Opinions on m-audio project mix I/O or similar?

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human-tim
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Opinions on m-audio project mix I/O or similar?

Post by human-tim » Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:24 am

Hi-
First post ever to the boards. Retiring my first generation M-box and looking at interfaces. I like the idea of a combo I/O and control surface allowing mixing with more than a mouse, but not sure how well this will work. Anyone with firsthand experience good or bad on these combo units? I'm pretty sure I'm making the jump from PT to Logic, but with m-audio I could go either way.

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Tims96
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Post by Tims96 » Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:30 pm

I've had a ProjectMix for about 4 years, and for the most part love it. I bought it at a pretty nice discount when it first came up, and can definitely say it's worth what I paid for it, but I've seen them for over a grand now, and I'm not sure it's worth that much to me.

My gripes with it are mainly sound quality and general bugginess. The preamps are pretty puny, as you might expect, and I haven't found them to have much headroom. For what I'm doing it hasn't been an issue, but it could be important depending on your needs.

M-Audio has not released a firmware update for the ProjectMix since 2005, and there I've always had a couple quirky behaviors from my unit, such as the screen not properly displaying characters when banking between faders, the record and play buttons not responding properly when using Pro Tools, and occasional random HUI errors (though this last one might be a PT issue.) The jog wheel also has pretty awful resolution, even at its most sensitive setting. I just now downloaded a new driver, and as always, I hope this will fix some of these issues, but I'm not holding my breath.

The only other issue I have with it is that it's my only Pro Tools interface. So if I want to open a session real quick just to check something, I need to have it with me. Not a big deal if you're keeping in your studio as a permanent piece of gear, but I was in school across the country from where I lived, so if I wanted to record I needed to ship the whole durn thing, which was obviously not fun or cheap.

Though it may seem like I'm being pretty hard on it, I've enjoyed my time with it, but I think it's time for an upgrade. If I could do it over I think I would purchase a separate interface (with hopefully better pres) and control surface.

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Post by ctmsound » Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:32 am

Sound quality is nothing to write home about, other than that, it's been a fairly solid control surface. You can find 'em used on ebay for rather inexpensive compared to new.

The pro fire series by m-audio is a big step up.

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Post by kslight » Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:43 am

I have the M-Audio Firewire 1814, which is essentially the same thing as the Project Mix without the control surface. I think the sound quality is not so great, you can probably get something better today for the same money... Not experienced with any control surface/audio combos besides the obvious 002/003 options. Honestly I am faster on a mouse and keyboard within Pro Tools than I am on a Control 24 or 002...so unless you really needed it I would save your money. Or another option would be to buy a separate interface and controller...so when you upgrade your interface you don't have to pay for a new controller again.

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Post by ctmsound » Thu Nov 26, 2009 9:24 am

How many mic inputs do you need at one time?

human-tim
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Post by human-tim » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:17 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'm starting to reconsider the combo thing. There are some cheap USB control devices out there for slightly less mouse-y mixing, so maybe I should spend my money on the interface where sound quality is the issue.

I'd like to have at least 6 inputs with decent mic pres for doing live drums. I'm not recording full band stuff at the moment. I have an old Mackie 16 mixer so I can take direct outs to line ins on an interface if I need extra mic pres.

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Tims96
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Post by Tims96 » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:08 pm

I was of a similar mindset when I bought mine. I really wanted to have 8 mic preamps so I could track a whole drumset, even though I wasn't doing it at the time.

Since I got the ProjectMix, I haven't used it for recording a full set of drums as much as I had thought I would. Personally I think a non-controller interface with a set of higher-quality mic pres (even if there are fewer of them) is a better investment. You can always buy more mic pres if you need them, but I was surprised at how rarely I needed the full 8 mic pres on the PJ. Obviously your experience will be different than mine.

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Jeff White
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Post by Jeff White » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:20 pm

If you are using Pro Tools, but a used Digi 003 and send it off to Black Lion in the next year. Maybe pick up a Micro Clock mk2 if you can't swing the cash for the mod. Their mods are worth the money. Remember, even though you want a flexible unit when it comes to i/o options, the most important thing is sound quality.

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I record, mix, and master in my Philly-based home studio, the Spacement. https://linktr.ee/ipressrecord

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