EDIROL UA 3D

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Edirol's range of USB audio interfaces appears to span all likely scenarios and budgets. The new UA-3D is almost identical to the UA-3, yet is quite a step down from the 24-bit/96kHz UA-5.

Encased in plastic, it has a 16-bit resolution, claims support for sampling rates of 32/44.1/48kHz and draws power from the USB host device. Edirol says it has Dolby 5.1 surround sound attributes, although this appears to be mostly spin.

The UA-3D has a pair of phono line inputs and outputs, a mono minijack microphone input, a quarter-inch jack high-impedance guitar input and a mini-jack headphone socket. The digital input and output are optical interfaces.

The left side has two small switches marked Mic Type and Rec Source. The former adjusts the microphone input for either condenser or dynamic models. Rec Source switches between the digital input and all analogue inputs. Neither has a status LED indicator on the front panel, and the Rec Source would benefit from this. If it's set to digital and you're using analogue sources, the device will show incoming audio on the front panel meters that seem to be recognised, but no sound will get to any software.

The front panel has two slider level controls (faders) - one for the guitar or microphone inputs and the other for the phono line inputs, each with peak indicator LEDs. Incidentally, the UA-3D responds to all the analogue inputs simultaneously. This is useful if you can balance the sources, but it could produce noisy recordings if the redundant gear remains plugged in. The big dial controls the output volume with level metering on the dial above. None of these has any effect on the digital interfacing, either in or out of the UA-3D.

Audio dynamite

If you want to transfer audio out of the Mac digitally, the UA-3D delivers. In Mac OS 9, iTunes, QuickTime and DVD sources all play via the Sound Manager, routing all Mac noises to the UA-3D. With Mac OS X it works by using Core Audio, Apple's new audio architecture. So if you haven't got an iPod, you could record your iTunes favourites digitally through an optical cable to MiniDisc. The best news is that the UA-3D works as soon as you plug it in without requiring the installation of any software drivers whether you're running OS 9 or OS X. Such simplicity has a catch that will disappoint professional users - the UA-3D doesn't support audio streaming input/output (ASIO), the popular audio device protocol.

Another snag is Edirol's curious claim that this is a Dolby 5.1 channel surround-sound device. Unlike the Emagic EMI2|6, the UA-3D doesn't have six outputs. Instead, it comes with Windows DVD software enabling a DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack to output digitally through the UA-3D to a suitable surround decoder. The only Mac alternative is the OS 9 Apple DVD Player. This has a Dolby Pro Logic output option that can also be sent digitally using the UA-3D. The OS X DVD Player doesn't have audio output options and neither the OS 9 nor OS X players has Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack access.

Our tests on OS 9 using Cubase VST/32 and Digital Performer appeared problem-free. Logic Audio replayed audio, but could not identify the UA-3D as an input source - apparently a driver issue. Now that Apple has acquired Emagic, such problems may be shortlived.

A huge drawback is that the UA-3D can't change its sample rate from a Sequencer control panel. It will change the sample rate if it's being slaved to a digital source, but otherwise it works at 44.1kHz with analogue sources. This is a problem if you're recording audio for digital video, as this clocks at 48kHz or 32kHz. Under Sound Manager, Cubase can't change the sample rate, although Spark will resample the audio to the specified rate. Thus you have the UA-3D working at 44.1kHz with an analogue input, Spark recording at 48kHz and replaying to the UA-3D (internally clocked at 44.1kHz), so the playback signal is around 8% slower than desired.