Peavey/Cakewalk StudioMix. Worth it or not?

[bbundy96]

Hi,
I have been wanting to get an external control surface for mixing in Cakewalk and I've come across a brand new StudioMix for $425(US$). Has anyone had any experience with this product or does anyone have a better recommendation? If I went with a different mixer, i would not want to spend more than $700 (US$) on it.

I am using Cakewalk's Sonar with MOTU 24i I/O with the PCI-324 and my computer's Sound Blaster Live Platinum.

Any info. would be appreciated.
Thanx,

Jim

[Tekker]

Personally I think that (for me anyway) it would be a waste of money, (or at least money that could have gone to a better cause) because I think you can be so much more accurate using the fade & pan envelopes then you could with real faders. You can see what it looks like in relevence to your audio waveform, you can get perfect fades, and changes can be made very quickly and easily. Although I have to admit it that is fun to have real faders and knobs under your fingers and a lot of people like that feel, but that "feel" is not worth the $400+ to me when there are SO MANY other things of higher importance on my buy list.

Not to discourage you from getting them, that's just my personal opinion and if you must have the faders and such then go for it. But you just have to ask yourself if it's worth the $400+ for it and if it that takes preference over any other gear you may need.

-tkr

[hitmaker2k]

I have the Peavey Studio Mix and I thoroughly enjoy it. I think that it's worth it. I'm a hands on kind of guy and having the faders at my fingertips is worth it in itself. I find that it's a lot easier to automate using the faders on the Studio Mix console, instead of using the mouse to draw in automation. You can control 8 different channels at any one time, something that you can't do with your mouse. You can configure the Studio Mix console to perform edits directly from the console. You can mute, solo, pan all from the console in real time with no latency. I can't tell you what to do, but I enjoy it. It also speeds up the process when your short on time, because everything is right there at your fingertips. If you do decide to buy one enjoy.

[chaosscott]

You might want to take a look at the Fostex VM200 if you already have a sound card interface and you are just looking for fader control. It's $450 new at AMS, it has MMC (to control Cakewalk or other software) and automated motorized faders. Check out the Fostex forum here or the studio mix forum on the Cakewalk site. The reason I was steered away from Studiomix is because Cakewalk makes very little affirmation of it's existence on their site, which will probably lead to lack of support issues. (Of course the VM200 has been clearenced to, that's why it's $450 from $1400.