M-Audio Project Mix i/o

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Hey bloggers! I picked up M-Audio's Project Mix i/o control surface about a year ago. At the time I was looking into a solution to providing more inputs to my Pro Tools LE system. Before I wrote any kind of review on this product, I wanted to spend a lot of time using it on various projects in order to give it a fair review. Well, if you are looking to expand the amount of inputs you have using a firewire based system, look no further. Over the course of this year, I have used this on projects ranging from full drum kit sessions, guitar/bass sessions, to vocal sessions, to round-table discussions, as well as live feeds from FOH mixers. Simply put, the best thing I love about the Projectmix i/o is that it is very portable, but it's durability is second to none. It feels really solid in general, and although the 10 bit-Automated Motorized faders feel slightly light-weighted, they also are very sensitive and responsive to touch. The Projectmix i/o has Phantom power on all 8-XLR inputs and has 8- 1/4" line level inputs as well as ADAT in/out, SPDIF, and wordclock with 4-1/4" main outputs for monitoring.

The Projectmix i/o features really shine when you are pointing and clicking all over in Pro Tools, because when it comes down to it, you have all of the necessary features to control right in front of you on this board. From simple play back/recording enabling, to soloing and muting, to a nice LCD screen which displays each track name and other useful mix-ready information not to mention the programmable rotary encoder knobs and memory locations, you will be able to do more things on this board in 1/3 of the time.

With only 8 faders, you might ask yourself, how can you control all of your tracks in Pro Tools?
Well its quite easy actually. The PM offers a bank select feature that you can scroll track-by-track, or fader-by-fader, or in groups of 8 faders, to the next set of tracks you want to work on. And all fully motorized and automated, so its fun to watch them all move and correspond to each track you pull up on the board. =o)

Need more inputs? No problem. There's also an ADAT lightpipe in/out so that you can use a single optical cable to connect another channel strip such as the M-Audio Digimax FS or many other channel strips from other companies with an ADAT out. This makes it easy to expand your inputs from 8 to 16 or 24 or as many channel strips with ADAT as you can afford ;o}

There are only a few things I would point out which I found out the hard way. The gain on the inputs on the Projectmix i/o are slightly hot, meaning that if you put a high SPL source in front of it such as a kick drum/snare/ loud guitar amp, it will clip quite easily - WITH NO GAIN. However, I've never really seen it as much of a problem as there are solutions around this. 1) Use an Attenuator, (sold by M-Audio - I think specifically for SPL sources for the PM) or 2) Back off the microphone, although not always preffered as a method, or 3) Use another channel strip with ADAT like the Digimax FS or LT which can handle higher SPL at the source without clipping.

The other things I didn't like was that the PM only has 4 outputs, no inserts or direct outs. Not my first choice, but again I learned from the perspective that I was only looking for more inputs and a really cool control surface! (no regrets, as there are options depending on how you set up your studio) The other thing is that the Master fader, does not work as a master fader. In fact it doesn't work at all. I have searched endlessly to find out why this is, but there is no real reason apart from that it probably works with other programs besides Pro Tools. I'll get to that in a second. Therefore, if you want a master fader, you have to create a master fader track in PT, then use that channel as you would any of the other 8 faders to control the master level. No biggie.

I must say that because you can use this control surface with MANY other programs, this makes it really versatile. Such programs are: Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer, Sonar, Ableton Live and can be used to control Midi through all Pro Tools systems. The Projectmix i/o is also fairly affordable when you think about all of its features and digital connectivity-coming in around $1299.99 US. I would definitely recommend this control surface to anyone interested in it, and have already found it in Post-studios who find it convenient to mix their track-intensive sessions on such a small surface and keep it all in the digital world, as it supports 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96kHz sample rates with 24 bit conversion.

Well, that's my first blog on the M-Audio Projectmix i/o. I hoped you enjoyed, and feel free to leave any comments as I probably missed information about this wonderful product!
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