Thoughts on the ZED-428

[jmann]

Hey folks - I'm in the middle of rebuilding my recording/mixing space. It will be my office for my day job as well, but I'd like to set it up to be able to mix both music of my own and some of the videos I finish in-house.

I have always responded better to buttons and knobs than messing with my DAW, so I'd like to have a small console act as the centerpiece of my setup. Part of that is just that if I have to patch and re-patch and move things around every time I have an idea, I lose creative momentum. My ideal situation is just to be able to come in, set a level, and GO. (I realize that will always be an ideal, not a reality, but still.)

I was given an old Mackie 8-bus by a friend, which is huge and didn't work all that well. (Although I did take it all apart and at least get a signal to pass through it.)

I just got a potential deal on an A&H ZED-428, and it seems like it might be perfect. Direct outs on each channel, so I can go straight into my interface. Decent (?) preamps, and I have a couple much better ones I can use for mission-critical things like vocals. A bunch of aux sends, 4-buses, etc.

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with this board? Would you say it's worth a couple hundred bucks?

[Scodiddly]

It's a live board, but A&H stuff is pretty decent. Those have separate circuit boards for each channel so repairs are a lot easier.

[jmann]

Ok, dumb follow up question: I’ve never really understood what makes something a “live board” other than form factor, or on board effects or something. How do you define that?

[The Scum]

A recording board usually has two signal paths.
One is for stuff coming in, going to tape.
The other is for listening to the output of the multitrack.
Both active without patching or switching on the desk. Just disable the track arming on the recorder.

The first is usually accomplished with busses or direct outs, the second with "tape return" inputs.
Tape returns are often lesser channels than the main channels - simpler EQ, fewer auxes, maybe a knob instead of a fader.

On that Mackie 8Bus, each channel has a tape input, and a flip switch that swaps which input hits the fader.

Recording boards might also have multi-monitor control room switching, 2-track playback selection, etc. Big live boards will have a matrix.

With enough channels, you can just use input channels as tape returns. And with a DAW, you can use the DAW mixer instead of needing tape return channels.

For a couple hundred bucks, the analog portions of the Zed are very usable. The USB seems to stack up a bit short versus something like a Soundcraft MTK.