ADS TECHNOLOGIES Instant Music RDX150

Rating:
Summary: Buyer Beware!
Review: Caution-I'd advise potential buyers to look carefully for online info concerning INSTANT MUSIC by ADS. Last site I checked rated it 1.4 out of 5 and that's high in my book. The package I just bought is currently back in the original box ready to be returned and here's why:
Nero Software is incompatible with my VAIO and Microsoft XP-->ADS support said they were aware of problem (constant freezing on Step 2) and that I could download a correction from Nero site; Okay, but they didn't tell me that the download was a 5-6 hour affair and my browser kept crashing after 200 plus minutes: two days later, still no upgrade so I called ADS to see if they could ship a new Nero CD with upgrades included-nope...so, essentially, they're selling a defective product and know it but refuse to fix it..come on people-do the right thing...what's with these tech outfits?! In Detroit, we call it a "recall" and it's done to fix defective merchandise and protect buyer's rights and make them a repeat customer. This company makes crap, sells it and knows it and, apparently doesn't care. No soup for you!


Rating:
Summary: Will do your vinyl if you're patient
Review: First, a warning about transferring LPs to CD. You can't just plug your turntable into this thing. The signal from your cartridge must be first run through a "pre-amp." But if you've got a hi-fi system amp or receiver lying around you can use that. The turntable plugs into the phono jacks on your amp, and then you run audio cables from the "record out" jacks (what you used to use to record your albums to tape) of the amp to the Instant Music.
Second, the Nero software is multifaceted and most of it is not necessary for making an LP to CD transfer. There are several ways you COULD make the transfer, but I found NeroMix's "Record" function the easiest. Just bring up the NeroMix window and hit the record button. Windows come up to let you make a few simple settings. Then start the record playing, and save the audio to your hard disk. Then choose another setting in NeroMix to turn these files into an audio CD with your CD-R.
The Nero software has additional features to take out pops, rumble, etc, and normalize the volumes across tracks, but those functions are more complex. I found that unless the vinyl was very scratchy, I was quite satisfied with the CD sound produced

Rating:
Summary: Tedious and Not worth the time
Review: If you are looking to make MP3's from LP's and Cassettes like me...don't waste your time with this product unless you have patience for watching the application crash after you spent 15 minutes recording a song on an LP. Not to mention the details of configuring the MP3's not to be 64MBytes for a 3 minute song.

The hardware works great but Ahead Nero dropped the ball on this one! Their software dances around and does not give a quick solution to making MP3's.

This is a cheapo crap-o alternative to a $300.00 program called Sonar Cakewalk which does the same thing with the soundcard.

Rating:
Summary: Neither Software nor Hardware was acceptable.
Review: The transfers that I made from my turntable to the hard disk using this device were terrible. After a little investigation, I tracked the problem to the USB connection between the RDX150 and the computer. The connection at the RDX150 end did not seat properly - I could wiggle it around and change the quality of the sound. I'm not sure whether the problem was with the design of the device or with the particular unit that I purchased.

I finally decided to direct the output of the pre-amp directly to the soundcard in the PC to see how the Nero software worked. The software had some good features - after a little practice I could record music, break it into tracks and remove noise. It was particulary good at removing clicks and crackles.

However, when I tried to burn a CD, all a got was a terrible hum - the sort of noise that will damage speakers. I was able to burn an acceptable CD from the files created by Nero using Windows Media Player. It is possible that I was not using the software correctly, but the help available for Nero, either included on the CD or available from their website, is virtually useless.

All-in-all, there must be a better way to do this.

Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: They really nailed it with this inexpensive and versatile device. I have converted several phono records to CD's and they play on my CD player, audio system and PC. Sound quality is surprisingly good as the software includes a program for removing static and noise reduction. It works as advertised.