ProAudio Review - April 2008 - (Page 18)

STUDIO | REVIEW recording mode enabled, and varispeed enabled. In comparison to other DAWs, the X-48’s mixing features are fairly limited (e.g. the faders are the only function that can be automated and the automation has to be drawn in with a mouse) but they can still adequately handle most situations, especially since most people will be using the mixer for reference mixing. The X-48’s 32-bit floating-point mixer features include grid-style editing and varispeed (+/-6%). Each channel includes Dynamics, 4-band parametric EQ, and 4 VST plug-in inserts. The dynamics section includes controls for threshold, ratio, attack, release, and makeup gain as well as a button to activate the soft knee mode for extreme ratio settings. The Equalizer section includes a fourband full-parametric EQ. Each band has full Q control and is sweepable from 20Hz to 20 kHz. Each band and can also be set to Low Shelf, High Shelf, Peaking, Low Pass and High Pass. The knobs can be turned to make adjustments or you can simply grab the dots in the graphic display. The X-48 officially supports Antares Auto-Tune and the Waves plug-ins, though most VST plug-ins should work trouble-free. There are also buttons for solo, mute, record arming, and input monitoring as well as pan controls. In addition to the 48 audio tracks, the mixer includes six stereo returns providing a total of 60 inputs at mixdown. The dynamics and EQ sections of the digital mixer sound good and I found that in both instances it was quick and easy to attain my desired results. There are also 12 stereo groups, and six aux sends and a stereo master buss. The TASCAM US-2400 can be used as a control surface for the X-48 providing physical access to the X-48’s transport, fader levels, pan, aux sends, bank select channels, etc. | IN USE I’ve always been a fan of TASCAM’s converters. Back in the day of DTRS machines I always found the TASCAM boxes to be leagues beyond the competition. At first we all thought that digital sounded terrible (it turned out that ADATs sounded terrible) but there actually were some good sounding converters out there, even in the 90’s. All that said, I really like the way the X-48 sounds. The most obvious use for the X-48 is recording live concerts. This is the situation where it truly shines. I can walk into a venue with a rack of 48 mic preamps, the X-48, a TASCAM DV-RA1000HD or Alesis Masterlink and a pair of headphones and walk away with a live album ready to be mixed. If TASCAM had included a headphone jack on the box, I could do it without the DV-RA1000 or the Masterlink. When recording longer shows with high track counts, especially at higher sample rates, hard disk space becomes an issue with an internal drive of only 80GB. The X-48 flawlessly records to external hard drives; I have been using a 500GB Glyph GT050Q drive and haven’t had a single problem. I recorded 48 tracks at 24-bit, 96kHz for over two hours and the rig never hiccupped. I did have an issue with another hard drive while recording a David Phelps live Christmas DVD that turned out to be a faulty hard drive. Interestingly enough, I ran the Drive Benchmarking application on the drive and it shows that the drive was fine; this makes me question the quality of the X-48’s application, but I haven’t been able to duplicate that problem so I’m not exactly sure what the issue was. I love the fact that the X-48 records Broadcast WAVE files. This makes it simple to import recordings into another DAW for editing and mixing. Projects can also be exported TASCAM Continued From Page 16 lights indicate the current sample rate and the Timecode Rate indicator displays the current frame rate. System Lights (Sample Lock, Dest Rec, and Varispeed) illuminate to indicate sample lock to an external source, destructive PRODUCTPOINTS • Great sound & features • Ease of use • Low price • No headphone jack • No AES/EBU or optical output SCORE The X-48 should be a serious consideration for any professional needing a multi-track hard-disk recorder. 18 | ProAudio Review | April 2008 Subscribe to the Digital Edition of Pro Audio Review http://www.myparmag.com www.proaudioreview.com http://www.sonicus.net http://www.proaudioreview.com http://www.myparmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProAudio Review - April 2008

ProAudio Review - April 2008 Contents A Little More Recognition Please Studio News and New Products API 1608 16-Channel Analog Console TASCAM X-48 Digital Audio Workstation SSL Matrix Super Analogue Console Toft Audio Design Series ATB Analog Console KRK Systems Exposé E8B Powered Monitor Broadcast News and New Products ZOOM H2 Portable Digital Recorder Producing Surround Sound at 50th Grammy Awards JBL LSR4312SP Linear Spatial Reference Powered Subwoofer Audio Production For Gaming Euphonix S5 Fusion Digital Post Production Console NAB Hot Gear Soundcraft Vi6 Digital Live Production Console Go To A Show! Contracting News and New Products Studio Consoles Studio Wireless Microphones Alicia Keys “Superwoman”

ProAudio Review - April 2008

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