MusicHack

Alright here’s the story, I have been working with my trusted Yamaha MG 10/2 for the past 15 years – and since 2 years ago, Channel 1 died. And just recently Channel 2 also died. Which meant I no longer have any INSERT I/O ports to use, for hack-sending my MIC INPUT to my AUDIO CARD.

Fast forward to today, I decided to go with a modern mixer, with new onboard effects, and great reviews – the Allen & Heath ZEDi 10FX (here on forth known as Z10).

Summary

Pros: The whole mixer is great looking, clean and very little NOISE signal.

Cons: MIC INPUT volume too low if you don’t want to use the GSPRE pre-amp gain too much, when sending MIC IN to your AUDIO CARD. Of course, if you don’t mind the GSPRE pre-amp colour, then MIC INPUT volume to your AUDIO CARD will be just fine.

Made in China

I was under the impression the whole machine would be made in the UK, but to my surprise, after I saw the Chinese text in the manuals, I decided to look for the “Made in.. ” words, and found that the device was “Made in China”..

I love China! And I’m not against Chinese goods, just that in a huge sense, all the audio devices I have grown up with, were made in Western countries – Germany, Finland, UK etc, and for a good reason – the whole pop music culture came from the West, therefore, they have a long history with sounds, sound engineering, waveforms, sonic theories etc – and therefore, when building audio devices, they know the important thing is that they SOUND good.

China and the Chinese attitude can do and build great functioning devices – and the keyword here is “functioning”. Not great sounding – simply because sounding good isn’t a materialistic function – it does not have weight.

So I give it a decade or two, perhaps then Made in China audio devices can be reliably sounding! Ok I digress.

Setup 1 – not ideal

1. MICROPHONE XLR MIC IN to Channel M3 on Z10.
2. 1/4inch cable insert into FX OUT on Z10.
3. GSPRE M3 GAIN set to 40dB. (pre-amp)
4. FX GAIN set to 0 on Channel M3.
5. MIX GAIN set to 0 on Channel M3.
6. Turn on 48V phantom power
7. MAIN MIX volume set to 0 on Z10.
8. PHONES volume set to 5 (center)

Pros for Setup 1:

• This set up sounds good during playback.
• MIC volume is also good on your headphones.
• Both M3 GSPRE GAIN & MIX GAIN affects the MIC INPUT volume to your AUDIO CARD. The M3 GSPRE GAIN however has a larger range of gain control.

Cons for Setup 1:

• MIC INPUT volume captured to AUDIO CARD is low, around -13.0dB.
• FX OUT is post-mixer, so you can capture MIC INPUT ONLY if the MIX GAIN is more than 0.

Setup 2 – better & loudest (I will continue configure these till I perfect it for my sound)

1. MICROPHONE XLR MIC IN to Channel M3 on Z10.
2. 1/4inch cable insert into AUX OUT on Z10.
3. GSPRE M3 GAIN set to 29dB. (pre-amp) (perfect loudest setting at 37dB)
4. AUX GAIN set to 5.0 on Channel M3.
5. MIX GAIN set to 5.0 on Channel M3. (perfect loudest setting at 0dB)
6. AUX MASTER GAIN set to +5.0.
7. Turn on 48V phantom power
8. MAIN MIX volume set to 0 on Z10.
9. PHONES volume set to 5 (center)

Pros for Setup 2:

• MIC volume is good on earphones.
• MIC INPUT recorded volume determined by M3 GSPRE GAIN only – so adjust this to control how much is sent to your AUDIO CARD.
• AUX is pre-mixer, so you can capture MIC INPUT even if the MIX GAIN is muted.

Cons for Setup 2:

• Recording volume is low at -23. (unless we use the perfect loudest setting in steps 3 and 5 above)
• Only M3 GSPRE GAIN controls the MIC INPUT volume to your AUDIO CARD, but because GSPRE controls the COLOR added to your sound (very obvious when you hear it on your earphones), but some USERS might not mind or hear it. (I DO!)

Setup 3 – USB to PC just for compare (still softer than Setup 2)

1. Connected USB to Computer and the Z10.
2. ST3 to MIX gain set to 1st tick.
3. Cubase set to send audio LEFT to Analogue 3, and RIGHT to Analogue 4.
   1. You need to install the ZEDi 10fx Audio drivers first!
4. MICROPHONE XLR MIC IN to Channel M3 on Z10.
5. GSPRE M3 GAIN set to 39dB. (pre-amp)
6. AUX GAIN set to 0 on Channel M3.
7. MIX GAIN set to 0 on Channel M3.
8. AUX MASTER GAIN set to 0.
9. Turn on 48V phantom power
10. MAIN MIX volume set to 0 on Z10.
11. PHONES volume set to 5 (center)

Pros for Setup 3:

• MIC volume is good on earphones.
• MIC INPUT recorded volume determined by M3 GSPRE GAIN only – so adjust this to control how much is sent to your AUDIO CARD.

Cons for Setup 3:

• Recording volume is low at -23 or -18 depending on your M3 GSPRE GAIN.
• Only M3 GSPRE GAIN controls the MIC INPUT volume to your COMPUTER, but because GSPRE controls the COLOR added to your sound (only to your earphones in this case, the recorded sound sounded the same as Setup 2), it might be a bad thing cranking this too loud.

Summary:

I choose SETUP 2 – since the AUX SEND and AUX MASTER allows me to control the MIC INPUT GAIN to my AUDIO CARD.

As you can see, I’ve chosen to use Setup 2, but it’s not perfect, simply because the recorded volume is still slightly soft  – at the right amount of GSPRE COLOR to my MIC INPUT. BUT, it’s still WAY louder than using the Z10 USB Setup 3 above.

As I described above, you can still send a louder MIC INPUT to your AUDIO CARD, by adjusting the M3 GSPRE GAIN higher – but this would add more GSPRE COLOR to your sound (especially obvious on your earphones), which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your SOUND SOURCE.

I loved the COLOR and VOLUME from my old Yamaha MG 10/2 , but unfortunately, it’s really NOISY (and it’s dead)! The Allen & Heath ZEDi 10FX sounds really clean compared to it – I’m still happy with my purchase – now my workflow involves post-volume-gain to my recorded MIC INPUT in my DAW.