EDIROL UR-80
Feb 1, 2004 12:00 PM, BY DOUG EISENGREIN
Given the staggering number of recording gadgets on the market these days, picking up the Edirol UR-80 for review aroused my curiosity. The UR-80 is a desktop USB recording system for both Mac and Windows machines that combines a 24-bit, 96kHz audio interface with a MIDI control surface for DAWs in a sleek, take-me-along-in-your-backpack type of package. The unit's chassis is made of lightweight plastic and houses multiple faders, pan pots and transport controls, as well as several user-assignable, multiple-function buttons that are plastic but feel smooth and strong. There is a small but well-chosen assortment of audio inputs and outputs, in addition to MIDI I/O. The design aesthetic takes an old-meets-new approach: The body is typical of Edirol, with a brushed-silver paint job highlighted by bold navy- and raspberry-colored graphics. The molded body includes a “scribble strip” that simulates those found on large classic consoles. This is certainly more for fashion than functionality, but the overall package is quirky and cool.
ONE WIRE AND WE'RE OFF
I unpacked the box, located everything I needed and found a nook on my overcrowded desk to place the unit. The UR-80 is small enough for just about any cramped studio, sizing in at about 10 by 15 inches, yet it is big enough for all of the controls on the top panel to be comfortably laid out. I plugged it in, connected the USB cable and loaded the drivers. Included are drivers for Mac OS 9/OS X and Windows 98/2000/ME/XP, so you can use it with practically any machine. The drivers installed quickly on my Mac G4 without a glitch, and the Audio-MIDI setup in OS X found the unit without a problem. The first simple test I ran was to set my Mac's Sound Control Panel to play the system alert sounds through the UR-80. That worked as expected. Next, I played an audio stream from the Internet; the UR-80 responded, and the fidelity was quite good.
Going forward with no complaints, I examined the audio interface. The input and output connectors are situated on the rear panel and include a pair of combination XLR/TRS jacks for mic or line levels with a Hi-Z switch for input 1 and phantom power for both mic preamps. Stereo digital S/PDIF I/O is provided on both RCA and optical connectors. MIDI I/O jacks are onboard, as well. Also on the back is a four-point switch that controls the driver's sample-rate selection, and it actually works! If you switch from one setting to another on the base unit and turn the power off, then back on, the drivers recognize the new setting and instantly adjust themselves accordingly — a nice feature.
The master output section, though it provides the basics, is a bit disappointing: A single headphone output is provided on a professional ¼-inch jack, which is good, but just one stereo master output is provided on RCA connectors. I suppose that, being geared toward computer-based project-studio-type users, the UR-80 will often be used in conjunction with computer-style speakers as reference monitors. (Many of those, including several Edirol models, have only RCA inputs.) For many users, however, ¼-inch TRS or XLR-type balanced connectors are the only way to go — especially in the typical modern studio environment, in which computers, nonshielded video monitors and all manner of other sources that may cause signal interference are everywhere. I experienced a taste of interference myself until I routed the RCA cables from the UR-80 to my mixer away from the VGA monitors and power supplies. Almost all mid- to high-quality monitors have balanced inputs these days, so it's a shame not to make use of them. My suggestion for users of the UR-80 is to use only high-quality, shielded cables.
TAKING CONTROL
After the initial audio tests, I dived into the UR-80's MIDI-control-surface functionality. One of the cool things about this box is that you can use it just as an audio interface, just as a MIDI control surface or both. I decided to take a test drive through Propellerhead Reason 2.5, as it has tremendous MIDI-assignment flexibility, and the UR-80 has a template prebuilt for it. I followed the simple setup directions in the manual, and Reason was up and responding almost immediately. I ran through all of the preset functions, which all worked nicely. The assigned controls ranged from volume faders to sends and transport controls. All were quite responsive and smooth, but, overall, the preset was not as flexible as I would have liked. The controls seemed to be limited to the main sequencer and mixer functions but did not extend to the other modules, such as Reason's samplers or synths. Given that the UR-80 is really designed to be a DAW controller, this was okay; however, one major limitation within Reason was the UR-80's inability to control more than eight channel faders, despite it having four banks of switchable 8-channel track groups. Fortunately, I also tried the UR-80 in Emagic Logic with the appropriate template and had much better luck: Logic did have the ability to receive mixing controls for 32 different channels. It made me wonder whether a better template could be written for Reason.
From there, I moved on to the MIDI I/O by plugging my control keyboard into the UR-80's MIDI In. At first, it didn't work, and I couldn't figure out why. I then launched Logic, again with no luck. So I simply powered my keyboard off and on. Presto, it worked. I had to reset the preferences in Reason, but it too began receiving MIDI straightaway. Now that it was humming, I ran the UR-80 and Reason through a hefty freestyle playing session. I've found that, in OS X, the timing of incoming MIDI from my control keyboard is generally much better when it is connected directly with USB rather than with MIDI cables routed through my soundcard — but not with the UR-80. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it functioned. Reason captured and sequenced every note perfectly, without as much as a hiccup.
Next up was to test the UR-80's audio throughput. I launched Logic 6.3, and following the manual (which was clear and well-illustrated), I chose the proper Core Audio drivers (they appeared with the chosen sample rate in the name — a nice touch), selected the UR-80 as the control surface and fired away. Again, it worked on the first try. I was beginning to really like the ease of this thing. I launched a recently completed 22-track project, and the sound emitting from my monitors was quite good, clear and detailed. I decided to try overdubbing some vocals. I plugged in a Groove Tubes GT57 large-diaphragm condenser, set the trim (the UR-80 provides 40 dB of gain), turned on the phantom power and let loose a melodic improv scat over the top. The preamp responded nicely, picking up all the subtleties of the mic while sounding pretty transparent. It produced a surprisingly warm sound for a digital unit, albeit a tad tubby in the bottom (which could be blamed on the mic).
I really tested the true recording colors of the UR-80 by capturing a single mono track of electric piano with soft tremolo at both 44.1 and 96 kHz (both at 24 bits). After a little warm-up, I ran some simple scales across all 88 piano keys, first with the driver set to 44.1 and then again on the 96k Record setting. Both recordings worked just fine, although, interestingly, on the first 96kHz pass, Logic returned an error saying that the unit was inputting slightly higher than 96,000 Hz data (but it still recorded, and it only happened once). Both sample rates' recordings played back on both sample rates' playback settings in Logic (with the hardware set to 44.1). Of course, in the 44.1 domain, the 96kHz file played back at a little more than double speed and vice versa with 96 kHz in the 44.1 domain, which is normal. I switched the hardware and drivers to the appropriate setting for each audio file and played them back-to-back through my 2.1 monitor system, as well as through a good set of headphones. Again, both recordings sounded quite good. Although they were very similar, a certain clarity and creamy fullness came through in the 96kHz recording; nevertheless, the 44.1 version still displayed plenty of detail and harmonic richness.
For my final audio review, I tested the digital I/O. I ran a loop from the coaxial output to the input, switched the recording source button from analog to digital and hit Record. It worked without a glitch. The master volume in Logic controlled the output volume (and thus the recording volume), but the volume knob on the top panel didn't affect the digital signal — a great feature because this provides the ability to monitor the playback volume separately from the recording. The UR-80 scored another A.
The next step was to try this beast out as a DAW control surface. I called up the proper preset for Logic and worked the various controls. The track-status buttons worked, as did the jog/scrub wheel, transport buttons, pan, send, Logic-specific controls such as window resize, and just about every other assigned function. Unlike with Reason, the faders were able to control four banks of eight tracks. Banking over from 1 through 8 to 9 through 16 and so on worked without any problems up through tracks 1 to 24; from track 24 on, it got screwy: Faders 24 and 25 on the UR-80 both controlled Logic's track 24 and up to track 32, where they were consistently short by one track. I thought this might be an environment glitch within Logic, but even after relaunching Logic with a fresh song, the problem remained. I even restored the factory defaults to see if that would make a difference, but it just shuffled the incorrect assignments around a bit more. I couldn't seem to get a hold of it, so I went to Edirol's Website and found downloadable maps for many applications, including Logic. I imagine that issues such as this will simply be worked out over time.
VIRTUAL CONTROL
Included with the package is the UR-80 Editor, a desktop application that allows you to access all of the UR-80's 43 physical controllers, freely assign as many as 136 different MIDI messages to them and save custom-named memory sets in Standard MIDI File format. The hardware itself can store a maximum of seven memory sets onboard, which by default are prebuilt for Cakewalk Sonar, Steinberg Cubase SX and VST, Digidesign Pro Tools LE, MOTU Digital Performer, Logic, Reason and the Roland MCR-8. In addition, the Editor allows you to make system settings for the UR-80. Installing the UR-80 Editor was a breeze; it is a small app that basically presents a virtual picture of the unit's top face that you click on to bring up individual controller assignment windows.
The manual is pretty clearly written and includes good illustrations. The UR-80 is capable of fairly complex MIDI assignments; if you are a novice with MIDI, don't expect the manual to explain everything. Of course, you can do the basics, such as assigning On/Off or Continuous Controller messages, but there are many more possibilities. For example, if you assign a Free Message, you need to input hexadecimal values, something that many people won't know how to do. For more advanced operations, the Editor comes with online help that explains things in more detail. I was able to assign some basics and get them to work rather easily on the first try in both Reason and Logic. With Reason, I had to rearrange the driver preferences for the new assignments to be received properly. The manual didn't explain that part, so a bit of experimentation with custom memory sets may be necessary with each app. In addition to creating your own memory sets from scratch, you can download the seven default presets via USB, edit them and re-upload them to any of the seven presets. Uploading and downloading is a quick one-command affair. The UR-80's red record lights flash across the top on the hardware until the upload is finished. You will overwrite what is already on the preset that you upload to, but you probably won't be using all of the application presets, so it makes sense to simply overwrite ones that you don't use. If you wish to return to the original presets later on, restoring the factory defaults is a snap with the press of a few buttons on startup.
Overall, my experience with the UR-80 was a positive one. It is quite useful as a controller, and it's fun and easy to use. The manual helped out in certain situations, but it responded the way one might expect. It doesn't require much real estate on your desk, but it can be fairly expansive in its functionality. The sound quality of both playback and recording is impressive, including the mic preamps. I wish there was an onboard MIDI-channel switcher, but I got by with the included Editor application. My only real complaint is the awkward placement of the mains and headphone outputs. Fortunately, the sides of the unit are indented, so some of the cabling is kept out of the way; if I had been the designer, I would have put them on the back with the rest of the I/O section. Besides that, kudos to Edirol for rolling out an excellent product for project studios. Considering its reasonable cost, I expect the UR-80 will find many happy homes.
Product Summary
EDIROL
UR-80 > $545
Pros: Small, light, portable. Easy to use. Good documentation. Excellent sound quality. Good audio I/O section. Excellent software editor.
Cons: Not USB-powered. Cumbersome cable placement. Audio drivers not streamlined.
Contact: tel. (360) 594-4276; e-mail sales@edirol.com; Web www.edirol.com
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