Hello, all. I'm currently testing a new, relatively inexpensive,
USB-based two-channel portable recording interface which Alesis calls
the "io|2". So far, I haven't found anything obviously bad about it.

It's not oversized, and it works with a laptop that has only USB 1.1
rather than 2.0. It's powered directly from the USB bus--there's no
wall wart or wall wart socket. Its 48 Volt phantom powering is
apparently adequate for a pair of Schoeps CMC 5-- or CMC 6--
microphones (as verified with a pair of Schoeps PHS 48 phantom power
testers, which draw about 4.5 mA apiece--so any Neumann 48-Volt
phantom-powered microphones should be OK, too), and its mike preamps
don't overload prematurely--I was able to pump in almost a Volt without
audible distortion at the lowest gain setting.

Frequency response through the mike inputs is quite flat, with only a
small fraction of a dB rolloff at the bottom end. The headphone output
has adjustable level, and way more than enough gain and power for my
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones. There's a mono/stereo switch for the
headphone socket, which I greatly appreciate. Another feature which
will appeal to some people, I'm sure, is the insert sockets for both
channels. (I'm not describing all the features here--just the ones I
might use for live classical stereo recording.)

The one thing that I'm not sure about is the dither--I don't know yet
whether it's configurable for 16-bit recording, since I made the
habitual error of connecting the item first and only then installing
the driver. The installation package is designed to be used the other
way around, so now Windows XP handles the interface as a generic USB
audio device, and doesn't let me configure anything. This is to be
worked out.

Also the level metering is minimal--just four LEDs per channel, at -20,
-6, -3 and 0 dBFS. I don't know if they're true peak-reading or not,
but that should be easy enough to test since the unit also has an
S/P-DIF input. To me it doesn't matter much, since there are "meters"
in my recording software.

--best regards

Hmm--lest anyone read the above and assume that Nothing Can Go Wrong, I
should mention that I am now having a severe problem with freeze-ups
and dropped samples when using this interface.

I assume that the problem can be solved, since otherwise it would make
the IO|2 a completely useless piece of equipment, and I don't think of
Alesis as putting out junk. So I'll post again if and when the current
problem is solved.

--best regards

David Satz wrote:

Hmm--lest anyone read the above and assume that Nothing Can Go Wrong, I
should mention that I am now having a severe problem with freeze-ups
and dropped samples when using this interface.

I assume that the problem can be solved, since otherwise it would make
the IO|2 a completely useless piece of equipment, and I don't think of
Alesis as putting out junk. So I'll post again if and when the current
problem is solved.

Could this be a driver issue?

--
ha

Hi, Hank. Yes, apparently it is a driver problem, since no such problem
occurs in Cubase LE (which uses ASIO), but the freeze-ups happen fairly
often in the particular version of Sound Forge that I have installed,
which is too old to understand ASIO.

I intend to work this out, since the interface seems so nice in nearly
all other respects.

--best regards

David Satz wrote:

Hi, Hank. Yes, apparently it is a driver problem, since no such problem
occurs in Cubase LE (which uses ASIO), but the freeze-ups happen fairly
often in the particular version of Sound Forge that I have installed,
which is too old to understand ASIO.

I intend to work this out, since the interface seems so nice in nearly
all other respects.

Nifty, David; I look forward to hearing how it turns out.

--
ha

"David Satz" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, Hank. Yes, apparently it is a driver problem, since no such problem
occurs in Cubase LE (which uses ASIO), but the freeze-ups happen fairly
often in the particular version of Sound Forge that I have installed,
which is too old to understand ASIO.

If it works under CubaseLE, which is using the Alesis ASIO driver, ( I
assume) Then the driver is ok.







I intend to work this out, since the interface seems so nice in nearly
all other respects.

--best regards