Phonic Helix Board 18 Firewire Mixer

[nk126]

I just got a review unit of Phonic's new 18 channel (16 in / 2 out) Firewire mixing board. Very similar to the Alesis FW mixers. Only used it once so far, with a guitar run direct from effects pedals into two tracks (mono L, mono R) and a Roland sampling pad drum unit run into two tracks (mono L, mono R). I'm more of a computer expert than recording expert (I write for a Mac publication, hence the review), but the board seems to work really well.

Plug and play into my iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4, the board showed up with no additional drivers needed and offered 16 independent channels in as well as a stereo mix. I did some recording through Ableton Live and got 4 independent channels happening no problems at all.

I'll be in the studio next week and am looking forward to giving this a try with more channels running some phantom powered Mics, etc.

If anyone on the board can give me any tips on how to easily test the audio capacities of the board (i.e. I know how to test the comptuer soundcard stuff but don't really know how to measure the board's audio capacities beyond "sounds good" "sounds bad"), please post any suggestions.

Thanks

[slipmip]

I am looking at the phonic firewire stuff to use with a laptop. Does the mixer look like a good portable option ie. weight, size, durability?

[nk126]

Originally Posted by slipmip

I am looking at the phonic firewire stuff to use with a laptop. Does the mixer look like a good portable option ie. weight, size, durability?

No :-)

It's the size and weight of a 16 channel mixer. I mean, it's not like a beheamoth to move, but it's nowhere near the portability of a rack-mount audio interface like a MOTU or M-Audio.

I'm also not crazy about the performance so far. I mean, to get 16 discrete channels for $500 is awesome ... but I've been having some issues during recording lately, and overall the sound isn't nearly as good as my bass player's Digi002. Granted, the 002 is a $2,200 unit, but in general it makes me think the Phonic board and preamps aren't the greatest ...

Depending on how many preamps you need, you might instead look into a new or used MOTU 828 or 896, a Mackie Firewire interface, or one of the presonus boxes.

Or, if you want the control strip aspect (faders, knobs, etc), the new MAudio ProjectMix looks interesting. 8 preamps, moving faders, firewire interface, for $999.

[cudaaa]

I have had this unit for abou 45 days! I have had nothing but problems with it. Using this unit on a pc one day it would work fine the next the pc would not see it as a sound card or sonar would not see the phonic! Tech support said there was nothing wrong with there drivers & had not heard of any such problems! & then magic 3 weeks later when I was talking to them they have major driver issues with pc not mack! New drivers were do to come out Last week but I have not seen them yet. So I sent the phonic back monday. I am now looking for a differant option! Sorry to vent but I do feel better now!
Thanks cudaaa