When I first got this product I was thrilled by it's ease of use, from taking it out of the box, installing it, and using it to record. It gets the job done when I hook either my bass guitar, or electric guitar up to it and use it to record them. There are no extra hums, hisses, or any other noise, just the sound of the guitar. I wish I could say the same for the use of microphones, but I can't. The recording device does not have phantom power. Phantom power is used to power some microphones, like the one I have, an MXL 990 condenser microphone. I am now looking at purchasing a different recording device made by M-Audio that is capable of Phantom power. Overall, this is a great product for a person new to recording. It's very user friendly, from installing the driver, to using it to record.

The software is so easy to use and you can easily figure it out if you are technologically impared. In 10 minutes you can have the software "user capable." If you don't know anything about stero adjusting, like the treble bass, wet, dry, ect. then it's ok, every sound effect has settings so if you try and change it and screw things up for the worst, then you can reset it back to normal. some stuff is really complicated when you start to edit your creations to the max. everytime i use the software i learn somthing new. the worst thing about the system is that it is not compatable with Windows Vista. everything you create canbe exprted, even the demos that come with it. the problem is, it's exported in a format that music programs like Media Player, itunes, and zune, ect. can't read and play. so you have to manualyy change the format to mp3 or wav or what ever you use. but you can't do that inside the program, you have to do it in the folder you export your "composition" to overall, i love this thing, even though i plan on upgraded to more professional system this program and Hub is for anyone whowants to get started with their "compositions" and get their music made. professional quality, beginner capable

While this product is geared toward folks with instruments and microphones, I'm just using it for the microphone input. The FastTrack USB was very easy to set up and use. It doesn't require an external power supply, so it's equally adept on the road or on a table. I don't keep it connected all the time and my laptop seamlessly switches between the FastTrack when connected and internal audio when it's not connected. I use it with Adobe Audition with Sennheiser headphones and haven't had any problems so far. My only change would be to use a 7.0mm (1/4-inch) headphone jack instead of the 3.5mm (1/8-inch) jack.

Besides any vocals or guitars you record on your PC with this system, there are dozens of "virtual instruments" available built into the software. The more simultaneous tracks you record, the larger the demand on your system's RAM. If you plan to lay down 8 or more tracks (instruments or voices) to play concurrently, load up on as much RAM as you can for your PC. The minimum you'd need just to avoid frustration is 1 GB of RAM, but you'd be much better off with 2 GB of RAM. For those wanting to record several dozen instruments and/or virtual instruments that play simultaneously, better make sure you're using a PC with even more RAM than that, or it may run as slow as molasses! Please be aware this product works great with Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition, but does not record at all with most computers running Media Center Edition. That's because there's no standard implementation for Media Center Edition, each installation is unique to the PC manufacturer and the specific model of PC you have. So be sure you have the right operating system before buying this product! Don't buy it if you're running Windows XP Media Center Edition. Also, watch the M-Audio web site to make sure the Windows Vista driver is available before buying it for your Windows Vista PC, and make sure that Windows Vista is mentioned by name on the box before you ring it up at the register!

Take a little time to figure it out.Not very good with computer sound card out put.I had to connect head phone..it sound great! easy to record.time line in recording software not very friendly.I have to export to mixed in another program...I like it going to get monitor speaker to support this soon.