Lexicon Omega- any good?

[bassteban]

My 14-yr-old son wants to record basic band-type stuff(bass, gtrs, keys, drums, vox)w/his laptop- a Samsung w/Audacity. The local music store has the Omega USB interface for $150- I have very limited experience w/OLD-school multitracking, effectively no knowledge of computer-based recording and am NOT great at grasping this stuff; is this a good direction? I have access to decent mics etc, and I'd like to stay around $100-150. Possible? Thank you for any and all input.

 

[TigerInATrance]

I used it extensively in the past to do a friend's demo and it was not very good. From what I could tell, the drivers are poorly written which results in high latency, drop outs, and various lockups that made it a challenge to work and very frustrating at times.

For that price I'd recommend the http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Scarlett2i2/ which is one of the better USB interfaces available.

 

[bassteban]

Excellent- thank you! Searching showed several FS, a potential red flag... anyone else?

 

[ChiliBass]

I've used my Omega to record my band's demos. Steinberg's CuBase LE4 was included when I bought my unit. Here's my impressions:

Omega hardware: very good quality, versatile (number of channels/inputs, etc.)

Omega drivers: Flakey. Somtimes reset their configurations from session to session. I have not had any latency issues, though.

Steinberg CuBase 4: powerful "free" version of this software. I don't use it often enough so I often need to "re-climb" the learning curve for each recording project (but that's a personal issue as opposed to a product issue).

When I did my research (3+ years ago) the Omega was the only under $250 solution that offered true 4-in/4-out capability without requiring FireWire.

Hope that helps.

-CB

 

[bassteban]

Grabbed the Scarlett 2i2 at GC today- topped 180+ w/the extended warranty. The boy is thrilled- Ima run up the street to my buds to borrow a good ish mic and stand. Thank you, TigerInATrance

 

[dannyk]

I had an Omega years ago. I did not like it. The mic pres were horrible (although, what do you expect for the price?). You did well by purchasing the Focusrite.

 

[seansv]

You dodged a bullet.

 

[bassteban]

Breaking the Scarlett in- working on an original tune for a promo pack. Going well so far- appreciating the info