i don't mean to hijack the thread, i just have a quick question to make sure i'm doing this right. how exactly do you know if you're recording in 16bit or 24bit with the ua-5? i'm pretty sure i'm doing it right, but now i'm worried.
To record in 24 bit you need 3 things to be in place:
- ADV switch on back of UA-5 set to on
- Install the 'advanced' drivers that came on the UA-5 disc
- Set your recording software to 24 bit
For 16 bit
- no special drivers required (at least not in win2k - the device was just recognized)
- ADV switch set to off
- Set your recording software to 16 bit
Any time you change settings on the UA-5, you need to power cycle it for the changes to take effect. You usually need to restart your recording software as well.
I remember the 24 bit drivers going missing after the box was run in 16 bit once and I had to reinstall them. It hasn't happened since but I keep the 24 bit driver install on the hard drive just in case.
You can tell what mode you're running by looking at the device manager - I use the MME drivers in 24 bit. It appears under
Sound, Video and Game Controllers as
EDIROL UA-5 (MME)If I turn the ADV switch off, it appears as
USB Audio Device. Double clicking reveals the Edirol UA-5 name and it uses a generic USB audio driver that comes with the OS.
If you open up your device manager and expand the
Sound, Video and Game Controllers section you can watch the devices appear and disappear as you power on/off the UA-5.
Your software will probably allow you to record in whatever bit depth you set...
- 16 bit driver > 16 bit record setting - good
- 16 bit driver > 24 bit record setting - you won't get the extra bits but no harm done - you're just wasting space
- 24 bit driver > 16 bit record setting - bad - you're truncating 8 bits
- 24bit driver > 24bit record setting - good
The bit meter in wavelab was helpful in determining the above. That, autosplit and UV22HR are the only redeeming features in that silly program