Geoff Hankerson

First new episode in a few months. I hope to get back into the swing of podcasting. This episode is about equipment options sucha s preamps, mixers, usb and firewire interfaces, and external recorders. I hope to give you an idea of what many of the common options are with their advantages and disadvantages.

Usb and Firewire Interfaces

Presonus INSPIRE 1394 Price: $199.95

Features:

• The microphone and instrument preamplifiers loaded in theINSPIRE 1394 are designed to deliver ultra-low noise, high gain preamplification for all types of microphones and instruments needed for professional quality recordings.
• The INSPIRE 1394 comes complete with Cubase LE recording and production software featuring 48 audio tracks, 96 MIDI tracks,VST plug-ins and full VSTi support
• Over 1GB of drum loops and drum samples INCLUDED!
• The INSPIRE 1394 is completely controlled by an easy-to-use software mixer interface called the CONTROL PANEL. Controls include, input gain, phantom power, limiter (off/on), preamp boost (off/on), sample rate, headphone volume, main output as well as zero latency input mixing with playback mixing. This software control panel also serves as a mixer between your computer playback and your inputs for zero latency recording.
• The front panel of the INSPIRE 1394 features two custom-designed PreSonus microphone preamplifiers with +48Vphantom power and two instrument Hi-Z inputs. The back of the INSPIRE features selectable line or phono (with RIAA filter)inputs great for all types of keyboards, samplers, drum machines and turntables. Outputs on the INSPIRE 1394 include RCA unbalanced and mini TRS jacks as well as headphone output.

Edirol UA-1EX: USB Audio Interface

The UA-1EX is a simple ASIO-compatible USB audio interface capable of 24-bit/96kHz operation and designed to offer component-quality audio signals in and out of your computer. TheUA-1EX offers excellent sound quality for connection to any RCAor S/PDIF optical device. The UA-1EX features professional A/D and D/A converters, ensuring accurate recording and playback,whether youÍre recording tapes or vinyl to the computer,or just playing your MP3 collection thru a home stereo receiver.The UA-1EX also offers an electret condenser microphone input similar to the ñMIC-INî on most internal soundcardsand a headphone output with volume control to quickly and easilylisten to audio from your computer. The UA-1EX is ideal for usewith laptops where audio quality is all but ignored, offeringsuperior audio quality, versatility, and the utmost inportability. *EDIROL designs its USB devices in accordancewith USB specifications and has passed all compatibility tests,which are continuously held and organized by USB ImplementersForum (USB-IF).

• Up to 24bit/96kHz audio quality
• ASIO 2.0 (Win/Mac), WDM (Win2000/XP), Core Audio (Mac OSX) compatibility
• USB Powered (no AC adaptor required)
• S/PDIF optical In & Out
• Supports both OS-standard drivers as well asEdirolÍs drivers* (Win/Mac OS X)

Behringer F-Control Firewire Interface

The Behringer F-Control Firewire Interface looks like aninteresting new product . It offers ultra low-latancy, 2 in/2 out[TRS], 24Bit/96kHz firewire audio. The interface includes theBehringer Edition of Ableton¬ Live Lite 4. Retails$80

Edirol FA 101 Firewire Audio Interface (Windows andMacintosh)

Price: $449.00 - $500.00 Description from Zzounds: TheFA-101, Edirol's first Firewire audio interface is a smashing10x10 audio interface, capable of 24-bit/96 kHz at a full 10channels in and out. You can record and monitor all 10 channelssimultaneously in full duplex -- phenomenal audio power for thestudio musician. In addition to 10x10 24-bit/96kHz performance,the FA-101 also offers stereo recording and playback at24-bit/192kHz for performance at DVD-A quality. Digidesign Mbox$449 Mackie Spike $349

UA-101: USB Audio Interface $499

Features

The UA-101 is a half-rack, high-speed USB audio interfacedesigned to turn your USB 2.0-ready computer into a powerfuldigital audio workstation. No other computer connection isrequired to get a full 10 inputs and 10 outputs at 24-bit/96kHzto the computer. The UA-101 is built to offer low latency andextraordinary stability. It's the easiest-to-use yetmost-powerful compact audio interface available.

• Dedicated monitor output
• Balanced I/O
• Included Signal Router/Mixer application
• Built-in limiter
• 40-bit internal processing
• MIDI I/O
• Optical S/PDIF (ch. 9-10)
• Low-latency drivers: WDM, ASIO 2.0
• High-speed USB (USB 2.0) and full-Speed (USB 1.1)compatible