Just before Christmas, I treated myself to an Edirol UA-25 USB Audio/Midi Interface. I’d been looking for a new recording interface since I added a Berhinger DEQ2496 Ultra-Curve Pro graphic equalizer to my guitar rig. I love what you can do with a Pod XT, but there are just some patches (and some guitars!) which really need that extra tweak to hit the spot.
Then came Christmas, and the release of the Nikon D200, and the Edirol spent the whole time sat in its box on the shelf unopened. In the meantime, the paper-shredder fairy seems to have done away with the receipt.
Problem is, now I’ve unpacked it, I’ve had no luck getting anything but noise out of the Edirol box, and I’m not referring to what passes as guitar playing in this household 
If I crank the output of the Pod XT up to maximum, then I can get *something* through the Edirol, but it’s so awash with noise that it’s unusable except for torturing trolls. And it’s a moot point anyway, because the second feed off to my speakers is just too loud for my next door neighbours with that setup.
The Windows drivers for the Edirol didn’t inspire confidence in me either, to be honest. Once the drivers are installed, if you decide to plug the Edirol into a different USB port, you have to uninstall the drivers and then re-install them. To be fair to Roland (the makers of the Edirol box), the other problems with the drivers not recognising the Edirol could be put down to a faulty box … but I don’t have any other USB devices that require an uninstall/re-install just because you’ve plugged the cable into a different that morning.
Anyway, enough was enough. I took advantage of a business trip to Bristol today to pick up a Tascam US-122. And, so far, I’m a very happy chicken. Plugged it in, installed the drivers, and now the noise *is* what passes for guitar playing in this household 
Shame that the PC’s hooked up to really bad speakers! At least it’s pay day on Friday
