Allen&Heath Zed Series

[Alex M]

I don't understand how an analog desk can improve the sound.
It might improve it for yourself (the producer) but surely the end experience depends on what the listener uses to listen to your music... or not?

What does a mix desk do to your final track that makes it sound better?

What does it differ from say for example, an ultralite.

I understand that if you've got loads of hardware you obviously need somewhere to plug it in and thats where a mixing desk would come in handy. But to improve your sound...?

I'm probably totaly wrong so someone please educate me!

[tone-def]

you can do things with an analog desk that you can't with mixing in the box like driving the signal to get some analog distortion. anything analog sounds warmer.

[Brankis]

I don't understand how an analog desk can improve the sound.
It might improve it for yourself (the producer) but surely the end experience depends on what the listener uses to listen to your music... or not?

What does a mix desk do to your final track that makes it sound better?

What does it differ from say for example, an ultralite.

I understand that if you've got loads of hardware you obviously need somewhere to plug it in and thats where a mixing desk would come in handy. But to improve your sound...?

I'm probably totaly wrong so someone please educate me!

i actually have a zed and i find that recording the tracks through it as opposed to bouncing produces a warmer and less flat sound. I'm not doing full mixes on it, basically i have a couple stereo and mono channels being sent from ableton and then i record it back in from there... it also works in the sense that if you have a really nice soundcard like RME or Metric Halo or whatever that produces a really nice quality, you will be recording that sound instead of just rendering the track in the computer where that has no effect.

think about acoustic music and how many noise floors and little boxes all those signals pass though before they get recorded... i think alot of quality in electronic music gets lost because people are afraid to pass there ultra clean signal out of the computer when in reality i think audio benefits from some analog noise and is meant to be RECORDED not rendered...

to each his own though, it is still definitely possible to get a good end result staying in the computer the whole time...

Camea actually recommended the ZED series in an interview she did @ www.fwd.dj

[nrjizer]

Would a Zed 14 be worth buying despite only having 10 dedicated mixing channels? I would like to add some live mixing capabilities into my setup but I'm worried that 10 channels would become limiting. I couldn't really afford anything larger any time soon though, as that would require a new audio interface as well.

[Android]

I had an awesome sounding Soundtracs 32 ch board

but it's kept overheating after being serviced twice

in the mean time I bought a Mackie VLZ1604

it has way less headroom and clips rather harshly


mixing on a piece of hardware is way faster than mousing about too

[clubfoot]

mixing on a piece of hardware is way faster than mousing about too

indeed.

and to those who wonder about digital mix versus analog here on this thread, i have to say; analog summing is a lot better than digital. i've tried both ways and there is no way i could ever work without an analog mixer again. maybe there is some high-end digital gear that can do the job but i'm pretty sure most of us here couldn't afford it.

[Edward_Molton]

Would a Zed 14 be worth buying despite only having 10 dedicated mixing channels? I would like to add some live mixing capabilities into my setup but I'm worried that 10 channels would become limiting. I couldn't really afford anything larger any time soon though, as that would require a new audio interface as well.

It all depends on your needs off course. For me a ZED 14 would do the trick but it might not in your case.

[::BLM::]

Never had a mixer so I dont really understand the process. If you were to mix it down on the mixer, but then record back into Ableton doesnt that defeat the whole point of having a mixing desk as essentially you're still bouncing down out of a DAW?