Alesis firewire mixers

Dubious · Post by **Dubious** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:35 am

Anybody have any experience / opinions on the new alesis firewire mixers?

looking to upgrade from my current 2 channels of recording, not to mention replacing my old tascam m-06 board.

mrclean · Post by **mrclean** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:17 am

I have a USB model...

If you're using a computer to record you need to have more than 2 inputs on your sound card to record more than 2 tracks at a time. If the Firewire's are like the USB's - I have 8 ins but there are only 2 outs. My sound card just has stereo in. The USB doesn't allow me to record 8 separate tracks.

This works fine for my purposes but maybe you were looking to record more than two tracks at once? Just keep this in mind.

Dubious · Post by **Dubious** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:31 am

nah i would want it to record more than 2 channels.. i assumed it recorded 16 channels thru firewire..

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:47 am

nah i would want it to record more than 2 channels.. i assumed it recorded 16 channels thru firewire..

I believe they do input 8 channels plus maybe a stereo mixed pair but only 2 channels back out, all via the fw . I think Sound on Sound reviewed it a few month back and detail its performance. Seems like durability might be the bigger question.

Jim_Boulter · Post by **Jim_Boulter** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:57 am

Having been looking at these and comparing to other devices to make a purchase a while back, I'll tell you what I know.

They will record 8 tracks. USB doesn't have the bandwidth to do so, but FireWire does, and these boards were made to take advantage of that.

With that said, here's what some helpful folks here pointed out to me: For about the same price, you can get an OctoPre or FirePod. Same 8 mic pres (not the same pres, but 8 of them on each), same FireWire interface; so what's the diff? Alesis is adding an entire mixer for the same money. Bang for buck? Sure! Quality of those pres on the Alesis? Not likely half as good. i thought long and hard about it, and decided that I could run the stereo outs from a FirePod into my crappie Behringer board and get a better sound due to the better pres, and recordings will be light years better. I still think that Alesis FW board looks cool, and I don't have access to it all to A/B for you, but it makes sense to me. I had a FirePod delivered to my door for under $500 through eBay.

Depending on your needs, obviously, YMMV.

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:49 pm

They will record 8 tracks. USB doesn't have the bandwidth to do so, but FireWire does, and these boards were made to take advantage of that.

I assume you are referring to USB 1 as USB 2 is similar in its capabilities to firewire and of course you can buy similar products in each format. I think edirol and motu now both make some identical devices in each format.

I finally decided for myself that I didnt want my pres tied to my interface. I guess I like the idea that if one piece goes down or proves itself to be the weak link it can be replaced without upsetting the whole applecart. That said, the firepod still looks appealing for its simplicity.

creature.of.habit · Post by **creature.of.habit** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:58 pm

thing with these alesis interfaces is that they wont act like controlers, so it's kind of missing the point i guess...who will want to eq and pan and whatnot on the way in?? :/

plus you cant playback, afect the sound, and record that same thing again either...

these mixers and any product of the same sort is missing the point, at least to me...i dont see a reason why they should exist other than live applications..

Dubious · Post by **Dubious** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:19 am

yes it seems like they missed a big oportunity here... a mixer that's also a controller (which frankly id much rather have then a bunch of shit built in effects).... and also the ability to mix back through the mixer...

creature.of.habit · Post by **creature.of.habit** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:32 am

i just dont see any point without those simple habilities..plus, most of the intefaces nowadays (let along firewire and a new technology at that!) are full duplex...these mixers aint..i dont see a point, nor a market for it.

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:29 pm

yes it seems like they missed a big oportunity here... a mixer that's also a controller (which frankly id much rather have then a bunch of shit built in effects).... and also the ability to mix back through the mixer...

To me it just seems like alesis is trying to posiition ithis product as someones 1st and perhaps only audio interface. Not really intended to be versatile or upgradeable, but cheap, and enough preamps/channels to do a band in the garage. Really this unit, 8 cheap mics an 8 cables is all some people will ever need to do what they want for as long as the hobby lasts. Then it goes to ebay and they buy a mountain bike or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all. Its just kinda what its for. The other scenario is that somebody gets it, outgrows it and sells it on ebay to get something more practical. Either way it hits its target and probably hits it pretty often. If you start adding things like machine control and 8+ channels coming back out its not $500(or whatever it costs) anymore.

creature.of.habit · Post by **creature.of.habit** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:50 pm

well ok...but this sort of product would be kind of revolutionary..a decent interface (with their HD24 converters as they state these have) built into a decent mixer...full duplex is the least you would expect..im not even questioning the inability to work as a controller lol

but i think you have a point. come to think of it, not even the onyx and the firewire interface that goes with it, do that...i think they're full duplex though..

to me, as the other post stated, a big opportunity is being missed...it's quite a concept, and not a very hard one at all...full duplex is on almost any interface these days, all it had to do was that, then you could affect the signal going back in again...but it cant even do that! lol

anyway..

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:01 am

Ya know with the way products come out and with the way the relative price points continue to drop for what you get its just a matter of time before what you want hits the market -cheap. At least until we go to war with china.

Dubious · Post by **Dubious** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:01 am

it seems to me they could take out the multi effects unit that's built in and add the midi controller capability for the same price...

duplex, midi controller.. firewire interface

i would buy that...

creature.of.habit · Post by **creature.of.habit** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:56 pm

dubious..you and me both..

i almost bought it actually, cause in my mind, this product only makes sense being (at least) capable of full duplex..i was ready to order the 12 channel one when i emailed alesis just for kicks..2 emails later...no can do.

at least they admit it

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