Alesis mixers with Firewire

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:50 am Post subject: Alesis mixers with Firewire

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_Compact, affordable 8, 12 and 16-channel analog mixers and Multi-channel FireWire audio computer interface
_MultiMix 8 and 12 have 4 high-gain mic/line (XLR and 1/4" balanced) inputs with phantom power, 2 stereo balanced 1/4" line inputs, aux send (can sent to onboard or external effects), stereo aux return. MultiMix 16 has 8 high-gain mic/line
_100 28-bit onboard preset effects including reverbs, delays, chorus, flanging, pitch, and multieffects
_3-band EQ per channel with high/low shelving and mid bandpass/reject
_Separate 1/4" balanced main and monitor outs, headphone out
_24-bit, 44.1/48 kHz operation with high-end A/D and D/A conversion through integrated FireWire audio interface using next-generation Dice II FireWire chip
_Compatible with Mac OSX and Windows XP
_Steinberg Cubase LE included
_ Easy to attach rackmount available

http://www.alesis.com/products/new_products/index.html

mosc · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:01 am Post subject:

Not only does it compete with Mackie, it LOOKS like a Mackie...

paul e. · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:05 am Post subject:

hopefully, it doesn;t SOUND like a mackie Wink

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:09 am Post subject:

Not really.. This is more like some attempt at getting cred for using firewire instead of USB. If I am not wrong this board has only stereo out and ins over firewire.. which is slighty stupid. It had made more sense having direct outs from each channel sent by firewire. I cannot see what makes this board interesting at all. Alesis pretty much has the same board already fitted with USB.

mosc · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:25 am Post subject:

Well, it depends on the price. It might be useful to some people.

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:27 am Post subject:

True... the price might be low..

jacob_cowan · Joined: Jul 30, 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Hope, BC, Canada

Actually, the Firewire mixer has up to 18 simultaneous tracks (on the 16 channel mixer), including the left and right main mix. I am interested in reading a review of this product. Does anyone have one of these, or know where to find an informed review?

Here are some links from Alesis:

http://www.alesis.com/forums.html?id=59,56,0,0,1,0
http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=40
Thanks, Jacob Cowan.

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:55 pm Post subject:

You are right.
.
It might be a decent product. I am trying to find a link to some pdf manual for this product.

jacob_cowan · Joined: Jul 30, 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Hope, BC, Canada

Me too. I have an Alesis 12FXD, which for the money is a great product. I just bought it for around $300 Canadian. I can get the 16 channel with firewire for around $800. If and when I can find some decent supporting material/reviews I think that I'll buy it and sell my 12 channel mixer. I emailed Alesis support to see if they will send me a pdf of the manual, or any other supporting documents. If they do I'll try to post it here, or a link.

seraph · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 3:17 pm Post subject:

btw, jacob_cowan
welcome to electro-music.com
Very Happy

jacob_cowan · Joined: Jul 30, 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Hope, BC, Canada

Thanks

mosc · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:53 pm Post subject:

Yes, welcome. I'm in Victoria, BC now at a wedding. Had a great visit with another BC electro-musician, DAZ. Excellent. Anyhow, great to have you here.

jacob_cowan · Joined: Jul 30, 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Hope, BC, Canada

Victoria is a great place. I was born there, and I met my wife there. Hope is about 2 hours away from the ferry terminal from Vancouver Island, past Vancouver. It's the end of the Fraser Valley, where it becomes the Fraser Canyon. It's actually quite a nice place, but very small.

Thanks for the welcome, and I hope you have a good time in beautiful BC.

Jacob

jacob_cowan · Joined: Jul 30, 2005 Posts: 5 Location: Hope, BC, Canada

I just got an email from Alesis stating that the Multimix Firewire won't ship until mid-September, and that it is still being Beta tested. I guess that explains the lack of reviews and documentation.

Jacob.

lamarcph · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:04 am Post subject:

Any one tried it yet?

For an integrated mixer + the 8in+2in/2out of 48khz/24bit the price seems right. (around 400$ on the net.) I am on a budget and I hope to be able to sell my old m-audio usb card and cheap behringer style mixer to finance a part of the MultiMix. I know that the 48khz is a bit outdated, but will it really make a difference, compared to 96khz? (I don't mind the quality of mp3 Embarassed

)

The other possibility would be to wait for a Echo Audiofire or something similar, but however, i would need to unplug everything from my mixer and plug it in the echo when I record and reverse when i just noodle without my laptop connected (which appends a lot).

I would appreciate any insight.

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:42 pm Post subject:

lamarcph · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:30 pm Post subject:

I play most of time alone, in realtime with various analog type sequence running around. A few months ago i sold more than half of my stuff and now I have 3 synth: Nord G2, Nord Electo and DSI Evolver.

I use a bottom line Alto 8 input mixer and Yamaha mp5a monitor. When i record, I use a m-audio audiophile usb (stereo sound card) connected to a 1.86mhz pentium M laptop.

I think there is a bent-over-backward way to record track by track when listening to previous track by connecting the monitor to the control room and passing the live audio in and out the the sound card...
I'll try it tonight...

I though that even if I had a Echo type thing I would still have to unplug everything from my mixer when I want to record, so it wouldn't be perfect.

That's what i would really like: To be able to record, track by track or simultaneously without having to unplug and plug anything and while keeping my monitor on main XLR out or equivalent.

Would a better mixer (like the onyx, at first without the firewire interface) solve this?

mosc · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:49 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:35 pm Post subject:

Typo.. I corrected this. THX.

Cool

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:42 pm Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:00 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:40 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 1:26 am Post subject:

seraph · Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:29 am Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:07 am Post subject:

I used to do that monitor mixer thing too, but I've gotten rid of the mixer completely. Everything goes into my MOTU828MK2 and I control the monitor mix with it. Now, I don't do any patching at all. I like the MOTU because the intermal mixers are independent of the computer - so for the monitor signals, nothing goes out of the box. I think a simple firewire equiped mixer would have similar advantages. I have found the MOTU to sound a bit better than the Mackie mixer I have. (Better in this respect is quieter.)

Oddly, I know there is a lot a talk around here about DACs sounding bad and certain preamps are better than others and budgut mixers aren't very good - but to me, the most problems I've had are with bad connectors and bad cables. Even good 1/4" phone plugs start crackling over time because of dirt and corrosion. A patch bay just puts more connectors in the signal path. If you can get by without that, why not.