Mixing to the MasterLink Recorder?

[Rail Jon Rogut]

No you don't.. if you record to your MBox session.. you simply have to CTRL+Shift+K to export the audio as stereo interleaved.. no BTD required.

Rail

[drknob]

We have three of these units. I have always upgraded the software to current versions. They have been indispensable as DAT recorder replacements. However, they exhibit many problems. I feel their quality control is very weak. We exchanged two units because they sounded terrible. None of our current three units will consistently play manufactured or recorded cds without sync pops or major mis-tracking errors. And I'm talking about cds and cdrs that will play on EVERY OTHER PLAYER WE OWN (including imacs, g4s, pcs, audiophile players, portable crappy $50 players). When I complained to Alesis, tech support responded 'They weren't designed to be cd players.' WOW!!! I returned one for service, thinking this must be a fault. Wrong. It came back exactly the same way. In my experience, Alesis is in complete denial that any problems exist. They haven't helped me AT ALL.
The internal dsp fade-in fade-out is completely unreliable. We've lost hours of work.
I do recommend them as good 2 track hard disk recorders and cd burners. No more than that.

[O.G. Killa]

True, I forgot about export selected regions...but it's still an extra step of processing that may have a subtle affect on the audio. I've actually never tested to see if I hear a difference between BTD and Export Region. That would be interesting to see if there is an audible difference.

[toddro]

Hey O.G. - this is a great post about the Masterlink, and it echoes many of the problems I have had with them as well. I am glad to hear of someone else who has come to the same conclusions I have. I have been running around for years saying they suck and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy - and they have pretty much become a standard in the Nashville area. I steer clear of them as much as possible, they are wicked bad news....

Todd
Nashville

I tested it in a bunch of different scenarios...what the masterlink would do in all cases is narrow the stereo image, roll off some of the low bottom (below 70Hz) the low mids would get a little muddy sounding (200Hz-500Hz) and it would hype around 2KHz-5KHz a little bit.

I tried every clocking configuration I could do. I tried using Analog ins and digital ins. I tried using different converters in front of it...nothing helped. Even the AIF files on the CD24s had the same problems when loaded back into Protools and into Sound Forge, so it wasn't just the D/A coming out of the masterlink.

I mixed a hiphop album on it before we sold it but after we found out about it's problems. The mixes sound good and nobody really notices the problems because I tried to compensated for it when mixing(I was listening to the outputs of the masterlink when mixing). But on some of the Big Band and orchestral stuff we do the masterlink wasn't cutting it no matter what we did.

After talking to some friends about this, someone else had problems with a masterlink too... He was mixing an album to a masterlink and everything was sounding good...then one day they came in and the mix that they had been working on the night before suddenly sounded like crap. They couldn't figure it out...the traced the signal path and eventually tracked down the problem to the Masterlink. It was the one thing that was killing the sound...so they talked to the studio manager and said that something must have happened to the masterlink...the studio owner admitted that they swapped out the masterlink they were using that night for a different one for some reason and maybe that was why. So, the producer went to his car and grabbed his masterlink. They plugged it in and tada!, the mix was back to sounding good again. They went back and forth between the two, A/B'ing them and the studio's alternate masterlink definitely sounded worse than the one the producer owned. So they used the producer's until the studio manager was able to get the original masterlink they were using back into the studio. Then they compared all three...and all three sounded slightly different...while the original and the producers didn't sound bad, they could definitely tell which one was which. And the studio's replacement ML sounded horrible.

So it's kind of hit or miss...you never know if the one you get is a good one or not.

[mpr3]

I have been running around for years saying they suck and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy -

I get 100% digital null between my 24bit masterlink bounces and the PT in the box bounces.

Maybe my ML is a good one?

[JLC]

I have a Masterlink too...

But if you don't like BTD why don't you copy your mix to a new track through a stereo bus?

Your mixes will remain in the same session.

[GORILLA]

Trying not to get to way off topic here. But I'm an LE user and I've tried sending out the master fader to my PSX-100SE (adat out and adat in) using it's UV22 @16 and bringing it back into a stereo pair in the same session. But when I take it to Jam it's still at 24bit
Now that's because my session is at 24bit right? I don't want to use any other dither than the UV22.
How can I do this so to keep away from BTD and getting it at 16bit? Anyone.... Thanks

[O.G. Killa]

Hey O.G... I steer clear of them as much as possible, they are wicked bad news....

Todd
Nashville

Hey Todd, Are you from New England? I haven't heard anyone say "wicked bad" in years...ahhh, now you're making me homesick! HAHAHA

Peace,

-OGK

[chuck.dallas]

Just got my Masterlink back from the shop. Bad power supply. Besides this, I've experienced some of the problems mentioned before like the pops/clicks when playing some CDs. But generally the Masterlink has been a good, solid 2-track recorder and burner (even though it's a little slow @ 4X burn speed).