Sonar 8 with Allen & Heath ZED-R16 (or Mackie ONYX 1640)

It's the board I would buy if I was going to buy one. It comes with Sonar LE so I imagine it is a good fit for Sonar.

I like the fact that it has the ADAT connections because I would still be able to use my existing interfaces for extra inputs.

I am sure it sounds fabulous.

The A&H has gotten a lot of good press but I don't know anyone w/ one.  I do love A&H stuff, tho.  Good bang for the buck and it is set up for tracking and then returning and mixing those digital tracks through their analog channels.  Kinda like the big boys (board/apogee/board), but at a good price.  There is a long thread at gearsluz.com - do a search tho it is still alive.  Some good info there.  Also be advised that there is a new unit almost out - 24 channels and the option of moving faders.  It was supposed to come out and the list price was 5000 euros, so it is considerably more expensive but upscale.

My only real concern was the conversion quality, but that has gotten no real knocks.  The analog pieces are good stuff, if A&H lives up to its past units.  I would have liked that for here at home, but was out of my price range (besides, I have a board already), even before they dropped the price from $3000.

You should be very happy.

@

Just checking, these things are about $2,000, right?  For that money, how would it compare to the main unit of Cakewalk's V-Studio 700?

Thanks everyone for the replies..........

tubeydude

  Do you use it for mixing back through? Am I correct in thinking that you can route 16 channels from SONAR through each ZED channel, either through the EQ and/or Insert point (or not as required) and then mixing in real time (or using envelopes) and then record that back to Sonar either in another 16 channels or as stereo mix?

How do you find the control surface side without motorised faders? I have a PCR-800 and find the faders on that very unintuitive to use to the point where I no longer bother. I guess I've been spoiled by a BCF and now MCU. It's not a deal breaker for me I can always carry on using the MCU but I'm thinking if it's any good as a CS I may well sell the MCU. I guess time and trial will give me the answer to that though.

Riojazz

thanks for the suggestion but here in the good 'ol UK the ZED-R16 retails at £1500 and the VS 700 (without Sonar) at £3400. ie more than double the price, no EQ and less buttons/knobs/faders to play with albeit there is the Fantom synth, but I already have a Sonic Cell which isn't a million miles from the Fantom apparently.


The attraction to the ZED for me is it's a larger, better version of the way I already work, (firewire mixer) with the added benefit of having much better pres/EQ and routing. Hopefully the drivers are more stable than Alesis drivers but in fairness since my move to Win 7 x64 the Alesis has been rock solid. I'm thinking/hoping it should be a simple case of unplug the firewire cable from the multimix, plugin the ZED and after driver installation enjoy the benefits of a better mixer with more versatile routing without having to learn a new work flow. Time spent playing with new buttons and faders is far more fun.

I'm guessing the only question now is do I wait till I've saved the ££s or bring out Mr Plastic to play?

FBB,

I have indeed routed a 16 track mix in sonar to the ZED discreetly for each channel at the same time.  I also recorded it back on track 17/18.

And yeah you can choose to have eq in the loop or not.  You can also insert while you are doing that and have your external hardware acting like a "plug in" so to speak.

I have used the control surface, but not all the time.  It is nice to control the mix track by track and create your envelopes using this. 

Overall, it is great.

the onyx 1640 has 16 channels and the 2 mains as input but only returns a stereo mix to the desk.

I use it for live recording but there's no sub group or aux patching available for routing through your DAW. The subs and aux features for live are awesome.

To get specs closer to the Zed R16 you need to get the new 1640i but I still don't think its as flexible. Definitely no Control Surface functions in the new Mackie i line.

As for the eq and preamps in the 1640 I find them superb for live recording. I run the front of house and do a dry record to disc of each track plus the stereo mains out. Works great for that particular job.

If I had the money Ii'd get the A & H ZED R 16.
The Fostex 16 channel unit where the inputs are part of a stage box connected via CAT5 to the Mixer looks interesting for live work. Lots of options but I think for combination studio /Live I'd go the A & H.

The firewire on the Mackie 1640 is pre Eq. not pre-fader.  The recording levels are controlled by the pre faders.  The monitor levels are controlled by the track vol. sliders, a nice feature actually. The Eq. can be used to monitor or for a live mix but is by-passed durring recording.  FWIW you can send  channels 1-8 into channels 9-16 to have Eq on 8 channels for recording.

Three good resources:

http://www.allen-heath.com/zed/zed-R16.asp

http://www.cakewalk.com/Tips/HW/ZED_R16.aspx

http://www.gearslutz.com/...16-firewire-mixer.html

The last thread is massive and has been active for over a year, but there is a TON of great info in it. 

I hope you enjoy your R16 as much as I do.  I even met the Designer himself at Namm (Mike Griffin).  The support has been top notch as well.

Have fun...