Introducing the M-Audio ProjectMix I/O
Control Surface & Audio Interface
(RRP £799)
M-Audio (formerly known as Midiman) have been a leading force in soundcard manufacture since 1988 and their recent acquisition by Avid Technology Ltd has been beneficial to their range by introducing support for Digidesign’s ProTools with ProTools M-Powered, an identical version of ProTools LE designed just for M-Audio soundcards. Their current soundcard line ranges from a basic 2-in 2-out PCI card to the ProjectMix I/O, a 18-in 14-out firewire audio interface with integrated control surface, and it’s this that we’ll be looking at today.
The ProjectMix I/O needs a standard 6-pin Firewire connection to connect to either Mac or PC. Installation is simple, insert the driver CD and follow the instructions, plugging in the device when necessary. Once installed the you‘ll need to setup the ProjectMix for use with a sequencer (of which any of the major players are compatible; Logic, ProTools M-Powered, Cubase, Sonar, Ableton Live, and more) by adding a control surface device in the sequencer’s setup, and select the appropriate mode according to which sequencer is being used when booting up the ProjectMix. It really is as simple as that, and works straight away without any fuss. You can then get started controlling your software with the control surface (transport controls, track faders and panning etc) and recording in with any or all of the 18 available inputs, monitoring their levels via the LCD display if requested. For your convenience, the ProjectMix has 2 independent headphone mixes which is particularly useful when recording and monitoring an overdub with a session musician, and a handy guitar input on the front.
The audio interface has 18 inputs: 8 microphone preamps with 48v phantom power which can also be used as balanced line inputs, an ADAT optical in (which adds 8 more inputs), and stereo SPDIF in. Sound quality wise you get 104dBa dynamic range, 104dBa signal-to-noise ratio, 55dB mic input gain, and 0.00243% THD. With 18 inputs you have all you need to record a standard sized band live, providing enough inputs for separate drum mics, vocal mics, amplifier cabinet mics, and DI’d decks, keyboards and guitars. In order to use the ADAT optical input you’ll need a piece of outboard gear capable of converting 8 analogue inputs into the ADAT optical format. From this, only a single optical cable is required to carry all the audio information into the ProjectMix. Focusrite’s OctoPre Le or OctoPre with an installed ADC expansion board would be suitable for this and provide a superb quality of sound. The ProjectMix’s ADC’s work at 24bit with a selectable sampling rate ranging from 44.1kHz (CD quality) to 96kHz which is more than adequate for any professional recording situation. The audio interface has 4 analogue outputs, ADAT optical out (8 digital outputs), SPDIF stereo out, and 2 headphone outputs. You also get MIDI in and MIDI out, and a word clock in and out to synchronise with other devices. It’s obvious from these statistics and features that the ProjectMix I/O is a serious piece of kit.
As a control surface there are 9 full-sized (100mm) touch sensitive motorized faders, 8 solo, mute, record enable, and select track buttons, standard transport controls including a jog wheel, 8 assignable knobs, bank select buttons, and an LCD display naming tracks and plugin parameters as well as being able to show input and output audio levels. The bank select buttons enable control of tracks other than 1-8 in the sequencer, in fact they can control any track the project contains, and with track labelling shown on the large LCD display it‘s really easy to find the right one whilst mixing. The 8 assignable knobs are endless rotary and can be setup to control panning, aux send, and EQ directly from the ProjectMix itself, or to control effect and instrument plugins from within the host sequencer. The control surface functions as Mackie HUI, Mackie Control, or Logic Control which, as stated previously, provides compatibility with all major sequencers. If you’ve never experienced a motorized control surface, it really is the icing on the cake in a DAW setup. Not only does it look fantastic it’s incredibly useful for when mixing and recording MIDI automation with expression and ease.
The ProjectMix I/O is versatile enough to offer any producer a high-end recording interface and automated control surface with whichever sequencer they prefer. It has enough inputs to record a live band, and with a headphone amplifier provide enough feedback to listen to their performances. Considering a Digidesign 003 system with ProTools LE cost twice the price, the ProjectMix I/O is a low cost alternative with virtually identical performance and functionality.