Tell me why I shouldn't recommend this setup to my friend.

[Loren Littlejohn]

Ok so my buddy just shelled around $2100 (tax) for a presonus 16.4.2

So I'm fucking with it, and for live aplications it's a fucking AMAZING mixer...

But for recording? Eh not so much, unless I'm a fucking retard (possible) there are not a lot of usable (usable as in analog on the unit) outputs. The 16 xmax pres are cool, the fact that it has a compressor, and 4 band parametric eq built in on every channel is great and there are other cool things like the groups and 6 auxes.

But in a studio setting the layout on the rear is kind of limiting, and the thing (even for me, he is a noob) is fucking confusing as shit when it comes to routing in the daw and routing on the board (although a little easier on the board).

Also, this thing does not control your daw at all. No transport controls, no pan, faders don't control the daw.

Plus he wants to connect a couple of external BBE compressors to it (I don't really think that's bad he is in college for recording, he just dove in and bought a lot of expensive shit, ) I respect that he wants to get out of the box a bit though.

So I'm thinking he should return it and get a setup (that would be cheaper as well) that would run like so:

m audio project mix I/O
Presonus Digimax D8
($1650)

OR

Saffire pro 40
Digimax D8
Mackie Control Universal Pro
($1900)

It just seems like the above 2 setups would be A LOT easier to use, and he even has some cash left over to ad another compressor or headphone amp if he wants.

Thoughts?

 

[oroinvictus]

I think the setups you came up with are a better purchase, in my opinion. I don't see much point in external mixers these days except for live stuff, and I don't see much point in dropping that many bones on something that doesn't even control your DAW. Again, that's just my opinion.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah that's sort of my thing. If I was recording/mixing bands live then this thing would be amazing (I took it home to figure it out so I could try to teach him better on what it could do).

Honestly if it just had some fucking outs I'd be good.

It's pretty cool to have insert points on every ch, as well as 48v switches for every ch (although eh, not that important). But I don't even know if each ch. has pads or not. There are no instrument inputs either (again not a really big deal killer, but he didn't buy a DI so...)

 

[BLUElightCory]

The 16.4.2 is pretty cool.

It has 16 analog outputs from the mic pres, or you can use it like a Firewire interface for your DAW.

What kind of outputs were you looking for?

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

It's pretty simple what I'm after:

Senario:

You have already recorded some drums (for the sake of this example without any printed effects from the studio live).

You want to setup an external FX like so for use as an insert (it's a lot easier to rap my head around with my current setup as you just run out to in and in to out then set your buses to the corresponding I/O channels):

First hurdle is how the fuck you setup the busses for the FX ch (seting up FX ch):

Send Bus options:

Return Bux options:

THEN once you figure out that, where on earth do you make those connections?

+

Fuck man I don't even know what kind of cables I need for this shit. haha

On my system it's would be pretty straight forward, I would rout the send through balanced out 16 (again just an example) and the return to input 16. I would just connect it using XLR to TRS cables and all would be fine (I would probably use a patch bay in between that for flexibility, but that would be the normal setup).

That would look like so in cubase:

YAY now shows up as insert effect.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

The other shitty thing, if what your saying is true then the XLR is both an in and an out. Who the fuck wants that? Unless the Line in can be used in conjunction with the XLR being set as an output on the same ch.

Again though, I seem to be pretty fucking clueless here.

But you have me thinking so I'm gonna go ahead and try to figure this out (if the XLR really does act as an output as well as an mic preamp input).

 

[BLUElightCory]

The other shitty thing, if what your saying is true then the XLR is both an in and an out. Who the fuck wants that? Unless the Line in can be used in conjunction with the XLR being set as an output on the same ch.

Again though, I seem to be pretty fucking clueless here.

But you have me thinking so I'm gonna go ahead and try to figure this out (if the XLR really does act as an output as well as an mic preamp input).

The XLR isn't the output. The outputs are the two DB25 connectors in the back lower corner - you need 2 DB25-to-XLR or 1/4" snakes to hook them up to the patchbay/interface whatever. Each DB25 carries 8 analog channels out from the 16.4.2. It looks like the outputs come after the mic pres and before the inserts.

As far as the routing matrix...well I'm just way too tired to look at that stuff right now haha. It's making my eyes cross.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

The XLR isn't the output. The outputs are the two DB25 connectors in the back lower corner - you need 2 DB25-to-XLR or 1/4" snakes to hook them up to the patchbay/interface whatever. Each DB25 carries 8 analog channels out from the 16.4.2. It looks like the outputs come after the mic pres and before the inserts.

As far as the routing matrix...well I'm just way too tired to look at that stuff right now haha. It's making my eyes cross.

Haha, yeah this is what I figured. I say he just ditches it for something more user friendly.

Plus who the fuck wants to shell that much cash for a cable?

 

[ahjteam]

The other shitty thing, if what your saying is true then the XLR is both an in and an out. Who the fuck wants that?

I do, because XLR is superior connector to TRS.

 

[arv_foh]

The other shitty thing, if what your saying is true then the XLR is both an in and an out. Who the fuck wants that?

people who have outboard with XLR connectors

this seems like an ok setup to me.. you can use the desk as a 16 channel interface but it seems stupid that you aren't able to use the desk as a control surface

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I do, because XLR is superior connector to TRS.

Yeah man, but you wouldn't want the same XLR connection to be able to be switched from an out to an in.

But thankfully that wasn't the case here.

Anyhow, I see him again today I'm gonna try to talk him out of sticking with this.

 

[arv_foh]

Yeah man, but you wouldn't want the same XLR connection to be able to be switched from an out to an in.

But thankfully that wasn't the case here.

Anyhow, I see him again today I'm gonna try to talk him out of sticking with this.

You will never seen a connector like this. Outputs are male connectors and inputs are females connectors. Always.

 

[drew_drummer]

Seems pretty straight forward to me. You've got the the snake outputs, like you do with a Digi 192 unit. They should come up as output destinations in the host depending on how you've setup the ins, outs, and busses, in the VST connections control panel.

Loads of gear uses those snake outputs.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yep, MF.com doesn't allow you to return shit like this so he is just gonna roll with it. haha

 

[lolzgreg]

It's because it came bundled with software.... FUUUUUUUUUU

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah such is life. It's not like it's a piece of shit or anything like that.

Anyhow, he had his monitors connected with the wrong cable and I didn't have any insert patch cable so I had him order a bunch of correct cable to hook all his shit up. He didn't have a DI either (and you need one with this thing).

I got to say though, if I was doing live stuff this thing would be fucking amazing. The fucking shit you can do with it holly FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKK.