[LAU] Using Alesis iO2 Express as pre-amp

Hi folks! I'm about to order an Alesis iO2 Express interface, primarily for bass practice and simple single-track recordings at home. I see that the interface has a direct monitor path to route inputs to outputs without latency. I would like to use this for my bass to practice with headphones or stereo speakers. Since the documentation doesn't tell much about the monitoring capabilities, I'd like to know whether direct monitoring works when the device only has bus power supplied, but not a real USB host. There are very cheap USB power supplies available that just have the +5V and GND pins connected. Could someone with access to this kind of interface please confirm whether the direct monitoring works with only USB bus power connected? Or does anyone know of a different device with such "offline" capabilities? Regards, André -- Greetings... From: Andre Colomb <acolomb(a)schickhardt.org>