Alesis iO2

Pete
February 27, 2009

Rating: 9/10

Easy to use, incredibly well built and very compact.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS & IN USE

I purchased the io2 for use with GB and Logic Express 8, on a 2.4GHz MacBook running OS X 10.5.6. The simple layout, rock solid build and class compliance with 10.5 appealed and the device certainly hasn\'t disappointed.

I was a little concerned about comments regarding compatibility with OS X 10.4, but having seen other users report no issues with 10.5 I took the plunge. The device was recognized instantly and I had no problems getting my DAWs to play nicely with the io2.

Guitars and bass are a breeze, playing/recording like a dream through Guitar Rig 3 with no noticeable latency! I\'ve also had great results recording vocals and acoustic guitar with a T.Bone SC400 condenser. Some may say the preamps are a bit weedy but they\'re fine for my needs and have yielded surprisingly clear and warm results.

Initial problems sending MIDI data (from an old keyboard) were rectified by removing a badly built aggregate device with the OS X \'Audio/MIDI Setup\' utility; most definitely a case of user error on my part. I was helped through this by the Alesis UK tech support line and was chuffed to bits by how helpful they were.

While I\'m unable to vouch for the io2\'s compatibility
with Vista (32 or 63 bit) and can state that it works without a hitch in XP; both natively and running through Bootcamp and a virtual machine.

BUILD QUALITY

This thing is built like a tank, with all jacks and connectors being bolted directly to the unit casing, so longevity shouldn\'t be an issue. The casing itself is thick, rigid and far more durable than other interfaces at this price point and I\'ve no qualms about chucking it in my laptop bag for a session away from home. Switches have a positive action and are easily accessible and the status light-strip lets you know if you\'ve left the phantom power on by mistake.

There\'s no discernible noise from the control pots and the \'direct/USB monitoring mix\' control is very useful. The only addition I\'d make would be a couple of guard rails on the top to protect the knobs while in transit (as per the Tapco Link devices).

SUMMARY

In summary, I\'ve no reservations about recommending the io2 to anyone looking for an affordable, durable and very versatile interface.

While you should certainly consider the potential issues with earlier versions of OS X (specifically 10.4) and think about how much welly you need from your mic preamps, I\'d be surprised if these were a show-stopper for most users.

Whether you\'re a hobbyist or a seasoned pro who likes to travel light, you\'d do well to check out this device.

Andrew
December 11, 2008

Rating: 8/10

Can also confirm that this works perfectly on a Mac (OS X 10.5.5) and also on Windows XP running under Boot Camp.

Nick Allott
November 28, 2008

Rating: 8/10

Don\\\\\\\'t listen to the guy above about the mac problem. I\\\\\\\'ve got one of these little boxes, I just plug my perception into it and i get a sweet sound constantly. I\\\\\\\'m running my mac on 10.5.5 and I\\\\\\\'ve no problems what so ever.

Mike
December 28, 2007

Rating: 9/10

My first impression of IO2 was bad - I listened through headphone out, with my trusty headphones. Trebles and ~3-10kHz are accentuated, making your ears ache after a few minutes of listening. Turned out it was a mistake to do so. Connect it through your amplifiers s/pdif coaxial input, and you are suddenly in heaven. Sound is perfect. So what is that headphone input good for anyway then?? You can use it to monitor your recording without latency, mix the USB/input signal so you dont need to stress your cpu with monitoring (and anyway, normally this would be unusable due to latency).

There is a small bug that it cannot function if you put your PC to standby and start again, noisy clicks are starting to appear. Just boot your machine or dont allow your PC/Windows to go to standby, and all is well! I dont think Alesis will ever fix this, so its up to you if you can live with this little glitch or not. For me, all the robustness and quality features of this box are more than enough to compensate.

One minus for the bad headphone out, otherwise it rules.

Paul
June 26, 2006

Rating: 6/10

I tried the Alesis IO 2 for a couple of weeks. I never realy got on with it. The instrument to pc responce was very hit and miss and the only time I had any real joy was if I plugged everything in and rebooted, only then would anything register. The guitar/bass worked ok but had no real joy with midi keyboard. I succeeded only once to get a any midi data into the pc but the latency seemed to hugh? The manual was very simple and gave no real explaination as to what does what? Consequently, I spent hours tweaking, switching on and off and pluging/unpluging and got very little in return. The best thing about the this product was the Cubase LE software which was brilliant. The alesis went back I'm afraid. Not very impressed and not very user friendly. Either that or I expected far too much? Sorry about that!