I got my Zen about six or seven weeks ago and I emailed some thoughts on it for Audient and SCV (UK Distributors). They had been in touch to make sure I was happy, and I got a little long winded in my email response, so forgive the length, but I am very happy with my new console...
I'm also not currently affiliated with Audient or SCV. In fact, I saw Ozzy's review back in November and called up Garry at SCV and started the ball rolling... and man, I'm glad I did. I'd been looking around for a new console so this is an honest end user review from six or so weeks of use. It's a bit of a glowing review, but it is a great console for my needs and workflow. I'm typically mixing to 14-16 stems with outboard, grouping and submixing drums, guitars etc in PT with key tracks like lead vocals, bass, snare etc getting their own track, so the Zen is very suited to my style of work.
Anyway here's my email I sent over to Audient and as always, YMMV
Here's some thoughts on my Zen...
Simply put, it's fantastic. Solid construction, great design, incredible routing options, amazing feel... and the sound? Well, I'll get to that in a minute
I really loved my previous console and had mixed and tracked with it for over three years, so I had a pretty high threshold set for the Zen. In fact, I'd been looking at new consoles for some time as I needed more automation and more clarity/headroom. My older console had a loverly colour, but it didn't work for everything and with the variety of mix work that I was doing and the timescales I was working with, I knew it was time for a change.
Now, I'm a console guy for many reasons... the biggest one being the way a mix sounds when it comes 'out of the box' and hits my hardware outboard... something a little magical happens to a mix that I don't feel in the same way with just plugins and my DAW's mix bus. Beyond that though, the routing options for tracking/mixing and latency free monitoring for artists are VERY important to me and my workflow. Summing boxes are great, but they're just not my vibe... I want auxes, inserts, cue mixes, multiple outputs for my main monitors and my nasty little speakers that I check mixes on, groups, and most importantly, faders! And I want some level of recall and automation as well. And I don't want to pay for or have to maintain a giant console. And did I mention cost? Budgets just ain't what they used to be! Oh and I want talkback too... and maybe even some stuff I haven't realised I NEED yet
Yep, I'm picky. You kinda have to be in this industry.
So I needed all of that.
And man, the Zen IS all that. Did you guys design it for me?!
The Zen is a killer for routing... all of the direct out possibilities offer so much versatility when you're throwing outboard on a track during recording. I have quite a few flavours of Mic pres available and it's a cinch to work with those with the Zen and preserve a pristine signal path straight to my A/D converters when I want to, while retaining the ability to monitor without any latency. The way that the cue bus doubles as an alternate input at mixdown is brilliant as well making parallel compression and FX so, so easy. Of course, the summing function on the subgroups makes even more audio trickery possible and it's all in a package that is small enough for my mix room while still having that 'console' visual impact when artists come into the studio.
The layout is intuitive and after the first day or so of mixing I was reaching for stuff pretty automatically, even in my uber dark control room
One of the best things is that I keep finding cool functions that just make sense in a new hybrid mixing environment. It's so easy to work with my DAW, multiple monitors, inserts, alternate 2 track sources etc... In fact, the i-Jack is one of those things I've always needed, but just never had. Artists are always wanting to play me something from their iPod/iPhone/laptop etc and I had to find some cables, disconnect a 2 track return, patch it in, set levels yadda yadda, so we usually just listened through the laptop speakers... yeah, yeah, lazy I know, but it really breaks up the flow of a session when all of that happens to simply hear the snare drum sound on somebody's favourite track through the speakers in the control room. It's not a big thing, but the i-Jack is just one of those thoughtful and simple things that makes the Zen great... and if you like i-Jack, you'll love the rest of the more important routing/input/output/insert options!
The automation works great with my DAW after sorting out a small bug in the current version of my DAW. And to be fair, that had nothing to do with Audient, but Steve from Audient was very helpful with support while I narrowed it down and sorted it out. The transport control is fantastic as well, working from day one, no problems, and exactly as I expected it to, no surprises.
Okay so there are a few cons... I wish the Zen had EQs on every channel, but the great price means I can add to my outboard EQ collection in flavours I like for different things. And I'd love a few FX returns, but to be honest, the alternate inputs on the stereo cues have worked fine for all that I needed on that front so far, including some fairly track/automation heavy label mixes.
So all in all, pretty minor cons
Oh and the sound? Clarity, width, depth. Those are the three things that hit me immediately. Loads of headroom and plenty of punch, with all of that separation and stereo space that I wanted. Not only do the mixes I've done on the Zen feel wider in a stereo sense, they feel deeper in a back to front sense. It's great! The Zen isn't a super 'colour' console, but I can add colour pretty easily with my outboard and after a few years with a console that had plenty of colour, I found it limiting at times as I worked on different projects. The Zen is more of a clear, but punchy platform to build great mixes on with plenty of width and depth that you can shape to your own auditory design... and that's a very, very good thing.
I have to mention the onboard bus comp as well... it's incredible. I've got some great compressors in my racks including the usual suspects from API, Empirical Labs, Tube Tech, Urei etc and this one sits right up there with them. Great transient handling and response and loads of punch and thickness, plus it's easy to patch elsewhere on your mix if you don't want it on your master bus as it has external outs and ins, which are of course easily selectable from a button on the console-genius! The built in parallel blend is another great feature and a something I wish I had on every compressor I owned.
I haven't yet done a full tracking session with the Zen as I've been busy mixing, so I can't comment at length on the Mic pres... and to be honest I really bought the Zen for everything but the mic pres as I have plenty of great preamps already. But I did use one for a songwriting session last week with an artist where we simply threw a handheld condenser mic up to capture the ideas for his upcoming album (an Audix VX10 for the mic freaks amongst us). I didn't want to patch in one of my outboard pres, so we went straight into the Zen pre and recorded the ideas without much fanfare. However, when we listened back to the tracks of him singing and playing the song ideas on an acoustic with the mic just stuck up in front of him, we both were pretty stunned at how good it sounded. So much so, that I now have no reservations at all about using the Zen pres on anything and they'll definitely feature in my next tracking setup... The Zen pre sounded clear, punchy and sweet. Yep, there's that description again, but I can't seem to find better words to articulate what is a very subjective thing. Not super coloured, but just great. Really great. And I have plenty of colour already... too much sometimes if you know what I mean.
Not bad for a bonus feature to me originally! Bottom line, if you can't track a great record just using the Zen mic pres, the problem ain't the Zen
So I've written way too much, but the Zen really is that great... but I'll close with two very satisfying moments that the Zen brought me:
1. Finishing up a big mix by automating the vocal with no displays on... just riding the vocal fader and listening like I used to do when I first started making records. Nice, eh? But it gets better... when I played the mix back and realised that the keys needed a touch of high end, I just tweaked the RND eqs I had patched in, and watched my automation play back on the reprint of the mix, vocal fader whipping up and down, and all of it after my hardware compressor insert, instead of into my hardware compressor from my DAW as I've been doing for the past three years. And ALL of that without looking at a screen or touching a mouse or a keyboard. Bliss.
2. Sending an approval copy of version 1 of a mix off to a record label super late or super early depending on how you see the world and waking up again early or late (again depending on how you see the world) to an email from the label that said "you've nailed it!" on version 1. That almost never happens on a label mix nowadays, but that's another topic altogether. They also mentioned 'really loving the depth' but we've been over that already
I'm really happy with my whole Zen experience. Everything's been great... wonderful pre purchase support from my dealer Alex at Mediaspec, the distributor Garry at SCV, and the team at Audient. Plenty of support and availability during installation/commissioning from the same people, and an absolutely amazing and affordable console with great routing, features and most importantly, a sonic signature that really suits me at home in my studio zero:hour on the north coast of Northern Ireland.
You can't really ask for more, eh?
Tre