BretB
I would also love to see comments on this console. Looks great on paper.
I recently bought one of these mainly based on how good they look on paper, and I'm pleased to say that I personally find it as good as hoped it would be.
Bear in mind that this is written from my point of view as a serious hobbyist and upgrading from an Alesis Multimix FW12.
It looks and feels like a serious piece of kit and installation on Windows 7 x64 using Sonar x64 was quick and trouble free. I just downloaded the drivers from the A & H website and ran the installation program, plugged in the ZED-R16 and turned it on. Worked straight away. The input & output drivers in Sonar show as follows...........
(ZED-R Channel x/y Left - ZED-R channel x/y Right - ZED-R Channel x/y Stereo) x 8 from the individual channels
- where x and y is either 1/2 - 3/4 - 5/6 - 7/8 - 9/10 - 11/12 - 13/14 - 15/16
&
(ZED-R Main Left - ZED-R Main Right - ZED-R Main Stereo) x 1 for the main stereo pair.
This gives you a total of 18 in and 18 out - the separate 16 channels plus the main stereo pair.
Simply put if you select "
ZED-R Channel 1/2 left" in a Sonar track it plays back or records via the ZED-R's Channel 1 depending on whether it's the output or input you've selected.
Select
"ZED-R Channel 1/2 Right" it plays/records from the Zed's channel 2 again depending obviously whether it's input or output selection (or both)
"ZED-R Channel 1/2 Stereo" records or plays from both ZED channels 1 & 2, again depending on settings. Pan the mixer channels fully left and right for true stereo separation depending on source.
The pre-amps are fantastic, very quiet and in the context of my experience the best I've ever used, which isn't many admittedly but my cloth ears definitely notice the difference. The EQ is also excellent and even I find it easy to get a great sound. It's 4-band with a high and low shelving control and then two bands low-mid and high-mid both of which have a fully sweepable freq setting with adjustable Q. All four with cut and boost controls.
The routing is where I think this mixer really comes into it's own. TBH it's almost overwhelming for someone like myself as there's so many possibilities. You can choose to either go straight 'to tape' just after the preamp/insert/hi pass filter while continuing to monitor the audio signal via the desk adding all the EQ and effects via the aux busses (2 pre & 2 post) you wish or go 'to tape' after the EQ (which is switchable BTW) again while monitoring after the AUX busses.
If you really wish to record what you are monitoring including the aux busses it's possible to use one of the pre fader aux busses to route the signal back into another free channel and record that.
Playback is similar. You can either monitor via the stereo return, sending the Sonar track back through your Sonar busses/outputs assuming you master output is set to the ZED's MAIN OUT(S) or you can select one of the individual ZED channels to return a Sonar track/buss to. There's similar choices on the returning audio as there is the sending. You can return the signal to a ZED channel pre-insert point and it then continues through the desk channel allowing you to use the channel EQ and aux busses. Of course you can then re-send this channel back to a different Sonar track using one of the sending options above. This means you can use the ZED for OTB project mixing while recording the mix back to Sonar as either a stereo 2-track or back to multiple individual channels. You can also using the various options monitor a track and then overdub via the same channel. The choice is quite literally yours.
The return can also be post EQ if you wish coming back to the mixer after the EQ section.
The routing through the mixer is also almost limitless, and would turn this post into an even longer book if I go into too much detail. To summarize and generalise you can send whatever you want to 3 different places, of your choice (or not) all 3 have independent volume controls..........
1. Main outs
2. Studio 1 out
3. Studio 2 out
You can also monitor whatever you want via the control room buss. Just about everything is switchable and I'd be surprised if you could find a routing that wasn't available.
There's also 4 stereo channels available 2 quite simple ones, literally inputs with a level and a couple with a more basic EQ than the main channels. These stereo channels aren't directly available from within Sonar though although 2 can be routed there using the buss method mentioned above if you really wanted too, but I can't think why you'd need too.
The only thing that I personally find a little disappointing is the MIDI side but I didn't really buy it for that, for me it's just a bit of cake icing which is useful. My main issue is with the implementation of the channel faders as MIDI faders. They work as they are supposed too once set up via the Cakewalk Generic Surface but they are designed (according to A&H tech support) to be switched in and turn the ZED into a MIDI controller rather than switched in and out 'on-the-fly' as I've tried to use them. The problem with that is if you turn the MIDI fader off it pulls that channel's volume in Sonar right down to -INF regardless of where you have set the fader while using it as a MIDI fader. A&H tech support are working on a workround to allow it to be used on-the-fly as I'm trying to do but they say that it's really designed to use the ZED as a regular mixer while tracking and then in an almost completely separate process use it as a MIDI controller.
As someone who has only ever done any serious recording ITB I guess I'm not used to working in such a traditional manner. I mainly use a MCU as a controller so it's no great issue for me but it would be nice just to switch a fader to MIDI change a track volume in Sonar and switch it straight back out again.
The other strange (I think) MIDI issue is that there are only 12 rotaries. So there are the 16 channel faders for MIDI and the logical assignment for the rotaries would be pan, but then there are only 12 of them?!? Why they didn't make it 16 rotaries as well I've no idea. There are additionally another 4 MIDI faders and 8 buttons with a shift function, plus 3 other buttons designed for bank shifting left & right plus one for incrementing, although of course you can assign them to what you want.
I personally find the MIDI side useful as a compliment to my MCU but it's never going to be a full blown replacement. I have several of the buttons set for things like resetting meters, switching MIDI sync on and off and other functions I constantly use while tracking.
Hope this gives you a little insight into what IMHO is a fantastic bit of kit. (No I don't work for A&H) There's a huge thread on the Gearslutz forum where there's loads of info plus the manual is available as a download from the A&H website which while rather simplistic will give you a good idea of what the desk is capable of.
I can't believe anybody would buy this and be disappointed though. Overall it's 9/10 from me only losing a mark for the MIDI issues I mentioned above.
post edited by FastBikerBoy - April 18, 10 4:08 PM