It's not bad.

For the money, it's great. I've had mine four years now.
Yes, like some of the reviewers here, I had one of the pots get scratchy. A quick shot of Deoxit took care of that. Not that big a deal.
I've used it with two different laptops, Windows Vista and 7, and it's always worked fine. Lots of features and input/output options.
From what I can tell (by reading other reviews) there are some quality control issues - I guess I got lucky and got a good one.

Pretty Amazing

In the few months I have had the Omega, I have yet to be disappointed. I have done everything from record full songs to Voice Overs for a Radio Speech class. It is so easy to set, install, and operate. I'm not a huge fan of Cubase but for a free version it is not terrible. But the Omega will work with other programs such as Logic. I would definitely recommend this to someone who wants to record and is on a budget.

Used in our Vocal Music Department

We needed a simple to use, inexpensive device for the Vocal Music Department in our K12 school to use. The teachers are not computer experts and don't want to be.

I set them up with this device and a laptop that I loaded Audacity on because of it's simple interface and ease of use. They are ecstatic with the setup and use it constantly.

A very good investment for our environment and purposes.

Easy to use, easy to setup, sounds excellent and is reliable.

I agree that an on/off switch would be a welcome addition, we just plug it into a power strip and switch it there.

Why The Cheapo Controls?

This is really hard to rate. It served all my immediate purposes of moving digital recordings from my old Roland HD recorder to my PC,but after about a year the 'pots' (potentiometers - knob controls) became noisy and unusable. I was using it in live performance and every time I beat my foot it would crackle! (So, don't beat your foot!) I assumed it was a loose connection. When I examined it closer it turned out that half the pots were 'dirty'. I sprayed them with a cleaner for that purpose - from the 'inside'. It cleared everything up . . . for about a month. Now it is reverting back to noise from the 'cheapo' pots.

Decent, but there are much better options out there.

It worked fine for a little under a year and then started going crazy on me. With random audio dropouts, EXTREME latency issues and even just refusing to turn on, it quickly became impossible to work with and eventually stopped working completely.

While it lasted it was a good product though. The pre-amps sounded decent and the direct monitoring was a nice feature.

Overall, I'd pass on this and spring for something nicer and more reliable. And something with at least USB2.0.

Keep Searching

The reason why I gave it 2 stars is that there are better units out there now, BUT at the time this unit was launched, it was a good deal I guess(that's what I felt). The only issue I have had with this is that after a few months the output knob started crackling. Other than that, this unit has been good. Keep searching coz in my honest opinion, this unit is outdated.

usability, reliability?

It worked OK for a year or so then developed its own personality and would begin losing its ability to keep its editing programming after once saved. I also found you could not playback an audio recording through any other program than through the "Omega" interface.

Doesn't Last Long

When I first bought it, it was great. Recorded everything with it. But within a year it started to develop a mind of its own. The knobs starts getting scratchy when you turn them. The levels become distorted and sometimes the music levels switches from right to left unevenly. Save your money and get something more reliable.

Good for the price

After much research I decided to purchase the Omega instead of jumping up into the price range of the Firepod. For this price range, the sound is great and it can record 4 analog inputs at once when almost everything else around $300 can only do 2. Wish it had an on/off switch - you have to unplug it to turn it off. But I like controlling and monitoring the levels from the unit as opposed to an on-screen interface. If you don't need to record more than 4 tracks at a time, I would recommend this unit.

Simple To Use

Omega is simple to use and has all the basic neccessities for intro digital recording. The item does have 1/4" outputs. The first review was in error. I actually don't use the pro Tracks software but Sonar and it interfaces well. Great value.

Good Interface for Money

I bought this Interface to have a affordable solution to track audio to my computer at a reasonable quality. I paired this interface up with a Studio Projects C1 and used Adobe Audition to do my multi-tracking. For the price I would say this is a pretty nice unit. The preamps are useable but not exciting, and I was able to get some decent vocal cuts out of this unit. In this price range, I would recommend this unit to anyone who wants a portable and easy way to get started in recording;however, if you want to get serious about your music, you will probably want to step up to something a little higher end.

first review in error

Yes it does have 1/4" outputs.

Omega

This product is the best desk top interface all around. I ccompared this to the Makie, Mbox,and the Tascam and i only found one thng i didnt like about this. It has no 1/4inch outputs


This is the bease one for the value in its catagory