mike_mccue
 
I'll bet if I got picky I could come up with some more stuff but I have promised jonbouy that I'll try to behave better. :-)
 
FWIW, I don't even think I have good ears... I'm old and beat up... but I do think I hear stuff that seems obvious to me and when I do I respond by following up and learning what's behind my impression.
 
I am a big believer in plurality of experience and the validity of each persons experience, so I'd be pleased if folks don't think I am trying to persuade anyone to think any particular way. I lurked this thread for the past few days and then I blurted out a few ideas that float around my head.
 
Over and out.
 
:-)
 
all the best,
mike

Yes, there are probably things I could tell you about my interface too that would make less than ideal, but for all practical purposes relating to the poor OP's original enquiry they are hardly worth a mention and yet again become the source of the most eloquent, and expansive verbiage that has little or nothing to do with the reasons why £150 worth of Roland designed interface is such a good and practical purchasing decision.
 
I've promised myself to behave better these days too .
 
btw as an aside I'm looking forward to giving one of these a try when it finally hits the streets in October, it does sound promising.
 
http://spl.info/index.php?id=2959&L=1

Jonbouy
 
btw as an aside I'm looking forward to giving one of these a try when it finally hits the streets in October, it does sound promising.
 
http://spl.info/index.php?id=2959&L=1

Might want to give one of these a try too.
 
http://audient.com/products/id22
 

Funny that so many interfaces are going w/ the table top format.  And knob.  I love my remote for the TC K 48, even if the box is rackmount.  Those two above, plus Forte, Apogge, etc.  I guess it looks more ... substantial than a rack.  Esp. w/ the knob.  And it is the main component for doing your music, except for those pesky rack-mounted preamps w/ such big, round transformers .... ;-)
 
@

A comment on connecting to two USB ports for the device.  That doesn't make any difference if both USB ports are on the same hub (internal to the PC).  There is only "x" amount of power (total) available for all the ports on the hub.  If you use one port and draw the maximum power, there is zero (basically) available for the other ports on that hub.

Jeff Evans
It is all interesting though and I am older like Mike and do appreciate a well designed power supply. I am just from that era too! (I still think big hefty power supplies sound good in power amps!) I just think the differences are less than we think at certain levels of music production. I would be interested Mike in what you did not like about the SOS test. I thought it was pretty reasonable.
 
For those who do have any DSP after the MIc pre but before the DAW I also have this feature in my Yamaha mixer but rarely use it as well. But the other day I was recording a very dynamic male singer. I did not know what to do (other than patch in an external device but there was no time for that)  so I found using the compressor built in to the mixer set for limiting (if you can do it that is) with a very high threshold, fast attack and release did a great job of catching very loud bits end preventing them from clipping the input to the DAW. There was no recorded distortion anywhere (shows how clean the Mic Pre was in the Yamha mixer too) and the vocal track was easier to edit later on for sure.
 
That is about the only DSP I have ever used on the way in. But you do have to be able to put any compressor into limiting mode and set it up accordingly. Can you do that with the Roland Pre?
 
 

Makes no difference on the Roland the compressor comes after that A/D block you may as well use anything you fancy in your plug-in arsenal instead.
 
If you've got a singer that hasn't got good mic technique then you'll need something outboard to tame him before you clip at the A/D converter, once you've gone past that any damage that has been done already isn't going to be rectified by anything.
 
Man, there's enough headroom there for anyone these days as long as they are not physically head-butting the mic while doing a take.  It's pointless commiting to any DSP at that stage, I can see the point of using some nice heavyweight piece of hardware that glows in the dark before you get there though.

Regarding Bus Powered interfaces and other things.
 
A computer USB (or firewire) bus can only deliver a certain amount of current. Current is what matters, not voltage. Although the 2 are closely related in the ohms law formula. But ultimately, the amount of current that a bus can deliver has to be divided between ALL of the other things accessing that bus. If I understand correctly, a single USB port is limited to less than the total available current the bus will provide.
 
It's generally not recommended (by some manufacturers)  to rely on bus power for interfaces, unless you have experimented and find it to work satisfactorily and are in a situation where it is necessary to rely on bus power. If you have an external power supply for the interface, use it, since it IS designed to run the interface properly and within spec.
 
I have a Focusrite Saffire Firewire Interface. It came with a wall wart power supply and on a laptop it is imperative that the wall wart be used since the laptop only has 4 pins and not 6 on the firewire ports. On my current desk top, I can run it from the FW port since it has the 6 pins but I still have it plugged into the wall wart as well. It runs fine with both.
 
I have another program which came pre-installed on a SS-HD and it is USB bus powered. There was NO wall wart in the box. However the instructions say to use the USB connector, which has 2 USB plugs on the computer's end.... and to use BOTH plugs connected to 2 ports on the computer if one doesn't provide sufficient power. Apparently, USB ports are limited to a certain amount of current each but paralleling them lets you double the available current if needed to run the drive.
 
Focusrite interfaces have really nice, transparent pre's. they should not be adding an inordinate amount of color to the sounds going through them. If they are, you need to check a few things. Be sure the Focusrite control panel is set up properly. Mine has compression, EQ, and reverb available as well as controlling the gain settings and output volume.