a big issue. It happens even when there aren't a lot of tracks (maybe only 3 or 4) in the session, and seems to happen if the tracks are particularly long (>4 minutes). I haven't done an extensive search for a solution to this problem (I usually just record tracks in pieces to get around it), but it's definitely something to consider.
 
ive worked with the same problem as kmad.i dont own it but ive had to use it. Not fun when your in the middle of a session thats been great up until you hear everything 1/2 a second late. however, I was impressed with the quality compared to its price.if u get it... i wish u all the luck in the world.
 
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