M-audio MobilePre USB, is it any good?

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Phoenix_77

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I'm currently thinking about buying the M-Audio MobilePre USB, btu i need to know if its actually any good, from reviews i've read it appears to be, but i'm sure the people on this board know more than the people writing those reviews. So is it any good? And it does act as an external soundcard right? and is it reliable? or is the tasm US122 a big steup from it? sorry for all the noob questions im jus kinda new to computer based recording, thanks alot, all help is much appreciated :D
 
I have the 122. I would say they are very similar units. The main difference is the 122 supports 24-bit recording, while the mobile pre is only 16-bit. Whether that is more significant than the difference in price is a decision you'll have to make.
 
I used to have the mobilepre before I decided to purchase the pci-based delta 1010lt. I liked the mobilepre and found that it worked well. as scrubs said the us-122 does 24bit, which is better than 16 bit (only in terms of acquiring more sound information initially, since eventually they become 16bit files on CD). I used mine as a soundcard, and it worked well in that capacity. what's your current PC like? usb is a bit demanding, so the better the pc, the better. however, i had a pentium 3 450 with 256MB ram and the mobilepre worked just fine with that. If you're just starting out with recording, the mobilepre is a good choice and doesn't create a big hit on the wallet, you can use the money you save on the us-122 to buy two mics (a dynamic and a condensor would probably be a good combo). good luck
 
so if a 24 bit audio file was put on cd it would 16 bit anyway?
 
Phoenix_77 said:
so if a 24 bit audio file was put on cd it would 16 bit anyway?
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Well, it's not quite that simple. All audio CDs are 16-bit with a 44,100 sample rate. Therefore, before creating an audio CD, you must put it in that format (you cannot burn a 24-bit file to an audio CD). However, you can record at a higher bit-rate and sample rate, which will give you more detail (and better effects processing) than recording to 16-bit, even after you dither it down to 16/44.1. Whether or not you will notice the difference in quality depends alot on your ears and your monitoring system. It's all very complicated and beyond my ability to explain it well. Do some searching on dithering, bit depth and sample rates if you want to know more.
 
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