8/20/2019 Edirol UA20sound on Sound Review
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Published in SOS February 2003
Edirol UA20 £159
prosAudio and MIDI support
in one convenient
package
Mic, guitar and
line-level input options
Low-latency 24-bit
audio supportcons
Background digital
playback interference
on the review system
Fixed 44.1kHz sample
rate
Confusing manual
summaryAny musician who wants
to plug in a mic or guitar
instead of a line-level
signal, make 24-bit
recordings, and plug in a
MIDI synth or two, should
find Edirol's UA20 is a
compact and convenient
solution at an attractive
price.
Edirol UA20: Brief Specification
Inputs: two unbalanced quarter-inch jack sockets, nominal
level
-45dBu to -10dBu, with impedance of 22k(omega) (mic and line)and
470k(omega) (guitar).
Line outputs: two unbalanced phono sockets, nominal output
level
-10dBu, output impedance 1k(omega).
A-D converters: 24-bit 64x oversampling (part of AK4524
codecchip).
D-A converters: 24-bit 128x oversampling (part of AK4524
codecchip). Residual noise level: -105dBA (line in to line
out).
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz,
+0.5dB/-1dB. Supported bit depths: 16 and 24.
Supported sample rates: fixed at 44.1kHz. S/PDIF:
Toslink optical out.
Edirol UA20
USB Audio & MIDI Interface For Mac And PC
Reviews : Computer Recording System
Edirol's latest audio and MIDI interface fills another niche in
theincreasingly competitive market for USB devices.
Martin Walker
Now that initial USB teething troubles have largely died out,
there's no
denying that USB audio and MIDI peripherals have made a lot
ofmusicians' lives much easier, particularly where laptop recording
is
concerned. Edirol have been active in this market since its
beginning,
and the UA20 provides us with yet another tempting combination
of
features. It supports stereo 24-bit audio recording and playback
at a fixed44.1kHz sample rate, and its inputs can be switched
between mic, guitar
and line operation.
Along with line-level outputs, the UA20 also has an Toslink
optical digitaloutput, zero-latency monitoring, a separate
headphone output, and a
MIDI In and Out. Since it's still a little foolhardy to plug in
separate USB MIDI and audio peripherals and expect them not
tosquabble occasionally, this seems a convenient arrangement,
especially since the UA20 is parasitically powered from USB,
requiring no external wall-wart.
Overview
The ABS moulded silver and grey case is smart, and at a
diminutive 149mm wide, 111mm deep and 43mm high, should fitalmost
anywhere. Its rubber feet grip most surfaces well, so despite its
light weight it shouldn't slide off t
he desk if you move your mic or guitar cable. A quick look
inside confirmed that like so many
soundcards from other manufacturers including Aardvark,
Creamware, Marian, M Audio andTerratec, the UA20 uses AKM's AK4524
converters.
Input controls are ranged across the front, with the two
quarter-inch unbalanced jacksockets on the right, a three-way slide
switch to select mic, guitar or line level, and a second
three-way switch to switch input monitoring between permanent
zero-latency monitoring,
software-selected monitoring using a suitable ASIO 2.0 host
application such as Cubase , or
Off. The front panel is completed by a two-way switch labelled
Advanced Driver, to choosebetween the standard 16-bit/44.1kHz USB
driver or Edirol's own 24-bit/44.1kHz design,
which is claimed to provide more stable timing. All three slide
switches are tiny and
recessed to prevent accidental operation, but despite being a
little fiddly to operate arereasonably positive in action.
On the top of the unit is a large rotary input level control,
along with a funky blue LED toindicate that the USB connection to
your computer has been recognised. Two phono
sockets provide the main output signal on the rear panel, where
there are also a singleToslink optical digital output carrying the
same stereo signal, standard five-pin DIN MIDI In
and Out sockets, and the USB connector. The controls are
completed by a 3.5mm stereoheadphone socket and tiny associated
level control on the right-hand side of the case
(musicians with huge fingers beware).
Driver Installation
You can run the UA20 on Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 or XP, and
Edirol provide a helpful
list of compatible USB Universal Host Controllers on their web
site. Mac users can use MacOS 8.5, 8.6, 9.x and OS X, and under OS
8 and 9 can use OMS 2.3.3 or later, or FreeMIDI
1.35 or later as the MIDI driver.
Whatever operating system you are using, standard drivers can be
installed by making sure
the UA20's Advanced Driver switch is set to Off, and then
plugging it into a USB port, whenit will be detected automatically
and any appropriate files installed from the supplied
CD-ROM. Since the standard drivers don't provide 24-bit or MIDI
support, though, I expect
most users will install the special driver, by flipping the
Advanced Driver switch to On beforeplugging the UA20 in. However,
Mac users should note that in Advanced Mode they won't
be able to play back audio data from Sound Manager.
On the PC, Windows 98/ME users can install their chosen driver
at this stage, but Windows 2000 and XP users next have to
choose between the WDM or MME drivers. Those who use
Sonar (for instance) should select the WDM option,
although thenthey will lose 24-bit support with non-WDM compatible
applications. Conversely, choosing the MME driver will give you
24-bit
support inside MME applications, but you lose the special WDM
features inside Sonar .
Since this is such a new product, the version 1.0drivers on the
bundled CD-ROM were still the
most current, so I installed the Advanced driversunder Windows
XP, which went without any
hitches.
In Use
Sadly, although there's plenty of information in the
81-page manual, it's very scattered. For instance,
I'd worked out how to alter the audio latency longbefore I found
the relevant page in the manual,and although this correctly tells
you to use the
Audio Buffer Size slider in the Driver Settingsdialogue box, how
to open this box isn't covered
until a couple of pages later, with no helpfulscreenshots, and
with four alternative ways to
access it depending whether you are using WDM
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8/20/2019 Edirol UA20sound on Sound Review
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Power supply: 170mA (parasitically from US
Once you've discovered how to launch
it, Edirol's Driver Settings utility
provides some useful options, although
it would help if the current buffer size
were displayed in samples or as a
latency figure.
Published in SOS February 2003
drivers under Windows XP/2000, MME drivers
under Windows XP/2000, Windows 98/ME, or aMac.
You have to close your audio application before you can change
this setting, but having discovered it l iI could run my Pentium
III 1GHz PC at the lowest buffer size in Cubase SX 1.03
without any glitchin i l
declared as 144 samples, or 3.3ms at 44.1kHz.
Sonar ran very nicely with an Effective Audio Latency of
just 2ms, although
CPU load was rather high at this setting, while the DirectSound
drivers also worked quite well with NI's Pro 52 , managing
a
25ms Play Ahead setting.
The Driver Settings box also lets you decide whether or not to
use the UA20's ASIO 2.0 Direct Monit i i
parameters in the Windows XP WDM dialogue that I was using
weren't mentioned in the manual at all l i
the ±2ms adjustment for Audio Timing is for tweaking the offset
of audio recordings in your MIDI + Audio application, while
theLight Load tick box for the MIDI In lowers the polling frequency
at the expense of a slightly higher MIDI latency.
While the AK4524 converters are capable of 24/96 operation, the
UA20's sample rate isfixed at 44.1kHz, to keep costs down. I still
use 24-bit/44.1kHz recording almost exclusively,
and USB 1.1 can't manage 96kHz in full duplex anyway. I did find
it possible to select other
rates within various applications, but take care if you do this
— any non-44.1kHz sample
rate will use software sample-rate conversion, compromising
audio quality slightly.
Given that the UA20's converters are very similar to those of my
own Echo Mia, I wasn't
surprised that the two sounded very similar. RightMark's Audio
Analyser showed that the
UA20's frequency response was very flat, measuring -1dB down at
5Hz and 20.6kHz, whiledistortion levels were low at around 0.06
percent. Background noise levels were reasonably
good: I measured -92dBA when running at 16-bit/44.1kHz, dropping
to -94dBA at
24-bit/44.1kHz. Like the figures I measured for M Audio's USB
Duo, these results are
slightly higher than most PCI soundcards, but still perfectly
acceptable for the majority ofapplications, particularly at this
budget level.
Recordings made using the line, guitar and mic inputs sounded
clean and quiet, but I didexperience some quiet but audible
background digital interference on my setup duringplayback that
varied when I moved my (non-USB) mouse. I unplugged all other
USB
devices from my system, tried different USB and audio leads,
plus various earthingarrangements, and consulted Edirol Europe and
Japan. However, nothing cured the
problem on my PC, and I suspect this was also the reason that my
noise measurementswere slightly higher than the manufacturer's
figures.
Thankfully, this interference wasn't present on recordings made
using the UA20 when played back via my Mia card, whichproved that
it was a playback-only issue; nor was it ever audible on either
input or output signals while auditioning with the
UA20 headphone output. So, it seems that like a few other audio
devices I've reviewed in the past, this was down to some
grounding anomaly in my particular studio setup, and hopefully
it shouldn't happen to you.
Final Thoughts
If you're considering a budget USB audio peripheral, other
models to consider include Edirol's own UA3D at the slightlycheaper
price of £149; this has the same three input options, but with only
16-bit conversion. If you've got more money to
spend, Edirol's UA5 (reviewed SOS March 2002) adds
96kHz support, balanced I/O options, and +48 Volt phantom power
for
about £249, while M Audio's USB Duo (SOS October
2002) has similar features at the same price, loses the
high-impedance
guitar input, but adds the ability to run as a stand-alone A-D
converter. However, it's important to point out that USB
1.1bandwidth limitations mean neither of these can manage full
duplex (simultaneous recording and playback) at 96kHz.
Nor does either of these products have MIDI I/O, and plugging in
separate USB audio and MIDI peripherals is still asking fortrouble,
since their drivers could well both end up fighting for their share
of USB bandwidth, resulting in audio clicks or MIDItiming problems.
M Audio's Quattro does, again for around £249, along with
24-bit/96kHz support and balanced I/O, but
doesn't provide mic inputs. So, unless you've already got a
suitable MIDI interface, the UA20 would seem to be a primecandidate
for anyone who wants a budget USB-based solution that provides both
MIDI and audio support in one convenient
package.
Test Spec
• Edirol UA20 Windows XP driver version 1.0.
• Pentium III Coppermine 1GHz PC, Asus TUSL2-C
motherboard with Intel 815EP chipset, 512MB PC133 RAM,
running Windows XP with SP1.
• Tested with: Steinberg Cubase SX 1.03 and
Wavelab 4.0e,
NI Pro 52 2.5, Cakewalk Sonar 2.0.
information £159 including VAT.
Edirol Europe +44 (0)20 8748 5949.
+44 (0)20 8747 5948.
www.edirol.co.uk
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