Opuswerk wrote:I recently bought the ZedR16, actually just received it 2 weeks ago. Seeing it's my first mixer, i can't really compare to anything, but here's my 2c:
I got it for 2 reason, because i needed more ins on my soundcard (as i got myself a few synths this year) and i wanted to get a more hands on experience. So instead of buying a mixer and a soundcard, i shopped around to find the best compromise. The other contender in the analogue mixer + soundcard was the Mackie OnyX-i series. But after reading reviews, and checking out the Zed at a friends place, i decided to go with it.
I won't go on about the specs of the mixer, as you can find them elsewhere, but here's what i really like, and what i kind of like not so much about it:
EQs: compared to soft EQs, i find they sound really good, and allow me to get much better instant good results. Mixing a track down, all of a sudden doesn't take a whole day .
Stereo image: getting a wide stereo image of a mix is much easier. For some reason, it really sounds larger than any mix i was doing ITB.
Audio interface: I've been re-mixing my latest projects with it, sending each individual track to a channel of the Zed and using the analogue EQs as well as driving the channels and again, it really opened them up, and allowed for a much better mix, at least to my ears.
Sends/Aux: this is imho one of the weak points of the mixer, you get 4 sends, but you can't send audio to them from your daw, so you need to "sacrifice" a channel on the mixer, only to send stuff to your analog fxs. The first 2 are pre-fader (which it seems can be switched to post-fader when opening the mixer), the others are post-fader.
There's no proper aux returns as well, instead you get four stereo channels, and 2 of them are with Low and Hi EQ. This where i return my reverbs and delay to. Those can also only be heard on the master out, otherwise you'd have to dedicate a channel (or two if it's a stereo fx) to your send fx.
Routing: the routing is imo where this mixer is really good at and the main reason i bought it for. You can virtually send stuff from and to your Daw to any of the 16 channels and this with very little fiddling with the latency compensation. I now have a setup, where some channels are coming from outboard synths sequenced from Ableton Live, some are VST going out through the mixer, and i even can use VST sends (both on analog channels, and virtual ones). Seeing as i don't have much outboard fxs, this really was an important selling point.
MIDI: all the faders can become MIDI controllers, which is pretty handy but i haven't used it like that yet... One thing it doesn't do however for some strange reason is send MIDI thru messages, ie you can't send the clock/MIDI cc from your DAW to your synths using the ZEDR16. So you'll need a dedicated MIDI interface for that.
this is quite a lot, maybe to much and a bit messy i got quite a fever here. Anyhow if you got specific questions about the Zed, i'll gladly do my best to reply.
All in all i'd say getting a mixer definitely changed my way fo making music for the better. I'm now forced to play the music rather than compose it, jamming with the mixer, the machines and recording take after takes of the same track until one is good.
So the ZEDR16 is also an audio interface? I have just spent a bit on an RME UC, but it's still sealed in the box.
If I am looking to spend around 500€ on mixer, and having just paid almost 900€ for the RME, maybe it would be an idea to take the RME back and get a ZEDR16. I like the idea of being able to use my DAW's effects as I don't have many outboard ones..