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Hatsubai « Outdated »
Published on 06/28/11 at 19:50This was a super simple mic pre that M-Audio had sold for a bit for those looking for the bare minimums when it came to recording things. You have a gain knob, an input knob, mono/stereo button for monitoring your source, output volume knob, XLR input, 1/4'' jack input, guitar/line level selector, RCA output and USB. Really, this thing is about as bare as you can possibly get.
UTILIZATION
The device did alright. There aren't many features packed into this thing. It seems like M-Audio tried to get away with as little as possible. In fact, I'm not sure why they didn't just combine the XLR and 1/4'' into one jack to make it more convenient. Presonus did that with their Firebox, and it worked out perfectly fine. The USB is the biggest killer in this. It's USB 1.1, and there is some very noticeable latency once you start recording. For those that don't know, latency is when you play something on your guitar and you hear it a few milliseconds later. It can really mess up your playing because it's impossible to keep timing like that.
GETTING STARTED
It's super simple to set up. You just install the drivers you need to install, hook up the devices to their corresponding ports, open up your DAW, select the device in your preferences and you're ready to start recording. The device can work in quite a few DAWs out there, so you should have no issues in terms of compatibility for most of these, but it might start to lose support now that it's discontinued. I can't comment on the manual as I never read it. The device is simple enough to where you don't need to read it to set everything up.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are on a super tight budget and need something crazy cheap, this might work out for you. Keep in mind that it's USB 1.1, so you'll have to be running everything very bare when using this device. You can't have plugins running while using this or else you'll experience latency. I wouldn't pay more than $40 for this, personally.
UTILIZATION
The device did alright. There aren't many features packed into this thing. It seems like M-Audio tried to get away with as little as possible. In fact, I'm not sure why they didn't just combine the XLR and 1/4'' into one jack to make it more convenient. Presonus did that with their Firebox, and it worked out perfectly fine. The USB is the biggest killer in this. It's USB 1.1, and there is some very noticeable latency once you start recording. For those that don't know, latency is when you play something on your guitar and you hear it a few milliseconds later. It can really mess up your playing because it's impossible to keep timing like that.
GETTING STARTED
It's super simple to set up. You just install the drivers you need to install, hook up the devices to their corresponding ports, open up your DAW, select the device in your preferences and you're ready to start recording. The device can work in quite a few DAWs out there, so you should have no issues in terms of compatibility for most of these, but it might start to lose support now that it's discontinued. I can't comment on the manual as I never read it. The device is simple enough to where you don't need to read it to set everything up.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are on a super tight budget and need something crazy cheap, this might work out for you. Keep in mind that it's USB 1.1, so you'll have to be running everything very bare when using this device. You can't have plugins running while using this or else you'll experience latency. I wouldn't pay more than $40 for this, personally.