Alesis MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 Reviews

[brandondrury]

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Alesis MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 Description
The MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 is a compact tabletop mixer providing USB 2.0 technology for ultra-fast, low-latency, 24 bit/44.1 96kHz (with high-end A/D and D/A conversion) multi-channel audio recording straight to your computer. Designed with low-noise analog electronics, it gives you 100 studio-grade 28-bit digital effects. Whether used for mobile or studio recording, the MultiMix 16 mixing console makes recording high-quality audio to your computer fast and easy. Bundled with award-winning Cubase LE software for optimal results.

[sledge81]

G'Day All,

I’m just new to the site and so far have been quite impressed with the content. Looking forward to having discussions with some of you. My name is Chris Hedges and I reside in Victoria, Australia. I'm a bass player by trade however in more recent years I have turned my focus to drums and guitar.

Formalities out of the way I have a small review statement and questions...

Just bought an Alesis MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 (paid a bit more then I would have liked $1100 AUS but I am in Australia and it is brand new). Fired it up over the past week and so far have established the following observations:-

Channel 1 -8 Mic PreAmps

Although the mixer is not at the Mackie or Tascam end of the scale in terms of functionality, quality or price I have still been reasonably impressed with Mic Preamps that reside in the unit. I tested the Alesis unit with a Sure SM57, SM58 and a SM81 condenser mike. All of these preformed well with the ability to push the gain close to maximum before getting any "hissing". Clarity is as good as you would expect from a higher end mixing desk with my only criticism being a slight lack in head room (however this could also be affected by the way in which I am monitoring the desk) The 3 band EQ is limited but quite a useable selection of frequencies and adjustable gain is sufficient.

Line Inputs 1 - 16

Just like the mic inputs the line inputs are quiet as far as mixer "hiss" is concerned and utilise the same functional 3 band EQ. However head room also appears to be an issue for the line inputs and is more noticeable.

Main Mix, Sub 3/4 and CTRL Room Outputs

.....Probably the most impressive configuration from a mixing perspective of this little mixer. In reality it has all that you need to complete live mixing, live/studio recording on a compact 16 Channel desk. There are several ways to configure the monitoring of the mixer with each configuration not overlapping or inhibiting the function of each mixer output stream(MainMix, CTRL Room,2TRK Pc,TAPE. It is certainly designed to be able to complete live mixing and/or recording as well as meet the requirements of a small recording studio. I do however miss the lack of Analogue Inserts on the desk. Digital Inserts are the way that Alesis have perceived the collective market heading towards.

On-Board Effects

OK – Alesis have put some reasonable effects into the desk. The quality is not bad for the price I guess you could say. But…. they ducked out big time on the ability to ADJUST the effects. You simply can’t. Its all pre configured, you just select the effect that sounds good to you. There are some pre-configured multi-effects as well but still the lack of ability to control parameters such as delay time in ms has let the onboard effects down considerably in my books. The 2 Auxiliary sends and returns will save the day! At least you can plug something more decent into it!

USB 2.0 Audio Interface

When I first read about the USB 2.0 Interface overtaking Firewire across the industry I was a little dubious having had previous issues with USB 1 equipment. However, when I went to order the FireWire MulitMix 16 and found that they no longer made them I was forced to reconsider.

In short - it is good. Very good. I've recorded 16 Channels simultaneously and it works well (Full Drum Kit, Bass, Guitars, Vocal) Using a Dell Optiplex GX620 desktop and CuBase that was shipped with the mixer. Playback was a breeze with all tracks linking up perfectly.

However........this is where my questions start. When I try to add more tracks after recording multiple tracks once through I get issues. The all-common latency issues. I have just been reading about the Buffer adjustments and really need to preform some testing but I'm up for any advise on how to reduce (remove preferably) Latency using the Alesis Multi Mix.

Anybody got feed back on Alesis MultiMix USB 2.0 Latency Issues? Should I be using different recording software or drivers?

Thanks in advance.
Sledge

[brandondrury]

When I first read about the USB 2.0 Interface overtaking Firewire across the industry I was a little dubious having had previous issues with USB 1 equipment.

Well, this isn't accurate. USB 2.0 isn't "taking over" anything. There really isn't even a war going on. Firewire is very popular but more and more USB 2.0 audio interfaces are popping up. Both are viable methods.

However........this is where my questions start. When I try to add more tracks after recording multiple tracks once through I get issues. The all-common latency issues. I have just been reading about the Buffer adjustments and really need to preform some testing but I'm up for any advise on how to reduce (remove preferably) Latency using the Alesis Multi Mix.

Latency isn't exactly the problem based on your description. Latency is a problem when you talk into a mic or strike a piano key and there is an audible delay before you hear the sound.

Your problem seems to be more of an issue with the way your CPU is handling the audio when the CPU starts running out of power. The short answer is to crank up the buffer size as this will reduce the pressure on the CPU (and also increase latency).

The long answer is to make sure your environment is set properly for audio recording.
Home Recording Computers: Clicks, Pops, and Latency

Recording Computer Troubleshooting: Is Your Windows Operating System Clean?

Brandon

[sledge81]

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for the response to my questions and review! Much appreciated. The longer I play around with this setup the more I learn. I'm only partial to the digital recording scence with limited professional knowledge, my background lies more around "old school" 2inch tascam studio configurations.

I'm concious of buffer sizes and computer specs much more now and I'm leaning towards building a dedicated, beefy computer system. Are dual processor PC/Workstations an advantage over single processor PC's? I'm curious to see what impact this would have on the audio data processing? Anybody familiar with this?

You have prompted me to at least rebuild my slightly over applicated PC!

Cheers,
Sledge

[brandondrury]

Are dual processor PC/Workstations an advantage over single processor PC's?

There was a day when everyone was running out and buying multiprocessor systems. That ended with te Pentium 4 era. Now all this dual-core and quad-core business is the rage.

I haven't jumped on that bandwagon yet either. I'm still cruising along on my Athlon 64 2800. I have had a few instances where I wish I had more CPU power, but I would rather buy toys than build a new computer.

Brandon

[presto]

Hi Sledge
I also bought the Multimix 16 USB recently and agree with your assessment of its mixing functions.
On the latency/recording side, I have built a new dual core computer to attempt high quality home recording and also have had problems with Latency.
What I mean is that when I do a "sound on sound" ie double tracking recording there are annoying delays between the original track and each subsequent one.
I have a small program that is measuring the asio latency into and back out the USB
at about 13mS when 64 samples are used. Several computers I tested gave the same results for this, and I have been told it is an acceptable figure.
I have tried both cubase(bundled with the desk) and Sonar 7 PE with varying results and am still fine tuning my computer to improve performance, but I think if the computer is not set up well, large and varying amounts of Latency can occur as well as dropouts, crackles and other noise.
Please let me know if you have any success - I'll do the same.
Keith