PEAVEY PC1600X

Peavey has certainly packed a lot of features into a small and rather tank like package with the PC1600X. Let’s just say that if you know midi and are comfortable with handling the commands that midi offers, there is really nothing that you can not make this thing do in your midi / DAW system.

It can handle programming and midi tweaking with the sixteen sliders, or you can also use it to handle you audio volume level and pan moves in your DAW mix-down.

I have used one for four years and it never failed to do what I purchased it to do and more.

The only real drawbacks on this unit are that it uses a HUGE power pack of the wall wart variety a whole 16 volts, the display is small and, at time rather cryptic and the volume sliders are not motorized and so you don’t get a visual representation when you go bank to bank as you might in a DAW use.

On the up side it comes with fifty presets that cover everything from Pro Tools presets to keyboards and Harmonizers so there is a good chance that you can use it right out of the box without anything more than some minor tweaking of the settings.

You will find that saving the settings you make is more of a chore than the actual programming, but worth it once you are done.

You can also name and save your presets so that you can have exactly what you want at your fingertips when you need it and named something that is good for you.

I retired mine earlier this year when I got a unit with motorized faders. But it still is working and I gave it to a friend that uses it daily in his home studio. These are great units and well worth looking into.

MACKIE BABY HUI

The one thing that you absolutely have to invest in for your home studio is a Motorized control surface. It will speed up your recording and mixing process and will make recording FUN again.

One neat little thing about the HUI is that they are ROCK solid and relatively inexpensive to find these days.

HUI stands for HUMAN USER INTERFACE. Basically, it does what your mouse does when it comes to mixing digital audio; only it does it faster and more precise.

I mainly use a Mackie MCU for my Control Surface but keep my old tried and True Baby HUI for location recordings and a back up in case I need one.

When I say they are rock solid, let me explain.

My Baby HUI has been a staple in my studio for years, one late night session the drummer tripped and fell into it knocking it to the floor. The Pan Pot went flying and the Control board for the transport punched inside the unit below the surface. The paint was a little bit scraped and the corner of the unit had a small bend. I thought my Baby HUI was a now a paperweight.

After a few kind words to the drummer and after every left for the night I disassembled the unit. I put a slightly larger set of screws in the nuts for the Transport and reassembled the unit, turned it on and it functioned as if nothing happened. The shaft for the pan pot is broken and I have to either replace the board for $50 US or live with a knob that comes off and needs to be re-seated occasionally.

Not a bad result for a ten-foot drop into a concrete floor.

The one drawback is due to the compact size. Smaller throw faders. I can live with that for a smaller size and the tank like construction. This unit is staying in my arsenal of tools for many more years.

MACKIE CONTROL UNIVERSAL

I am sure there are some people out there that have never had the opportunity to mix music down on an actual mixer. There are those that toil over using a mouse to make fader movements on the mix.

Let me be perhaps the first to tell you that you NEED to get your hands on a midi control surface such as the Mackie MCU.

This thing makes it possible to handle things on a mix that would be near impossible to do on a regular mixer and much faster than I could do on a mouse.

It is a breeze to interface into the system using midi and can interface with almost any software on the planet.

I have used it with Ableton, Cakewalk, Sonar, Pro Tools, and Sony Vegas for Video. I have actually not found a program that I can not get it to work with. The midi implementation makes it a breeze to customize it to your lifestyle and software.

It has motorized Penny and Giles volume sliders, continuous control pan pots and a plethora of buttons that will work with just about any feature on your software. The really neat thing about the MCU is that you can have an ENDLESS amount of control. Using the bank button you can slide to the next group of 8 channels and the controls snap into place showing you the positions.

You can also add extenders to add more channels in banks of eight should you need more than eight at one time.

Believe me, once you get one you will wonder how you ever survived by using a mouse to manipulate the series of sub menus on the bar when you can get directly to it with one button click.

The transport buttons are the single most useful thing to me. I love being able to push play, or stop and not have to click a mouse for it. I may be old school. But that is what it is all about.

There are scribble strips that tell you what is on that channel so you don’t have to take your eyes off the board. That helps keep things flowing. The original model is getting quite affordable. I have been using mine over a year and would buy another in a heart beat even at the suggested list price.

- What technical features/characteristics motivated your choice?
I had previously owned the O2, also from M-Audio, and so what i really wanted here was a keyboard that worked...with no latency...with velocity curves you can choose...and keys that actually had some sort of touch to them.
Well, the Axiom has all that and more, although i'm not sure the 25 model has the adjustable velocity...check before buying cos that is one hell of a feature.

- What connection types are there (MIDI, pedals...)?...
USB, MIDI out, MIDI In, Expression jack, Sustain jack, power in, on-off switch, all on rear.

After my disastrous experience with the O2, i wanted to check this one out thoroughly and went round stores asking a lot of questions...and demanded to try it.
I tried some other keyboards in the process, of course, some of which were top of the range very expensive synths...none were as good as this except this with a proper heavy piano touch. But you can't compare them, really: this was the best of all the semi-weighted ones.

Haven't used it extensively yet but everything seems simple.

The endless rotary knobs are a plus. You even have pads! Loads of buttons all over the place...you also have faders! The array of assignable switches is virtually perfect.

- What technical features/characteristics motivated your choice?
I wanted a small, possibly portable keyboard with a fair amount of assignable knobs & things. Oh, and i needed it to be cheap.
This one has those 'features'.

- What connection types are there (MIDI, pedals...)?...
Now i sold this so check before you buy...there is a USB connector, that's for sure, and i think there is also a MIDI out but i'm not sure anymore.

It's quite basic but, still, it has quite a lot of buttons & knobs to fiddle with.

- Is the action/feel of the keyboard nice? Does it suit your needs?
Ouch.
Need i say more? This keyboard is small, light & cheap, and that's exactly what the keys are: small & cheap.
Hard to talk of a 'feel' at this stage. I have very little experience with keyboards (i own a Yamaha PSR-90...which says a lot, doesn't it?...and a MicroKorg) but this is the worst i've ever touched.

- Is the general configuration/setup simple?
Using it is simple, very simple, but beware: no Windows 2000 drivers. You need XP. They probably have Vista drivers by now but that wasn't out when i had mine.

- Is the channel/patch selection simple?
Seemed simple enough, i didn't keep it long enough to really say, though...sorry.

- Is the manual clear and sufficient?...
Same as above.

The M-Audio Oxygen 8 is a 2 octave MIDI controller with a volume lever, pitch and modulation wheels, octave up and down buttons and programmable knobs for control of plug-ins and virtual instruments. It has both MIDI inputs and outputs as well as a USB input which powers it if you don't have the power supply (which I don't).

The feel of the keyboard seems normal to me. The keys are easy to press down and the action is very friendly. Overall set up was pretty easy for the keyboard, but it really depends what software you are running it with. I use it with Reason 3.0 and have had a few problems setting it up with that. On my PC, unless you install the keyboard right when you are installing Reason, you must go back and reinstall Reason so that the keyboard is programed with it correctly. The patch selection is simple enough, as I just toggle on my computer. I had no manual with it because I bought it used, but I can definitely see it coming in handy.

I've been using the Control 24 on and off for about 2 years. Its a great controller for Pro Tools software, but that is about all it is good for. If you are looking to have some real life faders and controls for your DAW, this is a great board. There are endless features on this board, most of which I have not even ventured into and probably never will. But it is easy enough to figure out the basic functions and can be a lot of fun to play with. I'm not a huge fan of the Focusrite built in preamps and would suggest having some outboard pres before you buy this. The price is certainly a big obstacle for most on this, which is probably why you only really see them in bigger studios. If you have a small project studio and want some real faders to work with, I would suggest looking into a smaller digital board. However, for what this really is (a big toy that controls things in Pro Tools without having to use a mouse), it certainly does its job. Its always nice to have some real faders when mixing and editing and I enjoying using many of the shortcut buttons this thing has on it, not to mention it will certainly impress the clients just from the look of it.