Edirol UA20

1 of 3

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb03/articles/edirolua20.asp

Home | Tablet Mag | Podcasts | WIN Prizes | Subscribe | Advertise | About SOS | Help

Fri 30 Jan 2015

Search SOS

Have an account?

Log in

or Register for free

Sound On Sound : Est. 1985

Search

News

Articles

Forum

SOS TV

Subscribe

Shop

Readers' Adverts

Information

WebExtras

Edirol UA20
USB Audio & MIDI Interface For Mac And PC
Published in SOS February 2003

Reviews : Computer Recording System

Printer-friendly version

Edirol's latest audio and MIDI interface fills another niche in the
increasingly 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 of
musicians' 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 fixed
44.1kHz 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 digital
output, 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 to
squabble 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 fit
almost anywhere. Its rubber feet grip most surfaces well, so despite its light weight it shouldn't slide off t

Edirol UA20 159

pros
Audio and MIDI support
in one convenient
package
Mic, guitar and
line-level input options
Low-latency 24-bit
audio support

cons
Background digital
playback interference
on the review system
Fixed 44.1kHz sample
rate
Confusing manual

summary
Any 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.

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 and
Terratec, the UA20 uses AKM's AK4524 converters.
Input controls are ranged across the front, with the two quarter-inch unbalanced jack
sockets 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 choose
between 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 are
reasonably positive in action.
On the top of the unit is a large rotary input level control, along with a funky blue LED to
indicate 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 single
Toslink 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 stereo
headphone 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 Mac
OS 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, when
it 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 before
plugging 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 then
they 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 1.0
drivers on the bundled CD-ROM were still the
most current, so I installed the Advanced drivers
under Windows XP, which went without any
hitches.
In Use

SOS Readers Ads

GRAB A BARGAIN
385,372
of Second-User Gear for sale
now don't miss out!

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 long
before I found the relevant page in the manual,
and although this correctly tells you to use the
Audio Buffer Size slider in the Driver Settings
dialogue box, how to open this box isn't covered
until a couple of pages later, with no helpful
screenshots, and with four alternative ways to
access it depending whether you are using WDM

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 codec
chip).
D-A converters: 24-bit 128x oversampling (part of AK4524 codec
chip).
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.

DAW Tips from SOS

100s of great articles!
Cubase
Digital Performer

30/01/2015 18:22

Edirol UA20

2 of 3

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb03/articles/edirolua20.asp

drivers under Windows XP/2000, MME drivers

under Windows XP/2000, Windows 98/ME, or a
Mac.

Live

Power supply: 170mA (parasitically from USB).

Logic
Pro Tools
Reaper

You have to close your audio application before you can change this setting, but having discovered it Reason
I was pleased to find t
I could run my Pentium III 1GHz PC at the lowest buffer size in Cubase SX 1.03 without any glitching.Sonar
This gave a latency
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
GLOSSARY:
technical terms
25ms Play Ahead setting.
explained
The Driver Settings box also lets you decide whether or not to use the UA20's ASIO 2.0 Direct Monitoring
WINfunction.
Great Prizes
Other
in SOS
Competitions!
parameters in the Windows XP WDM dialogue that I was using weren't mentioned in the manual at all. I later
discovered tha
the 2ms adjustment for Audio Timing is for tweaking the offset of audio recordings in your MIDI + AudioWin
application,
while the
Antelope Audio
Light Load tick box for the MIDI In lowers the polling frequency at the expense of a slightly higher MIDI latency.
Satori
Win PreSonus Sceptre
S8 monitors

While the AK4524 converters are capable of 24/96 operation, the UA20's sample rate is
fixed 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, while
distortion 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 of
applications, particularly at this budget level.
Recordings made using the line, guitar and mic inputs sounded clean and quiet, but I did
experience some quiet but audible background digital interference on my setup during
playback 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 earthing
arrangements, 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 measurements
were slightly higher than the manufacturer's figures.

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.

Thankfully, this interference wasn't present on recordings made using the UA20 when played back via my Mia card, which
proved 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 slightly
cheaper 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 1.1
bandwidth 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 for
trouble, since their drivers could well both end up fighting for their share of USB bandwidth, resulting in audio clicks or MIDI
timing 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 prime
candidate 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
Published in SOS February 2003

Home | Search | News | Current Issue | Tablet Mag | Articles | Forum | Blog | Subscribe | Shop | Readers Ads
Advertise | Information | Privacy Policy | Support | Login Help

Current Magazine
Email: Contact SOS
Telephone: +44 (0)1954 789888
Fax: +44 (0)1954 789895
Registered Office: Media House, Trafalgar Way, Bar Hill,
Cambridge, CB23 8SQ, United Kingdom.
Sound On Sound Ltd is registered in England and Wales.
Company number: 3015516 VAT number: GB 638 5307 26

Web Edition
Buy PDF articles
Magazine Feedback

News
Search

Podcasts

New Search
Forum Search
Search Tips

Competitions

Articles

Subscribe

Reviews
Technique

Forum

My SOS

Today's Hot Topics

Forum Channel List
Forum Search
My Forum Home
My Forum Settings
My Private Messages
Forum Rules & Etiquette

Change Password
Change My Email
Change My Address
My Subscription
My eNewsletters
My Downloads

SOS TV

About SOS

Information

30/01/2015 18:22

Edirol UA20

3 of 3

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb03/articles/edirolua20.asp

Subscribe Now
Web Subscription FAQs

Home

Sound Advice
People
Glossary

Watch exhibition videos, tutorials,

interviews, masterclasses

Help + Support

Submit New Adverts

View My Adverts

Readers Classifieds

SOS Directory

Contact SOS Staff

Advertising
Controlled Circulation
Licensing Enquiries
Magazine On-sale Dates
SOS Logos & Graphics
SOS Site Analytics
Privacy Policy

All contents copyright SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2015. All rights reserved.
The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers.
Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the
contributors and not necessarily those of the publishers.
Web site designed & maintained by PB Associates | SOS | Relative Media

30/01/2015 18:22