- Joined
- Nov 20, 2023
- Messages
- 11
- Karma
- 10
I wanted to put my thoughts on this into some kind of coherent form mostly for myself: probably rather few people use it the way I do, but if you do then perhaps you might be interested too. This might be contentious (but might not).
What I wanted from it
I am sure a lot of people are using it either in conjunction with a DAW for recording, or as a competent live mixer which will also make fully-multitrack soundboard recordings.
What I wanted was something else: I wanted to be able to make and mix recordings entirely standalone: I don't want to use a DAW, at all, ever because I'm kind of done with sitting in front of a computer.
I also want an interface which hides a minimal amount from me: I want to be able to tell, by looking at the thing, what its settings are, and to be able to change those settings without selecting some menu. I like what I call 'knobby synths' – synths which have a physical knob per parameter, or nearly – and I want my recording and mixing system to be the same.
I want enough channels and good enough quality. I want to be able to make backups (with a computer is fine). I want decent sized faders.
Does it achieve this?
It is close. It is certainly closer than anything which does not cost a great deal more and would take up a lot more room. I am not aware of anything close to what it does which is even slightly affordable.
It certainly is at least as competent as the systems on which famous albums were made in the 1970s and early 1980s. Of course we all obsess about the magic qualities of certain consoles, of certain outboard gear, of tape. But really, if you can't record your masterwork with this thing, you probably don't have a masterwork in you (I don't, and I'm fine with that). And unlike, say, tape, it's not continually going wrong, and degrading every time it passes the heads even when it's not.
But it's not perfect: the rest of this is me whining about how it could be better.
How it could be better
Aux sends. It betrays its design as a live console by labelling two of these 'monitor sends' and making them unilaterally pre-fader. They should be switchable pre-post, and ideally there should be at least one more (so, L/R for two bits of outboard gear per channel). Some more 'dumb' (no aux sends, perhaps simplified tone stack) returns would be nice: they don't need to have their own tracks.
Track move / copy. It should be possible to move recorded tracks to other channels, digitally. There's no earthly reason for this limitation: it's basically a file rename on the SD card. You can get around this by recabling things, but who really wants to do that? Except you can't completely because of the next annoyance.
Channel inserts. All the channels should have inserts so you can put an outboard compressor (say) on any channel. Currently, if you record channel 1 & 2 using an outboard compressor, you then have to fiddle with cables to record any *other* channel using it. Because you can't copy tracks to free up 1 & 2, and only 1 & 2 have inserts.
Mix inserts. These would be nice. Even nicer would be if they were before the master recorder section.
Internal FX. Either get rid of them (fine by me) or make them better.
Other things. It doesn't matter for me, but phantom power switchable per channel or per group of channels would be good for many people I suspect. Not being black would be good, more meters would be good (but unrealistic at this price). Better MIDI sync (on 5-pin MIDI!) but I have not explored this.
Things which are fine
I am sure lots of people want more undo levels and recorder fanciness. Those people never used multitrack tape machines. It's fine.
Summary
For the price, I love it. It is so much closer to being what I want than anything I've been able to think about owning, ever, that it's not funny. All the complaining above is just, well, complaining. As it is it is not, really, limiting what I can do: the limitation is, as it usually is, me. I mean, under £1,000 for something which can record and mix 24 channels of 24-bit 48kHz audio: seriously that's amazing. As I said, if you can't record your masterwork on this, you don't actually have a masterwork in you.
What I wanted from it
I am sure a lot of people are using it either in conjunction with a DAW for recording, or as a competent live mixer which will also make fully-multitrack soundboard recordings.
What I wanted was something else: I wanted to be able to make and mix recordings entirely standalone: I don't want to use a DAW, at all, ever because I'm kind of done with sitting in front of a computer.
I also want an interface which hides a minimal amount from me: I want to be able to tell, by looking at the thing, what its settings are, and to be able to change those settings without selecting some menu. I like what I call 'knobby synths' – synths which have a physical knob per parameter, or nearly – and I want my recording and mixing system to be the same.
I want enough channels and good enough quality. I want to be able to make backups (with a computer is fine). I want decent sized faders.
Does it achieve this?
It is close. It is certainly closer than anything which does not cost a great deal more and would take up a lot more room. I am not aware of anything close to what it does which is even slightly affordable.
It certainly is at least as competent as the systems on which famous albums were made in the 1970s and early 1980s. Of course we all obsess about the magic qualities of certain consoles, of certain outboard gear, of tape. But really, if you can't record your masterwork with this thing, you probably don't have a masterwork in you (I don't, and I'm fine with that). And unlike, say, tape, it's not continually going wrong, and degrading every time it passes the heads even when it's not.
But it's not perfect: the rest of this is me whining about how it could be better.
How it could be better
Aux sends. It betrays its design as a live console by labelling two of these 'monitor sends' and making them unilaterally pre-fader. They should be switchable pre-post, and ideally there should be at least one more (so, L/R for two bits of outboard gear per channel). Some more 'dumb' (no aux sends, perhaps simplified tone stack) returns would be nice: they don't need to have their own tracks.
Track move / copy. It should be possible to move recorded tracks to other channels, digitally. There's no earthly reason for this limitation: it's basically a file rename on the SD card. You can get around this by recabling things, but who really wants to do that? Except you can't completely because of the next annoyance.
Channel inserts. All the channels should have inserts so you can put an outboard compressor (say) on any channel. Currently, if you record channel 1 & 2 using an outboard compressor, you then have to fiddle with cables to record any *other* channel using it. Because you can't copy tracks to free up 1 & 2, and only 1 & 2 have inserts.
Mix inserts. These would be nice. Even nicer would be if they were before the master recorder section.
Internal FX. Either get rid of them (fine by me) or make them better.
Other things. It doesn't matter for me, but phantom power switchable per channel or per group of channels would be good for many people I suspect. Not being black would be good, more meters would be good (but unrealistic at this price). Better MIDI sync (on 5-pin MIDI!) but I have not explored this.
Things which are fine
I am sure lots of people want more undo levels and recorder fanciness. Those people never used multitrack tape machines. It's fine.
Summary
For the price, I love it. It is so much closer to being what I want than anything I've been able to think about owning, ever, that it's not funny. All the complaining above is just, well, complaining. As it is it is not, really, limiting what I can do: the limitation is, as it usually is, me. I mean, under £1,000 for something which can record and mix 24 channels of 24-bit 48kHz audio: seriously that's amazing. As I said, if you can't record your masterwork on this, you don't actually have a masterwork in you.
