Recording - December 2014 - 24

audio seamlessly from one application to another. For example, you can play
back an audio stream in WinAmp and easily route it to a DAW for glitch-free
capture. Macs must do this via an external program such as Soundflower (free
from Cycling '74, cycling74.com), with this or any other audio interface.
I wish the manufacturer listed specs like the Hi-Z impedance and mic input gain;
the former sounded perfectly fine on my usual instruments, but the latter didn't
seem to offer as much gain as I'm used to on other amplifiers. It worked well with
condenser mics and most dynamics, but I can't see using it with a passive ribbon.
With that one caveat aside, the MAYA22 USB is an impressive little box. It's
well-made and sounds great, with a powerful and clean output section for both
headphones and line output. If you're in the market for a solid interface that can
easily go anywhere, it's definitely worth a look, and while you're at it you
should check out ESI's many other interfaces-nearly a dozen models, offering
a wide variety of I/O options in sizes you didn't think were possible.-MM

Aphex USB 500 Rack
$749; www.aphex.com

patchbays or extra steps necessary. In Cubase I was
hooked up and mixing through a Daking compressor, a
Chandler Little Devil EQ, one of Aphex's own Aural
Exciter modules, and an Aphex Comp 500 in mere seconds after installation. It really does work that seamlessly.
This is not a low-cost box, but it does four things
and does all of them well. This truly is one of the easiest and most efficient ways I have ever used to integrate hardware into the DAW world.-PV

Ploytec Pi L Squared Synthesizer
$99; www.ploytec.com

Reminiscent of the famous Steve Jobs "It's a phone, it's an iPod, it's an internet
device" speech, The USB 500 Rack from Aphex also wears a number of hats.
It's a 4-slot 500 Series enclosure. It's a USB 2.0 computer interface with
4 analog inputs, 6 analog outputs (10 if you count the headphone outs), 2
channels of digital I/O over S/PDIF, 5-pin MIDI and BNC word clock I/O.
It's a stereo monitor controller with volume, mono and dim functions, and
two independent headphone outs. Oh, and thanks to its rugged construction and spring-loaded carrying handle, it's portable too.
On its front side are four standard 500 Series slots followed by a volume knob
for output, a set of backlit pushbuttons for mono and dim, and the two frontmounted headphone jacks, each with its own volume control. Its rear panel is jampacked with ins and outs; stereo audio outs on balanced 1/4" TRS, S/PDIF, MIDI,
Word Clock, USB 2.0, and a 3-prong cable socket for use with the unit's internal
power supply (no wall wart here), in addition to XLR in and out for each slot.
The XLR ins and outs do double duty on this unit. Each slot has a 3-position toggle switch that chooses said channel's input source: USB, Module
or XLR. Each output is controlled with a 2-position switch that chooses
whether the USB output is an XLR channel or module output. Two switches
let you link slots 1/2 and 3/4 if desired.
The USB 500 works as a standard no-frills 4-slot enclosure with any standard
500 Series module, including Aphex's own offerings. The star of this show,
however, is the unit's USB connectivity. It is both Mac and PC compatible and
it installed on my MacBook Pro with no issues. Once it's connected, you can
use the USB 500 as a standard 4-channel interface that holds its own, in terms
of conversion quality, with other multichannel interfaces in its price range.
The true magic happens when you combine both worlds. You can add
any 4 mic preamp modules and instantly have a 4-input USB interface
equipped with boutique-level mic preamps that you've customized to your
specs and tastes, or add EQs and compressors to a preamp and build a
high-end channel strip if that's what you need.
You have probably seen people talk in print and online about "hybrid mixing," where they loop analog hardware in and out of their DAWs on virtual
channel inserts. The USB 500 makes this a breeze. Any module in any slot, no
matter what it does, can be routed in and out of your DAW with no cables,
24

RECORDING December 2014

Sometimes we mention something in a Buyer's Guide
because it's not only useful for some of our readers but
just plain fun. The Pi L Squared from German maker
Ploytec falls into that category; it's a programmable
analog/digital synthesizer that's about the size and
shape of an engagement ring box from a jewelry store.
Palm-sized and weighing only a few ounces, the Pi
L Squared is a black box with three ports around its
sides: one 5-pin MIDI input, one RCA audio output,
and one USB Micro-B connector. The USB port is
optional; it provides power to the synth if you can't
draw enough from the MIDI connection, which is how
the synth is usually powered. (Yes, power over MIDI.
I didn't even realize that was possible.)
A tiny cheat sheet, packaged with the Pi L Squared,
explains how to control it: all of its controllable parameters are mapped to MIDI Control Change messages.
You just hook it up to a MIDI device that sends the right
messages, plug the audio cable into your mixer, and
play. A free downloadable Editor for Mac OS X and
Windows talks to the synth over MIDI and lets you
graphically see parameter values, update firmware,
play the synth from an onscreen (or QWERTY) keyboard, save and load programs (32 of your own in
addition to 32 onboard factory presets) and more. The
screenshot on page 26 shows the main synth interface;
the other tab, not shown here, handles MIDI I/O
assignments, firmware updates, and the like.
On our test version of the Editor, 1.3.0, there was a
choice of three different firmware versions-1.5, 2.0,
and PL02.56. Interestingly, the software allows you to
quickly upgrade and downgrade between all three versions, each of which gives the synth a different sound. I
spent most of my time with version 2.0, which adds
some extra features to what's on the 1.5-era cheat sheet.
The PL02.56 firmware completely reconfigures the synth
to emulate the General Instrument SP0256-AL2 speech

http://www.cycling74.com http://www.aphex.com http://www.ploytec.com

Recording - December 2014

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