ProjectMix interface

[pk_hat]

Hi all,
I've been on this board for many years and took a long break, been a 001/002R user and went down to the Mbox a few months ago, and I hate that thing. I am considering the Project Mix so I can keep using PT but was wondering what you all thought of it. Are the preamps any good, I would expect them to be similar to the 002R's, clean and decent, nothing spectacular but enough to do a good job.

My other concern is whether or not you can monitor from the Project Mix without having PT booted up and tracks armed for recording. In other words, can I have say, a synth, cd player, and a few instruments permanently plugged in and just be able to monitor them all at once, sort of like a mixer would do, as opposed to the DIgi002R which only one stereo source to be monitored with the ALT-SRC button. I know MOTU interfaces do that, and that would tip the scale in terms of seriously considering the Project Mix + PT M-Audio edition.

Thanks for any comments, likes and dislikes about this unit.

[SHREDDER]

Check out the sample page on my site:

http://www.alpinesound.net/index.php...d=14&Itemid=28

Both of the "Rock Addix" cover tunes(Journey+Whitesnake)were tracked using the Project mix mic pre's along with my M-Audio Octane.IMHO the sound quality of the PM's mic pre's are great.You be the judge.

[JohnT]

Mr. Hat,
You're singing my song, 002r at home and Mbox for day gig in VO and simple Post work. Love PT, hardware - oh well. I was really bumming about real Core Audio support. Now I can be in PT and fire something up in iTunes and hear it through the same monitors!

Drawbacks on the ProjectMix:
Outputs - there are only analog 4 outs, so it's a bit more limiting than the 002r. Compared to Mbox it's a step up. (there is spdif and ADAT outs for another 10 if you up to it)

A bit finicky about connecting the firewire - you can't hot swap it.

There are some snap, crackle, pops on program start up. To me it sounds like the clock is locking in. I've had no problems once a session is loaded. More of an annoyance than anything.

Meters are pretty unusable.

Nails the core HUI protocol well however I miss the dedicated buttons for Capture and Separate, Delete and the whole 10 keypad for setting in's and out's, pre/post rolls from time values. I just need to have my computer keyboard handy.

The scrub wheel is a sort of cheap feeling, not a big hunk of metal like the HUI.

I've had trouble with changing modes from PT to Mackie Control if you're changing programs. I find I need to change the ProjectMix then reboot.

Cool Stuff:
To answer one of your questions - you can monitor stuff without any application fired up. There's a software router that will internally patch analog in's to out's as a default hardware setting. I'm not sure off the top of my head if you can play through it with the computer turned off and only the ProjectMix on. hmmm....

No jittery faders like the HUI.

Pure MIDI controller mode.

As for the pre's I haven't given them much of a shot. I'm patching from a LA-610 or RNP for most sutff and go in line level. There's been some discussion here about whether the ProjectMix is +4. I'll let you read that yourself. (Shredder has been in on that) All I can say is I'm running my LA-610 like I used to with the 002r and it's working fine.


I went to the ProjectMix for better Core Audio support (I'm using more Ableton Live for my personal tracking/idea capture), to get out from under the 002r while I could get a decent price for it and get rid of my HUI (which I loved) and combine it with an interface in one unit.

Jt

Mpowered PT 7.1, Mac dual g4 1.8 (Gigagdesigns), OSX 10.4.6, Reason, Live, Toast/Jam, Peak Pro
Univeral Audio LA-610, RNP, JoeMeek VC6Q, Pod 2.0, Ampeg B15
AT4050, RCA 77D, Audix d4, Beyer M380, Shure 57's and 94's and other worthwhile junk.
Coffee with cream, no sugar

[mlange]

Remember, you can only use a maximum of 12 total outputs and 16 total inputs at any single time. Although there are 14 outputs and 18 inputs, the SPDIF and LightPipe are an either/or option. However, the 002/002r supports simultaneous use of SPDIF and LightPipe.
But, I do like my ProjectMix's wordclock