Alesis MasterControl questions

[dogn4u]

I have an Alesis MasterControl firewire interface/controller on the way and I have a couple of questions. I plan to stick with SONAR, which I haven't used in some time. This is on my Sweetwater Creation Station PC, BTW, with dual core 2.66 GHz processor running Windows XP. Will I have to upgrade to SONAR 8 (or 8.5) to use the MasterControl? I'd prefer to stick with SONAR 7, as it has nicely covered all my needs in the past and I'm used to it and comfortable with it.

The Creation Station is basically just a PC that has been stripped of extraneous software and limits programs that "run in the background" and can cause crashes, usually during that one perfect take. It's also housed in a nice quiet damped and insulated case, to minimize noise bleeding through mikes, etc.

I've had mine for 2-3 years and think it was worth the few extra hundred over a Dell or whatever with the same performance specs - partly for the tuning to optimize it for DAW work, and partly because Sweetwater has some of the best customer service I've come across. Been dealing with the same rep for almost 10 years now...so they obviously keep their employees happy, and a happy employee will do a better job, simple as that.

So the CS ships with two drives: in my machine there is a 250GB Seagate 5400RPM for the programs and a 500GB Seagate for audio running at 7200. However, I also have a Glyph 500Gb firewire connected external rack-mounted HD. Any recommends on which would be better to use: internal or external? Seems to me that while firewire connections are indeed fast, an internal drive connected directly to the mobo would be even faster. Thoughts?
Thanks,
Rudi

 

[Washburn100]

Good choice on the Mastercontrol! I've had mine for about 2 years now and I like this thing better everyday.

As for your first question, the Mastercontrol works flawlessly with Sonar 7, that's what I use. The control surface becomes so intuitive that I rarely reach for my mouse. Creating tracks, tweaking sends, even save, and delete, all done on the Mastercontrol.

The other thing I am very pleased with is the clarity and gain of the pre-amps. Absolutely stellar. Now, the complaint. The dam knobs to adjust the gain are small, touchy and on the back. I'm sure you read about this if you checked the reviews. For me, it's not really a problem because I only use 2 mics so I pretty much set and forget it. If I have to change it though, it's a pain, especially with how touchy they are.

Other than that, It is one quality interface/control surface!

OH yeah, your other question about hard discs. My opinion (others may know better) is to utilize the internal drives first, and use the external as backup. Also, preferable to use the faster disc if possible. Now, I only have 1 - 7200rpm, 500gig HD in my machine, no partitions. I let it do everything (which many will disagree with) but it has worked great for me. I just back the whole thing up on an external drive.

The reason I only have one, and no partitions is because I let all programs install to default locations. I never lose anything. I never have the cursed magnifying glass searching for stuff. It's always where the program put it and looks for it. Now, when I get full, I may have to rethink this, but right now I have 2/3rd capacity left and have been happily recording for almost 2 years!

 

[dogn4u]

Good choice on the Mastercontrol! I've had mine for about 2 years now and I like this thing better everyday.

As for your first question, the Mastercontrol works flawlessly with Sonar 7, that's what I use. The control surface becomes so intuitive that I rarely reach for my mouse. Creating tracks, tweaking sends, even save, and delete, all done on the MasterControl.

Washburn - I appreciate and am relieved at your words of encouragement, especially re being able to use SONAR 7 with the Alesis. More than a few times I have noticed that just because a version of a product it the newest available, that doesn't mean it's the best. Windows XP, for example, is starting to get old, yet many would swear that it remains the best PC operating system for music, surpassing Vista and Windows 7.

While I've no hands-on with Vista or Win 7, I can attest to the good quality of XP. With at least three service packs available to my knowledge, XP is pretty well debugged and stable. In fact, XP has never crashed on me while I was working on music. So hopefully that will be my winning combination: SONAR 7 with XP on my Creation Station PC and MasterControl.

You know what really looks nice (and is getting positive reviews)? That PreSonus StudioLive 24.4.2. Sadly, it's about 3X my budget for a mixing interface. Lotsa pretty lights, though!
No, a bit too much money for me...but I believe eventually I will get some sort of lightpipe/ADAT box that will give me a few more phantom powered XLR inputs. Any recommends?
Thanks again,
Rudi