Recording - October 2009 - 16

Zoom R16 chromatic tuner and a metronome whose mix in the headphones can be controlled with the Balance knob. Effects and monitoring The R16 has three simultaneous builtin effects: one Insert Effect that can be assigned to one or more tracks during recording, bounce, or playback, and two Send/Return effects, a Chorus/Delay and a Reverb. The Insert effect can be applied to one or two mono channels, one linked stereo pair of channels, or— in the case of one Algorithm (see below) called 8x COMP EQ—all eight inputs at once, dividing the processing power so each input signal can have its own highpass filter, compressor/limiter, and 3band parametric eq. (That’s in addition to the simpler 3-band eq with parametric mid that all tracks have anyway.) One very nice touch: you can choose to put an Insert Effect on a track and record the results, or route the effected will look like to whatever’s on the other end of the cable.The R16 can be seen as a remote hard disk that shows up on your Mac or PC’s desktop; an 8-in/2-out 24-bit interface supporting sample rates up to 96 kHz; or it can act like it’s a PC itself, writing and reading audio files to and from a USB flash drive. Once you’ve told the R16 it’s an audio interface, it happily talks to the DAW of your choice. It comes bundled with a special version of Steinberg Cubase LE 4, but I did my tests with Ableton Live 8 and Apple Logic Pro 8, where it happily fed up to eight tracks of audio at a time into the computer. At 44.1 kHz sample rate, the R16’s internal CPU isn’t working very hard to move audio to your computer, so it has enough cycles left to let you put effects on your inputs (for confidence monitoring they aren’t recorded to the DAW). A blend of DAW output and tracked input can be dialed in with the Balance knob. People who are used to the originalgeneration desktop recorders of the 1990s will miss having a couple of the features common to them. The main omission is track-based editing functions like cut and paste, the lack of which makes it difficult to assemble composites and do fine editing without an external computer. Similarly, the R16 has no CD burner, so a fiercely anti-computer user will have to program playlists of finished tracks and record them onto an external CD recorder in real time. (There’s a playlisting function built into the R16 that lets you do this as a onetouch operation.) On the audio-interface side, while it’s nice to have the available controls on the R16 for DAW use, a set of faders and some transport buttons do not a control surface make.You’ll want to supplement the R16 with a second controller to add more knobs and other controls if you want to do serious mouse-free work; the The R16 adds USB audio interfacing/controller functions to a full-on 8-input digital multitrack recorder and it fits in a laptop bag. track to the headphones while recording dry. This lets you give a vocalist or guitarist a nice-sounding monitor effect, and add your choice of effects to the recorded audio later. The Insert Effect has a wide variety of preset multieffects chains called Algorithms to choose from. These are named for their intended input signals, like guitar, bass, miked vocals, etc. While you can’t reorder the effects in an Algorithm, you can turn each effect on and off, tweak the parameters, and save the results as a renamed effects patch of your own that can be exported to other song projects. As expected for a Zoom box, the Insert Effects choices range from the straightforward to the completely over-the-top, especially the electric guitar effects chains. There’s a set of special Mastering effects that can be inserted on the stereo Master track during mixdown for final song-wide tweaks. USB ins and outs When you hook up the R16 via USB to a computer, nothing happens until you tell it to. The USB button accesses a set of commands that dictate what the R16 16 RECORDING OCTOBER 2009 The R16 is set up to be seen as a remote control surface by any DAW that knows the Mackie Control protocol. You get eight track faders plus a Master fader, all the transport buttons, and five assignable buttons. You can move left and right by banks of eight faders to cover as many mixer channels as you want, and all your fader moves can be recorded and automated. Comments, complaints, and conclusions My main quibble with the R16’s recording mode is that the send/return effects routing isn’t accessed under the Send/Return Effect button—that’s where you do effects editing—but under the Pan/EQ button, at the end of the menu past the Pan and EQ settings. The multipurpose buttons on each track were handy for quick track selection, but I prefer having at least one assignable encoder on each channel rather than doing everything with one click-wheel; maybe a future, slightly upmarket version of the R16 will include a set of eight assignable knobs so functions like pan or mid-eq gain can be adjusted across multiple tracks at once. R16 really won’t cut it in that regard without some help. This is another place where a bank of encoder knobs would be an awesome addition to a future model. But these complaints fall under the category of “Well, why doesn’t this box just do everything, darn it?” If you consider what the R16 can do, and the fact that the vast majority of its users will be comfortable enough with computers to hook up a USB cable and fill in what the R16 can’t do, the unit’s small size and handy controls make it a slam dunk for anyone wanting an all-in-one way to capture audio, get it into a computer, and create mixes, with or without the computer itself doing any of the heavy lifting. As affordable and lightweight as it is, I see the R16 becoming a staple piece of equipment for live recordists and small studios everywhere. It’s just too darn handy. Price: $399 MAP More from: Zoom/Samson Technologies, 45 Gilpin Ave., Hauppauge, NY 11788. 631/784-2200, www.zoomfx.com, www.samsontech.com.
http://www.zoomfx.com http://www.samsontech.com

Recording - October 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2009

Recording - October 2009
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
Joe Chiccarelli And The Perfect Mix
Zoom R16
The Mixing Workshop
Lauten ST-221 Torch Microphones
Mastering Engineer Bob Katz—The Voice of Experience
Benchmark MPA1 Preamplifier
What The Heck IS Mastering?
Reviewed and Revisited: M-Audio ProFire 610
Universal Audio 710 Twin-Finity
Recording’s Drum Column
Plug-In Outlet
Readers' Tapes
Chameleon Labs 7802 Tube Compressor
Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - October 2009 - Recording - October 2009
Recording - October 2009 - Cover2
Recording - October 2009 - 1
Recording - October 2009 - Fade In
Recording - October 2009 - 3
Recording - October 2009 - Contents
Recording - October 2009 - 5
Recording - October 2009 - Talkback
Recording - October 2009 - 7
Recording - October 2009 - Fast Forward
Recording - October 2009 - 9
Recording - October 2009 - 10
Recording - October 2009 - 11
Recording - October 2009 - Joe Chiccarelli And The Perfect Mix
Recording - October 2009 - 13
Recording - October 2009 - Zoom R16
Recording - October 2009 - 15
Recording - October 2009 - 16
Recording - October 2009 - 17
Recording - October 2009 - The Mixing Workshop
Recording - October 2009 - 19
Recording - October 2009 - 20
Recording - October 2009 - 21
Recording - October 2009 - Lauten ST-221 Torch Microphones
Recording - October 2009 - 23
Recording - October 2009 - Mastering Engineer Bob Katz—The Voice of Experience
Recording - October 2009 - 25
Recording - October 2009 - 26
Recording - October 2009 - 27
Recording - October 2009 - Benchmark MPA1 Preamplifier
Recording - October 2009 - 29
Recording - October 2009 - 30
Recording - October 2009 - 31
Recording - October 2009 - What The Heck IS Mastering?
Recording - October 2009 - 33
Recording - October 2009 - 34
Recording - October 2009 - 35
Recording - October 2009 - Reviewed and Revisited: M-Audio ProFire 610
Recording - October 2009 - 37
Recording - October 2009 - Universal Audio 710 Twin-Finity
Recording - October 2009 - 39
Recording - October 2009 - 40
Recording - October 2009 - 41
Recording - October 2009 - 42
Recording - October 2009 - 43
Recording - October 2009 - 44
Recording - October 2009 - 45
Recording - October 2009 - Recording’s Drum Column
Recording - October 2009 - 47
Recording - October 2009 - Plug-In Outlet
Recording - October 2009 - 49
Recording - October 2009 - 50
Recording - October 2009 - 51
Recording - October 2009 - Readers' Tapes
Recording - October 2009 - 53
Recording - October 2009 - Chameleon Labs 7802 Tube Compressor
Recording - October 2009 - 55
Recording - October 2009 - Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Recording - October 2009 - Advertiser Index
Recording - October 2009 - 58
Recording - October 2009 - 59
Recording - October 2009 - 60
Recording - October 2009 - 61
Recording - October 2009 - 62
Recording - October 2009 - 63
Recording - October 2009 - Fade Out
Recording - October 2009 - Cover3
Recording - October 2009 - Cover4
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