Alesis Multimix 16 Firewire VS. Phonic Helix Board 18 Firewire

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SMX_Dizzy

New member
So, just as the title says, this thread is about the Alesis vs. the Phonic. Advantages to one over the other? Disadvantages to one over the other? Which has better pres? Better features?

The Phonic is cheaper retail, but they're a pretty similar price on eBay. So overall (price aside), which would be worth getting over the other?
 
i have the phonic:
Its pre's are pretty noisy but only if your recording at stupid levels (too hot) but you can just buy a stand alone phantom power/channel strip and turn the phantom power off on the phonic and its fine. its good cause you can hook up your monitors to it and also assign the firewire to aux 1 (which i use for routing it MONO to outboard compressors etc...) and main outs jack and xlr (which i use for routing STEREO to outboard shit) the effects are only good for adding reverd or whatever whilst tracking but the use of an analogue mixer is usefull as you can adjust the volume of each channel whilst tracking so the drummer can here wht he is playing properly so he doesnt his a drum too hard or too soft because he cant here it as much as the rest etc...
You have to read the manual and learn how to use it and the routing etc... so you get the best out of it. the reason i diddnt go with the alesis is driver issues and apparntly its much noisier than the phonic, but i have no experience with it. you have to know what your doing to get good results with the phonic. also it controls the volume of the monitors which is damn useful!
its damn good for the money but its not going to be studio quality but yu will have to pay wayy more to get that anyway. juwst dont overload the preamps. also the graphic equalizer is useful as when your listening back you can adjust the equalizer to get a very genural idea of what frequencies need to be cut or boosted etc..


Breeeeza
 
man...there's these alesis firewire mixers on ebay...

i've been eyeing the onyx 400f and the 1220...i'm guessing the alesis preamps are crap compared to the onyx.

i can't stand lame preamps.
 
I believe the Alesis Preamps are a bit better than the Phonix and a Friend of mine has the Alesis FW 16 and he gets pretty good recordings from it and it seems like it is very flexable and you can utilize all 16 channels at the same time (So I hear).....

the recordings my Friend does sound pretty good and will probably get better once he learns more about recording.....

If you have the Money I would Probably go for a Mackie Onyx unit but they are MUCH more expensive.....

Cheers
 
$780 for the Onyx 1620 + $400 for the firewire card = $1180...no way I'm getting an Onyx. I'd sure love to, but I would never be able to afford it.

I'm kinda leaning towards the Alesis, but I guess a better question would be is it worth the $140 over the Phonic?
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
$780 for the Onyx 1620 + $400 for the firewire card = $1180...no way I'm getting an Onyx. I'd sure love to, but I would never be able to afford it.

I'm kinda leaning towards the Alesis, but I guess a better question would be is it worth the $140 over the Phonic?
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Thats if you pay list price.

I got my 1220 for $500 and they threw in the Firewire card for free at GC.
 
Well I definitely don't want a 1220, if I had to have one it'd be the 1620...but that's still $730-$750 if they cut me a deal at GC. Even $700 is kinda too much for me...I'd say $600 is my max on anything.

Also, I made another thread for this but I guess I could ask it here too, is it possible to take a Behringer UB2222FX mixer, run it from the XLR main outs into a Presonus Firebox, and basically make it into a firewire mixer?
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
Well I definitely don't want a 1220, if I had to have one it'd be the 1620...but that's still $730-$750 if they cut me a deal at GC. Even $700 is kinda too much for me...I'd say $600 is my max on anything.

Also, I made another thread for this but I guess I could ask it here too, is it possible to take a Behringer UB2222FX mixer, run it from the XLR main outs into a Presonus Firebox, and basically make it into a firewire mixer?
Click to expand...

Why waste money on a USB mixer AND Firewire interface? If you're going to go that route, just buy the best analog mixer you can afford.

And why would you buy a 22 channel mixer to use with a 4 channel Firwire interface? The whole point of the original Alesis and Phonic Firewire mixers you ask about is that you can record up to 16 channels simultaneously.
 
I'm not...I was asking a question! I was trying to find out if it'd be possible to buy a mixer like the Behringer and run it thru a firewire interface, and have it basically be a firewire mixer where all the tracks are individual.

I was trying to find that out, I was going to do it. I didn't think it'd work but I was asking to see if anyone would confirm yes/no.
 
I've been reading reviews today, and it seems like the pres on both the Alesis and the Phonic are pretty hit-or-miss. However, I've been seeing more positive Phonic reviews.
 
Though preamps are important in a desicion, you can't expect awesome sounding pre's at this pricepoint. I'm sure that both the Alesis and the Phonic are farely comparable, and any difference between the two would probably be slight at best. To me, one of the most important factors in choosing a recording interface is DRIVERS!!!! Cause no matter how good or bad the preamps are, if your drivers are no good, then you aint gonna be using those pres anyways.
 
So if you think drivers are more important, you would probably lean towards the Phonic? I've never heard of any problems with the drivers...let alone read about it having drivers at all. I have heard a lot about fixable and avoidable problems with Alesis's drivers, but I'd rather not have them at all instead of trying to get around them.
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
So if you think drivers are more important, you would probably lean towards the Phonic? I've never heard of any problems with the drivers...let alone read about it having drivers at all. I have heard a lot about fixable and avoidable problems with Alesis's drivers, but I'd rather not have them at all instead of trying to get around them.
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Did you decided which one to buy?
 
ok this thread died some time ago but I am faceing same questions, so lets warm up the subjeckt.

are there any new members in Alesis Multimix or Phonic Helix Board family?

I am favoreing the larger Phonic PHHB24 at this moment for it has more channels, is working on 96/24 and has 6 aux.
but I hear bad things about playback and quality. dont care much about pres, but if the firewire part starts f****ing up,then its useless in general.

anyone useing/used it with sucsess? or without?
 
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and has anyone used it with MacBook? I hear most of the troubles are posted from PC peopel, does that mean that we(mac peopel) are on the safe side,or ha noeone just tried this out.
 
I don't know anything about the phonic stuff, but I was researching the Alexis firewire Mixers when I was looking at getting a firewire interface as a secondary recording setup for live recording.

Over and over what I read was that they have serious driver issues, and that they tend to lock up in the middle of a session, or that the PC loses connectivity in the middle of a session. I read about the same problems over and over again. It was enough to put me off of them. I wound up going a different direction and getting a Tascam FW-1804. I have used it to record several long shows and never had a problem with it.
 
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