Nice Home Studio deal on Thomann

jimi_t

Seems that there's now a nice Yamaha USB mixer on thomann @ e248 shipped



"YAMAHA MW 12, Mixer with 12 inputs and USB-Audio-In Outputs, 6 Mic inputs with XLR (Phantompower + 48V) or Line (1/4" Jack), 2 Stereo Inputs (1/4" Jack), Aux Send 1 (Pre) and Aux Send 2 (Post), Stereo-Aux-Return, Channel 1 - 4 with Insert, Rec Out (RCA), Stereo Out and Control Room Out (1/4" Jack symmetric), 2-Track In (RCA) or USB-Audio-Input, 3-Band-EQ, Panorama/Balance, Inclusive: Power Supply (PA-20), CD-ROM (Steinberg Cubase SE), USB-Cable, Dimensions: 322 mm × 108 mm × 416,6 mm (B × H × T), weight: 5 kg

Added Value incl. 30-day money-back guarantee"

Could be a very nice little all-in one solution for the bedroom/project musician. I'm seriously considering getting one in the next month

http://www.thomann.de/ie/yamaha_mw_12.htm

frobisher

I've always thought that Yamaha make above average products for the bedroom recorder (although don't mention mLan!). This has nice features for the price. I wonder how it sounds?

cornbb

Mmm, that looks really nice. I used a Yamaha O2R digital mixer in college and thought it was wicked. Granted, this one is a fraction of the price, but still... Don't suppose it has flying faders or MIDI I/O?

jimi_t

No Midi I/O but it does come with Cubase SE which is quite cool. Don't even know what flying faders are?

frobisher

They're like flying fish but don't taste as nice.

david

Is the USB out on that a stereo mixdown or are the tracks isolated?

frobisher

freakonaleashx wrote:

Is the USB out on that a stereo mixdown or are the tracks isolated?

I;d imagine that the transfer rate on USB wouldn't be enough for 8 tracks simultaneously.

cornbb

jimi_t wrote:

Don't even know what flying faders are?

They're motorised, so if you are playing something with automated volume levels they'll move up and down by themselves, you can grab them and move them to change the automation. Very cool to look at!

Niall - Dahlia

freakonaleashx wrote:

Is the USB out on that a stereo mixdown or are the tracks isolated?

Yep, it's a stereo mixdown. From their site:

"The MW delivers true plug-and-play USB audio input/output interfacing, and lets you easily mix your audio sources down to two-track stereo for recording to computer."

david

cornbb wrote:

They're motorised, so if you are playing something with automated volume levels they'll move up and down by themselves, you can grab them and move them to change the automation. Very cool to look at!

If its only stereo mixdown how would the faders be automated???

jimi_t

freakonaleashx wrote:

If its only stereo mixdown how would the faders be automated???

He was answering my earlier question as to what "Flying Faders" were, just a term I was unfamiliar with.

cornbb

I was under the impression that it was a control surface, as opposed to an audio mixer/interface. Pity about the stereo mixdown, it would be so much more useful if it could transfer individual tracks.

TelePaul

cornbb wrote:

I was under the impression that it was a control surface, as opposed to an audio mixer/interface. Pity about the stereo mixdown, it would be so much more useful if it could transfer individual tracks.

Ha anybody seen a USB mixer that has isolated outs? I just don't think it can be done.

cornbb

I haven't seen one, to be honest. Don't see any reason why it technically couldn't be done though, I'm assuming USB should be able to handle 8 audio channels at 44.kHz/16bit. I could be wrong though... if it was that easy, surely everyone would be doing it...

frobisher

If I remember correctly USB 2 actually has a transfer rate that is quicker than firewire but only as an average steady stream and that it cannot handle bursts of data at high quantities the way firewire can so its not as suitable for audio work.

Niall - Dahlia

Wiki always knows!

"FireWire 400 can transfer data between devices at 100, 200, or 400 Mbit/s data rates. Although USB 2.0 can theoretically operate at 480 Mbits/s, tests indicate that this speed is rarely attained. This is possibly caused by the client-server architecture of USB, as opposed to the peer-to-peer network operation of FireWire, and the support for memory-mapped devices in the latter, which allows high-level protocols to run without forcing numerous interrupts and buffer copy operations on host CPUs"



I imagine the two designs might be merged at some stage, or some kind of standard design agreed upon.

TelePaul

Niall - Dahlia wrote:

Wiki always knows!

"FireWire 400 can transfer data between devices at 100, 200, or 400 Mbit/s data rates. Although USB 2.0 can theoretically operate at 480 Mbits/s, tests indicate that this speed is rarely attained. This is possibly caused by the client-server architecture of USB, as opposed to the peer-to-peer network operation of FireWire, and the support for memory-mapped devices in the latter, which allows high-level protocols to run without forcing numerous interrupts and buffer copy operations on host CPUs"



I imagine the two designs might be merged at some stage, or some kind of standard design agreed upon.

Yeah it's annoying, Dells don't ship withe firewire ports. :mad:

cornbb

Apple hold the patent for the Firewire protocol so a royalty must be paid to Apple for every PC shipped with a Firewire port. My Dell lappy does have a Firewire port but its the only the crappy mini type which won't supply bus power for audio interfaces etc. Apparrently Dell do this because the royalties are cheaper for this type. Very annoying.

(Is royalty the right term to use in the case? )

Niall - Dahlia

Dell opting for the cheap option? Never!

The 4 pin Firewire is very annoying alright, one of the reasons I don't recommend getting a Dell for audio. I'm finding having only 1 Firewire port on my Macbook a bit annoying too, but the Pro was just too expensive.

From Yamaha mixer to Dell bashing, I love this forum!

TelePaul

cornbb wrote:

Apple hold the patent for the Firewire protocol so a royalty must be paid to Apple for every PC shipped with a Firewire port. My Dell lappy does have a Firewire port but its the only the crappy mini type which won't supply bus power for audio interfaces etc. Apparrently Dell do this because the royalties are cheaper for this type. Very annoying.

(Is royalty the right term to use in the case? )

I don't know much about computers but is it posible to have a firewire port fitted?

Neurojazz

I had the same problem with a lappy that only had the 4 pin firewire and it took a while to find a solution around the bus powering problem.

You can either get a repeater hub which is powered that will power the other firewire devices (not all devices work)
OR, get http://www.siig.com/productList.asp?catid=10 something like that for the pcmcia slot on your lappy if you want to get into firewire - i have tested a pciexpress card with 6pin firewire and it works fine.

cornbb

TelePaul wrote:

I don't know much about computers but is it posible to have a firewire port fitted?

Absolutely. A friend of mine didn't have a firewire port for his laptop so it got a pcmcia card with 2 inbuilt 6-pin firewire ports. Cheap as chips off ebay. Only problem was that the ports wouldn't supply bus power to his audio interface! If you have a desktop, as opposed to a laptop, I'm sure you could get a PCI card with firewire ports. But make sure they supply power first, if you need them to...

Edit: ah, ya beat me to it NeuroJazz

david

Emm regarding the Mixer with isolated outs... AFAIK many higher end desks have ADAT optical out which can faciltate this. The only other real option is patching up a normal mixer with direct outs or post fader inserts up to a card with 8 or so simultaneous line ins.

Tomlowe

the yamaha yokes only usb 1.1, wouldnt trust it as far as i could throw it

jimi_t

Tomlowe wrote:

the yamaha yokes only usb 1.1, wouldnt trust it as far as i could throw it

You... wouldn't trust it... because its "only" usb 1.1?

What do you think audio interfaces were running on pre-firewire and USB 2.0?

In terms of bandwith, USB 1.1 is *more* than ample for two mono channels.