M-Audio MobilePre USB Mobile Preamp and Audio Interface

 Does its job after some tinkering
I bought this recently after the release of Garage Band for OS X. I'm going to share some information that is negative but I am overall happy with the features of this product, with the OS X support, and would recommend it for purchase. The features that I was looking were analog instrument input and the XLR microphone input, along with the best price I could find. I might get into home recording, but I didn't want to spend a ton of money until I was sure I would stick with it.

First off the information in the M-Audio web site lists that the box is able to sample up to 24bit/96kHz. It isn't a big deal to me yet, but I haven't figured out how to change the sample rate. This may be a function of the application but I can't figure out how to change it.

The second issue I had was with drivers. When I got the unit I downloaded the latest drivers 1.5.8 off their website that were supposed to be for use with OS X 10.3 (Panther). I was never able to get anything but squealing out of my machine with those drivers -but the 1.5.8 drivers worked fine on my PowerBook. Out of desparation I installed the drivers 1.5.1 off the CD that came with the MobilePre and the squealing went away. While I am happy that I can record on my desktop I wonder why I have to back down on the driver version.

The third thing is that there is sometimes some sort of latency issue with the unit. Sometimes as I play and switch settings in Garage Band, there will start to be some lag before what I play comes out of the computer. It makes it pretty impossible to play. Strangely when you open up System Preferences and change the "Latency" setting the lag goes away. It doesn't really matter what you change the latency to, it goes away just with changing.

I have not used the unit for USB audio output so I can't comment on that feature. Using the headphones in the MobilePre's monitor port would be useful if you were using the USB audio output, but for recording I find that listening to my unprocessed guitar signal is not all that useful.

 Good for demos and budget home studios
This is a great value as it can power a condenser mic as well as being a recording interface.

Two gripes:
First, as another reviewer pointed out, this unit is a little more noisy than advertised, with a noise floor of about -75db in my testing. This is fine for demos, but not for recording anything for a major release.

Second, there seems to be some bleed-over from one channel to the other, which is fine if you're recording one channel at a time, or using both for stereo recording, but don't expect a pure channel of drums and a pure channel of guitar.


However, for the money, this is a good unit, especially with its portability and preamp.

 Great Audio for PC
I was looking for a device that would allow me to use my professional XLR mics to record voiceovers on my PC and MAC machines. This device allows the recording of professional sounding audio without high-end studio equipment. I am extremely satisfied with this product.

 Great Interface for Solid Machines
The MobilePre USB has been a fantastic performer in my home studio for some months now. No latency issues when recording Mic (XLR or 1/4") or Guitar. Clean output for my Alesis monitors and Sennheiser headphones. I've had no driver issues, no unexpected noise, nor latency setting problems - but...I do have a newer PowerMAC Dual G5.

Whether working in GarageBand, Logic 7, or Reason 3 with Native Instruments' "Guitar Rig", or just using it to play back my collection via iTunes, it's been a joy.

However, I also tested it on an older G4 500 iMac and I witnessed what others are complaining about. So, if you have a dinosaur CPU, you may want to look into a soundcard rather than the MobilePre USB (or other USB sound interface). Or better still, it may be time to update your computer :).

 Much better than I expected
I bought this hardware expecting to just make some nice tracks of myself...maybe for a demo. Some of the reviews had some negative things to say so I was very skeptical. I just expected it to be OK, but I must admit I was extremely surprised. First off, I think the software and kind of mic you use are most important when it comes to the mobilepre. The software it came with is very inadequate. I'm using CoolEditPro along with a Shure Beta58 mic, and the sound is phenomenal for personal PC recording. For the price you pay, I think this is an INCREDIBLE deal for beginner recording equipment. The sound you get is by no means studio quality, but you get 85% of studio power for 15% the price of studio equipment. Bottom line, it's great for anyone looking for simple starting pc recording hardware. A Great value.

If you want a sample of what I've recorded with the mobilepre, feel free to email me and I'll send you a sample of one of my recordings.

 Noizzy...
I bought this preamp to use it with my laptop and the mic in the field. I have used ATR-25 stereo condenser mic. The Signal-Noise ratio of the preamp is lower than specified (with no device/device turned off on the input it's 60-70dB rather than 90dB) - not good.The noise is substantial from 60% of the gain pot scale and is absolutely unacceptable from 85% of the scale. I'm talking about the preamp noise, not the mic - during those tests the mic was unplugged or turned off (results the same). And since the gain at 50-60% of the scale is not satisfactory to me (with the *condenser* mic plugged into the mic input, not line/instr) and above that level the noise was in turn inacceptable, I can't really use the device in the field. I'll probably try using my own preamp on the line input... I'd like to emphasize that condenser mics are more sensitive than dynamic ones, so with the mic preamp I expected to get pretty good sensitivity.

There also were some skipping/dropping issues, but I'm not sure if it's not my laptop's USB that is guilty.

 Pretty neat piece of equipment. when you tweak it a bit...
Thsi device is only 16 bit, but I was able to record in 24 bit 48 sample rate with fooling with the settings on my recording software. Before, tweaking the software...I would get really high latency while recording, but the pres on this aren't bad at all. If you're not lazy and don't mind tweaking stuff a bit, it's a pretty cost efficient piece of equipment. But it's definitely not for lazy people that don't want to take no more than a minute to get stuff to soundultra clear. I've definitely gotten some professional sounding stuff with this one, and I have an ultra critical ear, it definitely does what it's supposed to. Make sure you have an up to par system though because it is usb powered. if not, you might want to try for the presonus firebox...which is firewire based and I definitely recommend it as well.

 Unnecessarily Complicated
The Product was in fine working order, but for the purposes of recording speeches, it's too complicated. It seems like it's trying to be a cheap version of pro-tools, but if you want to do what pro-tools does, rather buy pro-tools. So, i don't rate the product very high.

 You get what you pay for.
Great price for a portable usb mic pre. But you definitely get what you pay for. The audio quality is extremely poor, and it quite often crashed the system. If you are doing simple recordings like podcasts or just getting scratch tracks for song ideas, this is the item for you. Otherwise, save your pennies up for the Lexicon Omega, or the paragon of portable audio interface: the Mbox 2.