Allen & Hearth Z16?

[Heabow]

I'm thinking of buying a desk finally. TBH I'm not familiar at all with this kind of gear but I heard very good stuff about it. My current setup is basically an iMac + DIGI 003 or Presonus Firestudio and 2 external pres, running PT10 (PT11 maybe later). I guess it's stable with the FW400 but I'd like to know how users feel about the ZED R16 (not Z16).

I can grab one used for 1000-1100€. Is it worth the cost?

Thanks!

Edit: mispelling

 

[Heabow]

Ok two misspellings in the title but nobody can share his experience? I've read the UM thread of Mickrich and some other about it but they are quite old. I'd like to know if it stable with PT10 using Firewire on a Mac as main audio interface. 1000-1100€ seems to be the common and fair price on the used market but not a bargain to me. Thoughts?

 

[P-E]

I know it's an old review, but as far as I know Sound on Sound is one of the most reliable sources : http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov08/articles/allenandheathzedr16.htm

Aside from that I wouldn't be able to help much. Bonne chance ! (En passant, j'ai remarqué l'autre jour que j'avais jamais répondu à un message que tu m'avais envoyé y a quelques années par rapport à un genre de template de contrat de studio. Bref, j'l'avais pas vu. Excuse-moi ! )

 

[Heabow]

I know it's an old review, but as far as I know Sound on Sound is one of the most reliable sources : http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov08/articles/allenandheathzedr16.htm

Aside from that I wouldn't be able to help much. Bonne chance ! (En passant, j'ai remarqué l'autre jour que j'avais jamais répondu à un message que tu m'avais envoyé y a quelques années par rapport à un genre de template de contrat de studio. Bref, j'l'avais pas vu. Excuse-moi ! )

Yes I read it. Seems to be a great piece of gear.

Ah no problem pour le contrat Si tu l'as toujours sous le coude, je suis toujours intéressé sinon ce n'est pas bien grave hehe.

Thanks!

 

[mickrich]

I have one and love it.
Well worth getting.
I am tracking all day but will post again tomorrow.

 

[Heabow]

Yes I remember listening to the clips you posted in your thread. Great sounding desk indeed! I am more sceptical about stability when used as main interface with a Mac for PT10/11 (FW). Some have no issue at all, some other do. It's all about drivers I guess. I wanted to buy an RME UFX, the Zed-R16 seems to be better pres/converters wise.

 

[Pharaoh's Curse]

In the early to mid 90's I had an Allen & Heath GS3 with midi mute automation, 24 channel console. I used it with ADAT's at the time.

They make good stuff and that board certainly had a good sound.

 

[Trevoire520]

The good:
Nice clean preamps and eq, low noise, hpf on every input. Great to adjust headphone mixes instantly with zero latency via the aux, great setup to record live gigs with just the desk and a laptop if you only need 2 monitor mixes. Mono and alt monitor switches removes the need for an external monitor controller. If you have outboard compressors it's a piece of cake to use them as inserts in pro tools.

Dead stable with my Mac Mini running PT10/11, I'm tracking 16 channels of drums as 64 samples no bother, not been brave enough to try 32 yet!

I LOVE being able to track drums with eq on input, or doing vocals/bass with a compressor on the insert. Really can't live without either now.

Downsides:
No pads or phase flip on input. I can get around this using some XLR phase reversers and in line pads though. Minimum input gain is 6dB, so not as bad as the low end Focusrite interfaces, but can be a bit too hot for some drum spot mic's.

I've never managed to get the MIDI control working with Pro Tools. Went through the instructions step by step and nothing seemed to happen. Maybe should try again and get on to support as I'd like to even just have the transport buttons working.

I've had to replace a couple of bad pan pots and an eq pot in mine. My local store did it for free even though it was out of warranty as they felt it shouldn't have happened on a desk thats only a few years old (though I did get it as a ex-demo from A&H, so it might have had a couple of years on it already by the time I got it) I've currently got a bit of noise coming from one of the faders that I'll need to look at.
Generally I don't find this is a common occurence on other A&H desks so I think I may have just been unlucky tbh.

And I wish it had SPDIF so I could digitally reamp through my Kemper.


Overall I still love the thing and what it's done for my workflow. I'd like to upgrade to the GSR24M in the future if I can get busy enough to justify the cost.

 

[greyskull]

Speaking of Allen & Heath, I just bought a BIG Old saber series board.

 

[Heabow]

The good:
Nice clean preamps and eq, low noise, hpf on every input. Great to adjust headphone mixes instantly with zero latency via the aux, great setup to record live gigs with just the desk and a laptop if you only need 2 monitor mixes. Mono and alt monitor switches removes the need for an external monitor controller. If you have outboard compressors it's a piece of cake to use them as inserts in pro tools.

Dead stable with my Mac Mini running PT10/11, I'm tracking 16 channels of drums as 64 samples no bother, not been brave enough to try 32 yet!

I LOVE being able to track drums with eq on input, or doing vocals/bass with a compressor on the insert. Really can't live without either now.

Downsides:
No pads or phase flip on input. I can get around this using some XLR phase reversers and in line pads though. Minimum input gain is 6dB, so not as bad as the low end Focusrite interfaces, but can be a bit too hot for some drum spot mic's.

I've never managed to get the MIDI control working with Pro Tools. Went through the instructions step by step and nothing seemed to happen. Maybe should try again and get on to support as I'd like to even just have the transport buttons working.

I've had to replace a couple of bad pan pots and an eq pot in mine. My local store did it for free even though it was out of warranty as they felt it shouldn't have happened on a desk thats only a few years old (though I did get it as a ex-demo from A&H, so it might have had a couple of years on it already by the time I got it) I've currently got a bit of noise coming from one of the faders that I'll need to look at.
Generally I don't find this is a common occurence on other A&H desks so I think I may have just been unlucky tbh.

And I wish it had SPDIF so I could digitally reamp through my Kemper.


Overall I still love the thing and what it's done for my workflow. I'd like to upgrade to the GSR24M in the future if I can get busy enough to justify the cost.

Thanks a lot man for the info! Apart from the rest, no phase flip, no pad and no SPDIF is too bad...

 

[mickrich]

Ok
Travis pretty much nailed it.
I love the EQ and the master section is perfect with alt monitors and 2 headphone mixes.
My favourite thing with the headphone mixes is that it is easy to do a "more me" mix.
You can select the mix and an aux for headphone mix so then turn up the aux on whatever channel you want more of for the headphones.
I use this for singers so they get my mix plus aux 1 then turn up aux 1 on the vocal return.
Insert on every channel and on the master is handy.

You have to be dead on with your levels to the console and master.
Make sure to solo each channel and make sure the output from DAW is below zero. Once you do this and keep the master below zero too you will have a super clean deep wide analog mix.

The built in converters are good but I recently got an Apogee Ensemble thunderbolt and the converters are noticeably better.
I am using the Zed as an analog board now and not using the firewire drivers or converters.

Up until I got the Apogee, I was using the firewire driver and converters with no issues.
Perfectly stable and no dropouts.
I have midi transport working fine with Logic but don't bother with the midi fader functions.
I also have a Mackie control and never use that either.

 

[Heabow]

Very tempting for sure... I think despite of missing features detailed above, it could be a better purchase than the RME for me. What is really cool is the 16 channels with very good pres, enough to track drums and at a fair price! Will think about all that! Thanks you guys for your help!