Worked in various areas of IT for over 20 years, self employed contractor for over 9. Also a part ti...
Worked in various areas of IT for over 20 years, self employed contractor for over 9. Also a part time musician (bass, drums, acoustic) in a band and duo. Other interests include sound engineering, reading, PC games and website design.
Member since:02.04.2007
Reviews:16
Members who trust:4
Whilst this is quite a specialised item for people interested in home studio/recording I hope this review will also be helpful to anyone looking to get started in that area or at least serve as a bit of an insight into how songs are recorded for anyone else.
BACKGROUND I've been recording demos and songs for people at home for some time and thought it was time for an upgrade. Until now I'd been plugging directly into my Soundblaster Platinum card and using Cakewalk 9 to record and mix. So preferring the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation which basically means a digital/computer based studio system) environment I wanted something in that area.
One of the limitations I'd had with the previous set-up was that you could only record 2 tracks (individual sources such as a single instrument, vocal etc) simultaneously to the PC at a time. This meant there was no way to record a band together live or even just drums on their own which require at least 3 or 4 separate mics. It's important that each instrument and vocal is recorded separately so that you can balance their relative volume levels after recording.
FIREWIRE RULES OK! Having looked around the best solution for being able to record several tracks at the same time directly to the PC looked like the Alesis Firewire range. Firewire (or IEEE 1394 to give it it's technical name) is another way of connecting devices to a PC similar to USB but offering better data transfer performance. Most modern PCs now come with a firewire connection as standard but, if you have an older PC that doesn't, you can always get a firewire PCIexpansion card for under £10. You may notice
that the mixer has two firewire connections but this is only in case you want to connect a second PC.
KNOBS & DIALS There are 4 shared inputs for either XLR(3 pin mic) or line(guitar style jack), each with it's own adjustable pre-amp and 75Hz high pass filter. There's also a phantom power switch at the back of the unit if you use studio condenser microphones that require +48V. The other 4 connections are two stereo line ins. Technically this only gives you 6 separate inputs (hence there are only 6 lines of knobs on the Alesis multimix 8) when it's a so called 8 track mixer but that's the way it goes I'm afraid. I know, I always found it confusing when my friend would tell me his 8 track could only record 4 simultaneous tracks and it's a throwback to the old tape multi-track systems.
Each of the 6 tracks (or channels) has it's own 3 band EQ (LOW 80Hz, MID 2.5kHz and HI 12kHz), two AUX gains for external or internal effects, a pan control (for stereo balance) and a volume control. The control section has main mix and control room volume control, an LED VU meter with clip warning light and more AUX effects volume controls.
The Alesis comes with 100 in-built effects, which you select using a dial that displays the effect number in a small LED counter, and they all sound pretty good. There are 10 different effects for each of the following; Hall, Room, Plate and Chamber (types of reverb), Chorus, Flange, Delay, Pitch and two banks with different combinations of the above. One limitation with the effects is you can only apply it to the main mix out and not to individual channels. If you want to record using the in-built effects on an individual instrument or vocal you'll have to do them one at a time unless you want it on everything else too.
YOU CAN EVEN USE IT FOR GIGS! There's a headphone jack, two stereo outputs for mix and control room and stereo phono input/output so plenty of outputs available to listen and record from as well as the firewire connection. You can even plug in a pair of powered speakers and use it as a mixer for live gigs which adds value and flexibility to the Alesis as it can be used outside the studio… this is assuming you have a fairly small band with only 6 inputs though. One of the great things about the Alesis acting as a studio or live mixer is that if you do use it for live shows you can take a laptop along to a gig with you, plug it into the mixer and record your whole show live!
SO IT'S AN 8 TRACK MIXER WITH 6 INPUTS AND 10 OUTPUTS??!?! Where the Alesis really shines for me though is in it's connectivity with the PC (I have a Windows XP PC but it's also compatible with Macs). Although there's only 6 input channels as mentioned before the beauty is you can actually record all 6 separately and simultaneously, not only there but there are an additional 2 channels for the left and right main mix out. For example, if you have 6 instruments plugged in and are using one of the in-built effects you can record all 6 instruments to separate tracks on your PC as well as recording all 6 instruments together (left and right) with the effect. So technically it's 6 channels and 10 recording channels on an 8-track mixer, which is a bit confusing, but hopefully the breakdown below will help you get the picture. PHYSICAL INPUTS: Channel 1 - Instrument (or mic) 1 Channel 2 - Instrument (or mic) 2 Channel 3 - Instrument (or mic) 3 Channel 4 - Instrument (or mic) 4 Channel 5/6 - Instrument 5 (left/right) Channel 7/8 - Instrument 6 (left/right)
Normally on a tape or digital 8 track mixer you have to keep a couple of channels free so you can mix together what you've recorded so far but as you're storing the recordings on the PC this isn't a problem and finally 8 tracks means 8 tracks! Or 10 ;o) The firewire also feeds a stereo track back to the Alesis so you can use it to listen back to what you're recording (or already recorded if it's still connected to the PC) through headphones or monitor speakers.
SOFTWARE The Alesis also comes with a CD containing drivers for Windows/Mac OS and a copy of Cubase LE4 (the version being given out when I got mine anyway). I'd never used Cubase before but have to say it's a pretty good studio program. You can easily record all the tracks mentioned above by selecting them from the list of firewire connections. This isn't a review of Cubase so I won't go into too much depth but there are some fairly impressive tools like parametric EQ, effects, gates, compressors and limiters to play with. It installs as a time limited demo version but it's free to register at Cubase's homepage which provides you with a serial number to make it unlimited use. My only complaint about Cubase LE is you can't mix down to MP3 format but you can mix down to WMA or WAV and there are plenty of free converters around. The recording quality is excellent and it's worth mentioning the Alesis records at 24-bit / 48kHz which is as good as some studios, by comparison normal CD quality is only 16-bit / 44kHz so it's higher sampling quality than CD. Signal to noise ratio also seems very good.
CONSTRUCTION It's a fairly sturdy unit with metal top and bottom and thick plastic sides. It's well laid out with colour-coded knobs but then so are most mixers. How much punishment the smaller knobs can take remains to be seen but you'd probably have to be careful with it in live environment although they don't seem any flimsier than the ones on our PA. It is a pity the Alesis MultiMix 8 doesn't come with the cool, studio-style volume control sliders though. The power adapter is pretty chunky but there's a useful locking screw so you can't pull the plug out of the back… although you might pull the whole mixer off the desk instead! There's a fairly helpful and easy to follow manual included and it actually comes with a firewire cable too.
OVERALL This is a great piece of kit for the budding home recording enthusiast/musician. Coming with Cubase means you'll be able to install, plug in it and start recording almost straight away. Obviously this depends on your familiarity with mixers and Cubase of course, I'd never used either before but had the basics sussed in a few hours. Don't forget to check if your PC/Mac has a firewire connection first or you'll have to get a card in order to get started. At around £200 it won't break the bank either. If you're only planning to record one or two tracks at a time or only need a few inputs for live mixing this should do but you may want to consider the Multimix 16 (with the cool volume sliders) if you think you'll need more inputs in the future.
TECHNICAL SPECS 4 high-gain mic/line (XLR and 1/4 inch jack balanced) inputs with phantom power, 2 stereo balanced 1/4 inch jack line inputs, aux send (can sent to onboard or external effects), stereo aux return
100 28-bit onboard preset effects including reverbs, delays, chorus, flanging, pitch, and multi-effects
3-band EQ per channel with high/low shelving and mid band pass/reject
Separate 1/4 inch jack balanced main and monitor outs, headphone out
24-bit, 44.1/48 kHz Firewire audio path with high-end A/D and D/A conversion throughout
I would like to say how I hate technically intelligent people such as yourself but can't, I simply envy them ! Well reviewed.
francesca.sd 18.01.2009 00:09
Personally, I think this is an exceptional review. It's a very boring item to write about, if you get what I'm saying. But you have done it very well, covering many different aspects. An E from me. Fran ♥
richb90 15.06.2008 16:35
Thanks for the comment Bruno, I think the Alesis probably costs more than the Behringer Xenyx because it has firewire connectivity and the Xenyx range doesn't.
exceptional by (3%):
very helpful by (97%):
