STUNNED by the pre's on Alesis Multimix 12R

[joelpatterson]

I just got this this thing to monitor out of an HD-24, on simple little 8-track remotes.

Well jumpin' Jehosephat! On a lark I tried plugging in a mic or two... saying as how the spec tells of a flat response from 10 to 65kHz, with 72 db of gain... and good glory! Whatever, however, why-ever, it sure sounds crisp and clean and fair and balanced and perfectly wonderfully usable, and all for $300? I call this progress.

[Soundog]

Have you tried it as a summing box ?

[ersheff]

I got a firepod about 5 months ago, and I love the thing. Then sure enough, those new Alesis Multimixes and firewire i/o's come out, and with my dad as an Alesis rep (you'd think he would have told me about these things) I could have gotten a great price on that 26 i/o firewire dealie. The firepod's pres are probably a hair better than the Alesis stuff, but knowing that they are at least usable and that I could have had 8 of them plus ADAT for a couple of hundred less...

[Mark107]

If you do a web search on this, you will see that lots of them fail, and that they have angered many people. I myself bought an Alesis Mulitmix prior to the firewire version, and the second time I tuned it on, one of the channels failed totally. These mixers are junk, don't waste your time.

[nathanvacha]

I went and looked at it because of this thread... and it says this on the website (which is unrelated but...) and i thought it was funny:


Q. Why should I consider a mixer with a digital output?
A. The quality of audio that has been converted to the digital domain will never degrade, no matter what you run it through...tutt

And it goes on. Priceless.
dfegad alesis
j/k

[joelpatterson]

Originally Posted by Soundog

Have you tried it as a summing box ?

Well, I have this methodology where I always multi-track concerts, and then I always load it into Digital Performer, and then I always burn the CD from there. "Summing" is still a great mystery to me.

It doesn't surprise me certain units could fail of their own accord. I'm just saying I bought a cheap little monitor and it came with MAGNIFICENT pre's. But then I've heard people bitch about ADATs and for me they were always super-reliable. Born under the right sign, I guess. It's funny how it only takes a little negativity to ruin everyone's sunny afternoon.

[nathanvacha]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

.... It's funny how it only takes a little negativity to ruin everyone's sunny afternoon.

See? I've always heard less-than-great things about them, but i bet i could see a few uses for that mixer you mentioned and i may try one out someday. For some strange reason i like the layout it looks like it should be awkward/cramped, but for some reason i think it looks useful, too...

The thing i'd be worried about though is how clean is it?

[evilgrill]

i used to service the x2 and one of things i did was to exchange all the pots on new mixers. after working for a couple of weeks the complaints came in from dissatisfied customers although i had tested everything before ship-off. i finally realized that the pots i put in were from the same make as the ones in the mixer and that they would go bad after a short time of use. so i started repairing new pots (bad rivets) before putting them in.
anyhow, it´s no wonder people have doubts about alesis´ stuff.

[Screws]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

...and it came with MAGNIFICENT pre's. .

Oh yeah. My buddy brought me some tracks to mix, some of which were done with these "MAGNIFICENT pre's" These noisy, grainy, brittle-toned, headroomless, magnificent pre's.

I'll keep my SCA's, thank you.

[8thnote]

have an Alesis 12r rack for convenience and had a lot of problems. the ribbon cables lose there connection and you have to open the unit clean them. major pain. once pulled out my touring console (soundcraft 4channel folio) and the pres blew the alesis away no contest.
cheap is cheap.

[dim light]

I can't read but I love the avatar! So pure and honest! Beard rules!

[joelpatterson]

They must've sent me some kind of Neve fraudulently packed into an Alesis box. The pre's are clean as driven snow. You need to back off the high EQ a nudge to cut some of the excessively truthful "brittleness" of the high end. I'm sure I could ineptly record some tracks with it and I'd look like a clown too.

[blaugruen7]

any fresh impressions?

this is low end in my expectations.

how quiet are these?
how stable ins it as a interface?
having a konnekt right now i cannot stand any longer any audio dropouts.

[virtualsamana]

Originally Posted by Screws

Oh yeah. My buddy brought me some tracks to mix, some of which were done with these "MAGNIFICENT pre's" These noisy, grainy, brittle-toned, headroomless, magnificent pre's.

I'll keep my SCA's, thank you.

[joelpatterson]

I'm amazed anyone can sleep in this midst of all this... noise!

I still use it for monitoring on a daily basis, channel 4 quit quite a while ago... very, very reliably accurate picture of what the outboard pre/compressor gizmos are feeding the HD24. Just about every blue moon I will need an extra channel, and it works.

The "clean" is definitely whistle territory, but it's really a monitoring board, the low cuts and boosts are so convenient for squelching the odd irritant or accentuating something cool-- but it's a toy, face it. Although I say that as someone who essentially plays with toys, period.

[nukmusic]

i started to buy one a few years ago but never did.
Do you have the original black face or the white face?


and I always wondered what happened to the 24 channel console they have a while back.

[dougb415]

I bought one, used it in a church situation (praise band) for a year or so. Took it out on one gig, it lasted the weekend and then died. Oh well, I think it was maybe $99.... replaced it with one of the little B*hringer mixers that still keeps on chugging.

[joelpatterson]

Originally Posted by nukmusic

... the original black face or the white face?....

It's more of a pale, baby blue face. I don't know where the 24 channel version went to, it would've been an awesome line if it hadn't been assembled so recklessly and consigned to a lifespan so nasty, brutish and short.