Cool new toy - on the cheap.... recommended.
Danny T
Phonic Helix Board 18 MKI Fire Wire.
I saw this thing sitting in ebay and there are 4 more from the same
guy: Item number: 230250482492 - Its a 14 channel mixer with lots of
routing and most important, 16 tracks of firewire input for computer
recording!
I bought it thinking what the heck - for $303 dollars shipped it can't
be that bad. I got the thing in record speed and plugged it in and it
worked. (I have mac so it worked by plugging in the firewire and that
was it) For PC there is a CD}
I did a pretty extensive 3 hour check on the thing and found the A/D/
A is fantastic. The preamps are clean and what you put is in what you
get out. I like pres that have color most of the time but this is good
too. (8 of them) There is an effects section with 3 total sends. The
EQ is OK - on par with any of the cheap boards like mackie. but having
16 channels of record alone for that price is unheard of.
It is the perfect no nonsense gig board for anyone that wants to track
what they play live. The Firewire channels are independently routed so
once you set the gain your done. You can slide faders all over and
never effect the record signal.
NOW - I read all kinds of negative remarks about these boards. I have
to say I think they are crazy. For the money you will never find a
better deal. For twice as much you can buy a mackie with the same
channels and no firewire. For $500 you can by 8 channels of firewire
with nothing else attached. There is nothing bad about the sound
quality. You'd never notice the difference between this and an apogee
unless you were in a very well built room when you recorded. I'm so
stoked on this and I think it is such a good little mixer that I am
spending my time promoting it for free ... that should say something
considering that I could be drinking beer! .... :-)
Oh yeah, it comes with Cubase LE.
Anyone need the cubase? Let me know.... I don't need it.....
Matt
"Danny T" <danny...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ce97a827-553c-457c...@34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
Man, that sounds like a sweet setup for live recording. I'd never even
heard of this board. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one and see if I can
pick one up. I spent a bunch of money on my Digidesign setup and then had to
spend more to get a Behringer Pro-8 ADAT interface just to add 8 more inputs
so I could record my band live.
Just based on your review I'm thinking about recommending this board on my
Blog. Thanks for turning us on to it.
-Matt-
www.livemusiciancentral.com
Danny T
> "Danny T" <dannytad...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:ce97a827-553c-457c...@34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> >I just wanted to post a little thing about a new toy I bought called a
> > Phonic Helix Board 18 MKI Fire Wire.
>
> > I saw this thing sitting in ebay and there are 4 more from the same
> > guy: Item number: 230250482492 - Its a 14 channel mixer with lots of
> > routing and most important, 16 tracks of firewire input for computer
> > recording!
>
My pleasure to spread good news. I really love this thing. The more I
use it the more I love it. I don't know why the bad reviews came in
but I have a feeling it was two fold. One, some of the Mackie
promoters and other low end gear saw the threat and second the
wantabee gearheads chimed their parroting remarks so they could sound
knowledgeable.
The board feels well made. The pres are clean (they just don't do what
a stand alone 2,000 pre would do). The converters are really nice. I
like them better then motu stuff, alesis stuff and at least as well as
the echo stuff. I'm not a real fan of most of the others anyway. M-
Audio is not bad but in my hearing less then this board can offer.
That link I posted should take you to the guy that has them - if he
still does. If not, look up phonic helix on google. The board is
available through lots of the online gear sites. From all of my
research, the mk1 (which is what I bought) is identical short of a few
cosmetic things to the mk11 which is only a little more money.
There is one big drawback for me (and some other pc users) You need
fairly new operating systems. The drivers don't work in the old stuff,
but that is normal. I have many stages of mac and I prefer the old
Cubase 5.1 in Mac OS9 over the new stuff. I have the new stuff so I am
going to track all the tracks on my intel mac and then output
individual files for import to os9. Its a little tedious but worth it
for me. You can't really fault the builder for that though since os9
hasn't been a staple since about 8 years ago.
I hope you get one of these boards - hope you like yours as much as I
like mine!
Matt
Okay Danny, I did a write-up on the mixer on my website. It would be cool
if you could leave a comment on the article and tell about your experience
with the mixer.
Check it out at www.livemusiciancentral.com
Thanks again,
-Matt-
Danny T
OK