Recording - December 2014 - 23

Said big gig, by the way, was a coffee
house show where I set up the APC40
MkII and APC mini along with several
other controllers, giving me hands-on control of a 24-track mix all at once. What I
found was that with the ease of track shift
and Live's clear visual feedback on
screen, I could have easily done the show
with the APC40 MkII all by itself, and that
the APC mini would have given me most
of what I needed if I was really tight on
space. These controllers are well-built, hit
two very different sweet spots in terms of
portability vs. flexibility, and are bound to
please Ableton users everywhere.-MM

ESI MAYA22 USB Audio
Interface
$99; www.esi-audio.com

This little interface was a late addition to
our Buyer's Guide; brand-new as of press
time, it was on display at the AES Convention
in Los Angeles (see our show report next
issue) at the booth of US distributor Eleven
Dimensions Media (11dmedia.com), and the
Eleven Dimensions folks were kind enough to
let us borrow one for a week and try it out.
ESI Audiotechnik is a German music hardware manufacturer that's been around for a
very long time but isn't well-known in the
USA. ESI offers everything from audio and
MIDI interfaces to keyboard controllers and
studio monitors, and some ESI products are
intriguing alternatives to more familiar offerings. In particular, ESI prides itself on a variety of audio interfaces that are full-featured,
rugged... and tiny. For example, the Dr.
DAC nano is a stereo 24/96 output device
with analog and optical S/PDIF that's barely
larger than a matchbox.

The MAYA22 USB is a 2-in/2-out buspowered interface that handles audio up
to 24/96, wrapped in an all-metal case
with an unusual but elegant tapered
shape. All I/O can be found on the side
panels: XLR/TRS combo input, Hi-Z 1/4"
guitar input, and 1/4" TRS headphone out
on the left, and unbalanced stereo RCA
line inputs, balanced TRS line outputs, and
mini-B USB connector on the right.
When powered on, a blue LED inside the
combo input lights up-very pretty until you
connect a mic, at which point your only visual indication of power status is the multicolor
Signal LED between the combo input and its
48V phantom power button. To access all of
the MAYA22 USB's features, you must install
appropriate drivers (for Windows XP/Vista/
7/8) and a control panel application (for
Windows or Mac OS X).
Here's where the path splits. Mac users
will find a very basic control panel application with input selection (Line In/Mic/HiZ/Mic and Hi-Z), sample rate selection
(44.1/48/96 kHz), input and output levels
with mute, and a button for zero-latency
monitoring of the inputs at the outputs.
Windows users, on the other hand, get all of
this plus access to a very cool technology
called DirectWIRE, which brings up a virtual
patch panel connecting all of your PC's available audio software and its drivers (ASIO,
WDM, MME, or GSIF) so you can route

http://www.trunorthmusicandsound.com http://www.lewitt-audio.com http://www.lewitt-audio.com http://www.11dmedia.com http://www.esi-audio.com

Recording - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2014