M-Audio ProjectMix Reviews

[brandondrury]

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M-Audio ProjectMix @ Zzounds




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M-Audio ProjectMix Description
ProjectMix I/O is a control surface combined with a FireWire 18 x 14 audio interface that turns your computer into a complete digital production station. Features include 9 touch-sensitive motorized moving faders and 8 assignable endless rotary encoder knobs for channel or plug-in functions. I/Os include: 8 switchable phantom-powered analog mic/line inputs (XLR and 1/4" TRS balanced) with switchable phantom power and signal/peak LEDs; 8 x 8 ADAT Lightpipe; MIDI with activity LEDs; 2 x 2 S/PDIF coaxial optical/digital; 4 analog outputs (1/4" TRS balanced); 2 stereo headphone outputs (1/4" TRS) with independent level controls; and one front-panel instrument input (1/4" TS) switchable for input one.

[fHumble fHingaz]

I wish I had a review of this when I was purchasing my Projectmix - I couldn't seem to find much of anything anywhere on the web... So for people like me... this is for you - I hope it helps.

Firstly the things I like: It has 8 mic preamps with XLR connectors, so while I am certainly no golden-eared expert, they sound pretty good to me - whatever you feed into it, that's pretty much what comes out. It also has 8 line-level phono connectors as well as a Hi-Z connector for DI-ing guitars & bass.

It's also a control surface for you DAW (I use Sonar) - this is pretty cool - motorized faders etc, just like a "mini-SSL" or the like. It has some standard control setups for all the major DAW's, but you can pretty much customize it to suit yourself (control you plugins with real nobs & so forth).

It has an extra 8 channels of audio in if you have another preamp that can feed it an Adat digital lightpipe, bringing another 8 audio channels in. This is great if you want to comprehensively mic drums with room-mics etc. or if you want to record a live band.

It has word clocking connectivity so you can sinc. it with other digital devices with no problems.

It looks pretty cool...

Now the things I don't like that I wish I new before I bought it:
There are no pad switches on the preamps. Ironically, even though you would think this thing is your one-stop drum-recording solution (I did) this makes it virtually impossible to record drums, since even with the preamps turned down to zero, they clip! This I found hard to believe when I discovered it. The only solution was to spend more money & buy some pad-switching inserts. Do you get the impression I was unhappy about this? That is an understatement... This was VERY frustating to find a work-around, but nonetheless, it works very well with the pad-inserts for drums... So be warned!

It has no channel inserts for sending the analogue signal to a mixer etc. for true zero latency mixing... Again, a strange ommission considering drum recording would, at first appearances suit this interface down to the ground.

It only has four analogue out channels for getting your audio out of the computer.

It has very rudimentary metering - basically just a green "signal" led & a red "clip" led on each channel.

There is no on-board DSP to provide some ear candy for the "talent".

Overall, I'd give the Projectmix about 7 out of 10... I've solved all the things that I didn't like about it / wasn't aware that it didn't do, but doing so was quite expensive & time-consuming... It's a reliable unit, & I'm happy to continue working with it.

As I said, I hope this is helpful to all prospective buyers... Have fun!

[Markansas]

I noticed the same thing, specifically on the condenser mic channels. I screwed with all the controls, but could NOT get rid of the clips.

You refer to "pad-inserts." Are you talking about a piece of hardware that is physically inserted between the incoming XLR cable and the interface? Something with passive circuitry that suppresses the amplitude of the audio signal?

I'd like to use this thing for drums, but the damn clips are just insane.

Thanks,
Markansas

UPDATE: Ok, nevermind... that is what you are talking about. I found some. I'll try that out.

[fHumble fHingaz]

You refer to "pad-inserts." Are you talking about a piece of hardware that is physically inserted between the incoming XLR cable and the interface? Something with passive circuitry that suppresses the amplitude of the audio signal?

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I think M-Audio have them as one of the products available on their website, but when I asked them about them, they said their specific brand wasn't available in here Australia, so I ended up getting some from a third-party supplier (I can't remember who, though). Mine have selectable switching between -40, -20 or -10db.

One more thing I'll mention for the benefit of anyone who's using the ProjectMix... If you change from Windows XP service pack 2 to service pack 3 or 4, you may find difficulties if you have to re-install your drivers at any point. I experienced problems with my computer recognizing the interface...I won't bore anyone with the tedious details, but its a real thorny problem that took a while to sort out. If anyone has this problem in future, email me & I'll try to assist.

[Markansas]

Yeah, I noticed that about the sp3 drivers. Funky hardware detection thing there. Got it working though, and either way, I found the xlr attenuators on amazon for $10.

Amazon.com: Dayton XATT20 In-Line XLR Attenuator Pad 15dB: Electronics

--Markansas

[fHumble fHingaz]

Cool - They should do the trick.