Looking at USB interfaces

  • Thread starter Thread starter TeyshaBlue
  • Start date Start date
Well, my ZOOM R16 came in yesterday. Last night I spent about an hour with it...getting it installed and configured with Sonar 8.

I'm still having some problems with Sonar 8....I'll get the ASIO drivers installed....Sonar will pick them up and everything's fine. If I close Sonar, it cant find the drivers when I open it again.:mad: I can go to the Options tab in Sonar, and switch the driver to WDM, apply, then switch it back to ASIO, apply, and it picks them right up again. Weird. I think it's a Sonar issue and not a R16 issue.

First thoughts on the R16... on a 1-10 scale. 10 = rocks.

8 *Chassis/Build. Dont use this thing in a steady breeze....it's incredibly lightweight. The pots and faders feel nice and firm and linear...buttons seem to be stable and not wiggle around much. Should hold up to moderate use. The LCD display leaves a bit to be desired...but I'm spoiled by that huge display on my Fantom G6.:p
7 *FX...I didn't get to the guitar effects, but the general reverbs and choruses seem ok. The verbs aren't great, but they're serviceable. Tons of comp presets to explore as well as some multiFX patches. Nice flexibility in routing..with some of the FX dedicated as inserts.
6 *Preamps seem to be a little thin...I don't know yet as I haven't spent alot of time with them. I just plugged a SM57 into each to verify signal. There are some preamp models in the FX insert list. Should be interesting.
8 *DAW interface. After I got Sonar to read the drivers, installing the R16 as a interface was a snap. Works very well...latency is undetectable right now. It seems to really stomp my CPU though. I loaded up an old project....12 tracks with some automation, and quite a few plugs. The CPU load seemed to settle into the 60% range but I did see it hit 70-80% loads. That's alittle troubling. Sure, I've got a crappy processor (Celeron 2.3ghz), but this same project didn't move that cpu above 20% when I was using my old 8x2 interface. I've got some more time to spend with it tonight, so I'll be tweaking the settings to see if I can get that usage down some.
7 *Control Surface. Very easy to install. The disk came with a R16 VST plug for Sonar. Sonar picked it up with out any trouble. This was the easiest part of the installation process. As a control surface, it's pretty rudimentary. It does have dedicated transport controls with a very usable jog wheel...+10. Faders feel nice and firm with no noticable lag between the control surface move and the corresponding move in Sonar. It has several hotkeys that can be assigned to various tasks...I haven't set them up yet. Each channel has a solo button that I think can be configured to arm a track for recording as well. I'll learn more about that functionality tonight.
? *Recorder. I haven't used it yet to record to it's SDHC slot. I can get almost 400 minutes 8 tracks at 16/44.1 on a 16gb card. I'll explore this this weekend. I've got a remote to do...I'm bringing the laptop, but I might just record onto the SD.

7.5So, overall, it seems to be a pretty nice unit that doesn't excel at anything, but does a nice job at many different things. I can rate it higher once I figure out why it's beating up my CPU and add some functionality to the control surface, hopefully, with some hotkey assigns....things like Pan, FX send, return levels, would be cool to control with the jog wheel.
 
Thanks for the R16 review.
High CPU usage is something you don't like seeing. Could if be related to ASIO buffer size possibly ?
Will continue to follow this thread.

FYI - Justin at the REAPER User Forums has an R16, says he likes it, and said there was tweaking getting it to work with REAPER efficiently. BTW ... Justin is the owner of REAPER (Cockos)
 
johnnymegabyte said:
Thanks for the R16 review.
High CPU usage is something you don't like seeing. Could if be related to ASIO buffer size possibly ?
Will continue to follow this thread.

FYI - Justin at the REAPER User Forums has an R16, says he likes it, and said there was tweaking getting it to work with REAPER efficiently. BTW ... Justin is the owner of REAPER (Cockos)
Click to expand...

The buffer size defaults to 512mb. That's one of the things I'm going to look into tonight....and I found a tip concerning the ASIO drivers. Seems like the ASIO4 All drivers work a bit more efficiently. I might give them a spin as well.
I literally had only an hour last night to mess with it. Tonight is wide open tho! :D
 
TeyshaBlue said:
The buffer size defaults to 512mb. That's one of the things I'm going to look into tonight....and I found a tip concerning the ASIO drivers. Seems like the ASIO4 All drivers work a bit more efficiently. I might give them a spin as well.
I literally had only an hour last night to mess with it. Tonight is wide open tho! :D
Click to expand...

Worked with the ZOOM drivers for a couple of extremely frustrating hours. I could occasionally get Sonar to find them and use them, most of the time it wouldn't pick them up or even list them. When they did work, I was getting the hell stompled outta my CPU. Then I would close Sonar. Re-open it and, no drivers.:mad: Pissed me right the hell off.

I was getting ready to box it up and send it back to Sweetwater for a refund. But, I remembered to try the ASIO 4 all drivers. I downloaded version 2.9. Bingo. Works perfectly now. Amazing that Zoom can't write drivers for Sonar in a 32 bit, Vista OS.:rolleyes:
The CPU hit has lessened somewhat, but its still higher than it should be. The same project that was hitting 70-90% on the CPU now only hits about 50-70%....manageable, but still very questionable.
Yes, I have nothing running in the background...I've gone through the start up prompt and disabled nearly everything....same thing in the services tab. Wireless off, and no other USB apps except a cool pad under the laptop that draws power from the USB bus. I disconnected it for the hell of it, and no difference. With the CPU working that hard, I'll need all the cooling I can get.
 
have you found anyone else using one to share similar experiences ?

you stated you had a celeron processor. Sorry, but they don't have a lot of juice, as compared to other processors
I noticed a huge drop in CPU when I went from Dell desktop Pentium 4 1.5Ghz XP Pro to a Dual Core 1.5Ghz Vista Home Premium (Sony VAIO VGN-NR160 Centrino processor, which my wife won)
Recording using VST would run at 80% or more, became under 10% on the laptop. hard to believe.​
Do you have a friend with a faster PC to try the R16 out on ?
 
johnnymegabyte said:
have you found anyone else using one to share similar experiences ?

you stated you had a celeron processor. Sorry, but they don't have a lot of juice, as compared to other processors
I noticed a huge drop in CPU when I went from Dell desktop Pentium 4 1.5Ghz XP Pro to a Dual Core 1.5Ghz Vista Home Premium (Sony VAIO VGN-NR160 Centrino processor, which my wife won)
Recording using VST would run at 80% or more, became under 10% on the laptop. hard to believe.​
Do you have a friend with a faster PC to try the R16 out on ?
Click to expand...

I've been looking for an excuse to buy a new laptop. Looks like I've found it. :D
 
TeyshaBlue said:
I've been looking for an excuse to buy a new laptop. Looks like I've found it. :D
Click to expand...
Even then, as long as your PC / laptop doesn't totally freeze, you'll be OK
And ... the R16 works in stand-alone mode. Maybe you can record most tracks on R16, then upload to computer for Mixing ... something like that.
Find out what works and what doesn't. It's only been two days, and you've discovered some stuff, a few days, discover some more.
 
johnnymegabyte said:
Even then, as long as your PC / laptop doesn't totally freeze, you'll be OK
And ... the R16 works in stand-alone mode. Maybe you can record most tracks on R16, then upload to computer for Mixing ... something like that.
Find out what works and what doesn't. It's only been two days, and you've discovered some stuff, a few days, discover some more.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've just scratched the surface of that R16......I'll figure out that CPU issue eventually. I am going to try the recording features this weekend with a 3 piece band. Just picked up a 16gb SDHC card. That'll give me over 6 1/2 hours of 8 tracks @16/44.1. Pretty amazing for the money.:cool:
 
The Zoom R16 in action...

For those that wanted to hear the R16...

This was done entirely on the R16....9 tracks. All FX are native to the R16 and the guitar FX as well. I posted it in the MP3 clinic if you want to check it out....

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showpost.php?p=3249694&postcount=1

Overall, not too shabby. I have a couple of nits with it....first being that if I want to insert the onboard guitar FX, I can only do that on track1/input 1. There is no internal bussing of inputs so if you plug something into input 1, it records on track 1. Zoom did make it very easy, via a dedicated button, to move tracks around, so the easy solution was to record guitar on 1, and move it to another track. Same limitations with phantom power being only on a couple of channels, so it does take just a little bit of planning before hand, or just move the tracks around.

The FX were ok...the reverb was solidly average. I'm not a guitar player, but the guitarist was impressed with the onboard guitar processing...

Mix down is a snap...there's some automation available, but I didn't delve that far into the manual.

There's always the tendency to post glowing reviews about gear you've just purchased, but I worked very critically with the R16 expecting it to be adequate for a 8x8 interface and control surface. But I was pleasantly surprised by it's recording ability. For $400, it's a freakin bargain.:cool:
 
TeyshaBlue said:
For those that wanted to hear the R16...

This was done entirely on the R16....9 tracks. All FX are native to the R16 and the guitar FX as well. I posted it in the MP3 clinic if you want to check it out....

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showpost.php?p=3249694&postcount=1

Overall, not too shabby. I have a couple of nits with it....first being that if I want to insert the onboard guitar FX, I can only do that on track1/input 1. There is no internal bussing of inputs so if you plug something into input 1, it records on track 1. Zoom did make it very easy, via a dedicated button, to move tracks around, so the easy solution was to record guitar on 1, and move it to another track. Same limitations with phantom power being only on a couple of channels, so it does take just a little bit of planning before hand, or just move the tracks around.

The FX were ok...the reverb was solidly average. I'm not a guitar player, but the guitarist was impressed with the onboard guitar processing...

Mix down is a snap...there's some automation available, but I didn't delve that far into the manual.

There's always the tendency to post glowing reviews about gear you've just purchased, but I worked very critically with the R16 expecting it to be adequate for a 8x8 interface and control surface. But I was pleasantly surprised by it's recording ability. For $400, it's a freakin bargain.:cool:
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting the sample, just listened to it.
Pretty clean and has a bit of warm sound overall. The guitar tone shined quite well ... Zoom is a guitar processor giant.
The bottom end was clear and seems well handled, and not distorted like some tend to be on "low end" equipment
The only thing that seemed maybe distorted was the finger snapping rhythm at the begining (or that's what it seemed like at my end)

Any details as to how many tracks-at-once or how many additional tracks added to make up the 9 tracks.
 
johnnymegabyte said:
Thanks for posting the sample, just listened to it.
Pretty clean and has a bit of warm sound overall. The guitar tone shined quite well ... Zoom is a guitar processor giant.
The bottom end was clear and seems well handled, and not distorted like some tend to be on "low end" equipment
The only thing that seemed maybe distorted was the finger snapping rhythm at the begining (or that's what it seemed like at my end)

Any details as to how many tracks-at-once or how many additional tracks added to make up the 9 tracks.
Click to expand...

The finger snaps are just retarded. Seriously, I had no idea it was that hard to get two guitarists to snap their fingers in unison! :D Who knows if it's distorted or just so poorly timed, it may as well be.:p

We laid down 6 tracks simultaneously...Drums L/R, Keys L/R, Bass and Rhythm guit w/tremolo.

We used 3 additional tracks for guitar over-dubs and solos.
 
TeyshaBlue said:
The finger snaps are just retarded. Seriously, I had no idea it was that hard to get two guitarists to snap their fingers in unison! :D Who knows if it's distorted or just so poorly timed, it may as well be.:p

We laid down 6 tracks simultaneously...Drums L/R, Keys L/R, Bass and Rhythm guit w/tremolo.

We used 3 additional tracks for guitar over-dubs and solos.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I'm asking Santa for a Zoom R16 :D

And from what I understood, guitar using Zoom FX is always into Ch 1, then you copy it to another tack, and re-use Ch 1 for the 2nd guitar, repeat ...
As a guitar player, I might be doing that quite often ... but I have a Zoom G7, so I might be able to record analog to R16 (any Channel).
 
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