Recording - September 2016 - 26

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

Software and DSP
The Zen Tour uses Antelope's network-controllable block
matrix routing software, which we've looked at previously
with the Orion units and the Zen Studio. It is updated and
tailored for use with the Zen Tour. It may seem a bit daunting
the first time you dig in and set it up for your DAW and workflow,

Antelope Audio Zen Tour
This sleek desktop interface packs in way more power than meets the eye
Antelope Audio has been on quite a roll. Originally
Antelope gear was found primarily in high-end mastering studios with premier converters and clocks. That changed in
2014 with the launch of the Orion32, a recording interface/
converter that sent 32 channels bi-directionally to a DAW over
USB 2.0 at very low latencies. In February 2016 we looked at
the updated Orion 32+ with improved specs, Mac Thunderbolt
connectivity, and improved onboard DSP processing. This
month we are taking a look at the next evolutionary step in the
company's Zen series, the Zen Tour.
We first looked at the Zen series in October 2014 with the
Zen Studio. While the Orion32 and 32+ are line-level units
only, the Zen Studio boasted 12 onboard XLR microphone preamps and DSP effects as part of a portable 24-channel USB
2.0 recording interface. Its new sibling, the Zen Tour, ups the
Antelope game in some very significant ways. The most obvious is that The Zen Tour breaks Antelope's trend of 19" rack
mount devices and is a desktop device.
A tour of the Tour
The Zen Tour measures 10" across, 61/4" deep and slants
upward from 11/8" at the front to 2" at the back. This is easily
Antelope's most visually stunning design yet. It is solidly built
with all-metal construction, deep black with brushed gunmetal
gray aluminum trim and a full color touchscreen.
Most of its controls, navigation, and settings are handled via
the touchscreen, but it also has a large detented multifunction
rotary knob and pushbuttons for gain, headphone level, and
engaging the onboard talkback microphone. A fourth button
(labeled with an Antelope logo) adds user-definable controls as
of the newest firmware, which didn't arrive in time for us to test.
Well connected
The Zen Tour is packed with ins and outs on 3 of its 4 sides.
On the front are eight 1/4" jacks. The first two are headphone outs, the second pair are labeled R1 and R2 where the
"R" stands for re-amp out. The other four inputs are labeled G1
through G4, and can be set to a choice of Hi-Z instrument input
for guitars and basses or standard balanced TRS line input.
On the back are four Neutrik Combo TRS/XLR jacks for both mic
and line input. Next are two sets of balanced 1/4" Monitor outs,
S/PDIF I/O on RCA jacks, and finally a DB25 jack offering an
additional 8 analog outputs on a TASCAM-spec D-Sub snake. The
rear panel finishes out with a USB 2.0 jack, a Thunderbolt jack,
and a locking socket for the 18V/25W wall wart power supply.
Last but not least, on the left side of the unit are 4 additional
ADAT optical jacks for 16 channels of ADAT I/O.
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RECORDING SEPTEMBER 2016

but just know that more or less any input can be routed to any output or to one of 4 near-zero-latency digital mixer setups.
The onboard AFX effects are based on the company's Field
Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which focuses on realtime
hardware modeling. When we reviewed the 32+ a few
months back, Antelope had just launched their new AuraVerb
DSP reverb. This time they have added a pair of Pultecinspired EQs called the VEQ1P and VEQ5, an API-style EQ
called the 55A, and even cooler, a BAE Audio-licensed 1073
EQ. Each of these EQs can be tracked through or mixed
through, and once assigned to a channel, they can be routed
anywhere you want in the matrix.
Also available in the AFX section are 8 modeled guitar
amps: Top30, Darkface, Modern, Plexi 59, Rock 75, Rock
22.10 and-just released a few days ago-Tweed Deluxe
and Marcus II. The names and looks more than hint at each
amp's inspiration. Each model is simple to start using, but
offers tweakability in the amp controls, cabinet selection, and
adjustable mic selection and placement.
These amp models really sound great. The early vintage models
go nicely from clean to volume-based breakup, and the modern
half-stack styled amps have heavy drive and crunch for days.
Like all good DSP models, these effects do take some processing power. In my tests, between 2 and 16 instances were
available depending on the effect in question. Antelope states
that the number of possible simultaneous effects is being
increased in an upcoming free software update, which will
also feature more EQ and compressor models.
Specs, clocks and sample rates
Most of the specs of the Zen Tour are the same as on the
new Orion Studio and Goliath (review forthcoming). The mic
preamps and converters spec out a touch better than the previous Orion and Zen units. I did not have the older models on
hand for a side-by-side, but I thought those sounded great with
nice full tone. The Zen Tour also offers clean, open, and
detailed A/D and D/A conversion.
The Zen Tour makes use of the company's 4th Generation
Acoustically Focused Clocking, 64-bit DDS, Oven Controlled
Crystal Oscillator, the same as on all Zen and Orion units. It
can record and play back sample rates from 32 up to 192
kHz, all in 24-bit resolution.
Further specs include 120 dB dynamic range on both A/D
and D/A, 129 dB dynamic range on the monitoring D/A,
THD+n of -110 dB on the A/D and -107 dB on the D/A,
and up to 65 dB of mic preamp gain with THD+n of -108 dB.
In other words, impeccably clean.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2016