Allen&Heath Zed Series

Spurn · Post by **Spurn** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:20 pm

damn now I want an r16

damn that sh*t is expensiiiiive!!!
way too much for what id need atm.
i really like the firewire capability though.

anybody know of any other good mixers with firewire?

tone-def · Post by **tone-def** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:48 pm

if you look at the ZED-R16 you will see it's actually really cheap. there's nothing with that much quality and features for around that price.

dubgil · Post by **dubgil** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 7:15 pm

dubgil wrote:
tone-def wrote:
nrjizer wrote:I just looked at the r16 out of curiosity. When it says it has a Firewire link with 18 I/O, does that mean you can plug the r16 straight into your computer and pipe audio signals from your DAW straight into the mixer via the FW line? That would practically negate the need for a dedicated audio interface, wouldn't it?
yes, this is main reason i want one.

nrjizer wrote:Although if you had hardware synths that you wanted to process in your DAW and then send to a mixer, you'd probably have to use an aux send or something like that, right?
just record the synths into the DAW.
Can this only be done with FW, what about the USB option?
The reason I got rid of my Alesix USB mixer was because it was simply Stereo into and out of the computer

ANYONE???

Is firewire the only option for sending multiple Hardware synths into a DAW in to separate channels, instead of all synths being sent Stereo into DAW. I love hardware, but I hate having to do multiple takes of each synth at different times, I lose the "live" aspect of it all...

are the any USB options for achieving this?

nrjizer · Post by **nrjizer** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 7:24 pm

Not that I know of. Sending multiple signals into a computer while retaining reasonable quality takes a lot of bandwidth. Usb 3.0 is supposed to surpass firewire, but if you're talking about just a regular old USB port you plug your mice and keyboards into, then I don't think there's much available that's worth your while.

Are you using a desktop, or a laptop? If you have a desktop you can easily upgrade to Firewire by getting a PCI card with a firewire port (these are readily available). Otherwise, it's probably time to upgrade. Used macbooks with firewire go for about $700 last i looked, and perhaps even less now.

dubgil · Post by **dubgil** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:38 pm

nrjizer wrote:Not that I know of. Sending multiple signals into a computer while retaining reasonable quality takes a lot of bandwidth. Usb 3.0 is supposed to surpass firewire, but if you're talking about just a regular old USB port you plug your mice and keyboards into, then I don't think there's much available that's worth your while.

Are you using a desktop, or a laptop? If you have a desktop you can easily upgrade to Firewire by getting a PCI card with a firewire port (these are readily available). Otherwise, it's probably time to upgrade. Used macbooks with firewire go for about $700 last i looked, and perhaps even less now.

I do have a desktop and I am in the midst of my upgrade descisions I had a false impression usb 2.0 allowed this, oh well. Now I am researching this R16 and PCI card.

nrjizer · Post by **nrjizer** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 12:38 am

Now I'm really torn on what to get. I really would like to incorporate an analog mixer into my setup, and the r16 is really the most practical choice because my sole computer is a MacBook, and I haven't come across any firewire interfaces that have more than 10 analog i/o. But on the other hand I'm still producing on POS Klipsch PC speakers and really need some decent monitors. And the way I see it, I may as well spend about a grand and get a decent pair right off the bat, instead of getting some budget monitors that I'll want to replace after a few years anyways. Any advice as to which route to go?

Barfunkel · Post by **Barfunkel** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:24 pm

tone-def wrote:if you look at the ZED-R16 you will see it's actually really cheap. there's nothing with that much quality and features for around that price.

This. It's actually pretty cheap for what it is. Analogue mixer with 2 sweepable mids, sound quality is a step up from the Mackies, 16 channels of AD/DA... Another mixer of this quality, 16 channels of A/D, 16 channels of D/A... you can't get that with 2000 euros, and you'd lack the integration and ease of use.

I was going to go an entirely different route for my new studio but this is really tempting me...

dubgil · Post by **dubgil** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:27 pm

The more I look into this, the more I'm thinking R16 maybe the only interface one could need for the foreseeable future. I don't think I've ever seen a midi section on a board before. Plenty of controls to control efx in Live for instance. I'm really liking this board...

Thanks for sharing the topic