Take a look behind the sound board at most small-to-medium size concert venues lately and you'll probably find the sound guy is playing the pre- and post-show tunes from an iPod jacked into the mixer -- a trend Alesis is hoping to capitalize on with its new iMultiMix 9R rack mixer with built-in iPod dock. While we've seen a lot of mixer / iPod dock
combinations in the
past, this is the first we've seen targeted at the pro market, and it shows in the lack of
chintzy features -- in fact, apart from the iPod dock, you're looking at a pretty standard seven-channel rack mixer: five mic preamps with phantom power, two line inputs (one switchable from the iPod dock to the external input), three band EQ with bandpass controls, and an effects loop. Interestingly, the unit also features a composite video output, which presumably will allow videos to be played right from connected video iPods. Expect these to start shipping later this year for around $299.
[Via
iLounge]
posted Jul 26th 2007 10:50PM
I'm not sure if this can go past the novelty stage. Sure it'd be flashy to show it off to your buds. However, considering that it's a rack unit, it puts it right in the middle of traffic and can be easily be bumped into and damage the iPod as well as the mixer. Also, that "flashy" factor can attract the wrong "five finger discount" attention.
Me, I'm satisfied with just running it directly into one of the "tapes" input or line in on the board I already have.
I really don't see the pro's adopting this silly addition to a not-so-special mixer. And for $299 it's a bit pricey considering the specs.
Because obviously running a 1/4 inch adapter out of the ipod would be too easy.
As a sound guy, this would be a perfect "submixer" for large drum or keyboard setups where the musician is often playing pre-produced loops from their iPod as part of the performance. I could also see it as a nice addition to the Front Of House mix position for getting a bunch of 2-track sources (including the iPod) into the board. Those console inputs are valuable! No sense taking up more channels than necessary with things like iPods, CD players, minidisc, DAT, etc... For $299 it's not a bad deal. Most comparable stereo line mixers are about the same price or more.
Anyone who understands aux sends, shelving and bandpass controls for each channel, and (last but not least) actually has a rack mount unit, probably wouldn't be using an iPod as an audio source.
Why do they always have to make things with the iPod in mind? Myself and many others do not own iPods, but other, possibly better mp3 players.
Running ultracompressed iPod AAC audio through a pro sound system will sound like poo. It's a shame that Apple has set the state-of-the-art of high fidelity back 30 years.
Now, if you knew much of anything about Audio, you would know that AAC is one of the the better compression codecs. Not to mention the iPod also plays my favorite lossless compression codec - Apple Lossless. It also plays Uncompressed PCM files. But you don't do your research so what's the point of even telling you this?
I play music from my iPod through my Genelecs, Mackies, and ADAM's whenever I'm setting up a session, and I can't complain about the quality.
Fuxxakes, no self respecting "sound guy" should even own a f@*king ipod, let alone plug one into a $200 000 plus rig. I feel sorry for the amps and speakers that will be connected with this rubbish. And yes, I was a live sound and vision techie/operator. Sony, Crown, A+H and Turbosound all the way bitches...
Accept No Substitutes.
A+H? Puhlease. It's Midas or nothing. No self respecting sound guy would own an A+H and admit to it. ;-) (In all seriousness I like the higher end A+H stuff and absolutely love Crown driving Turbosound...That's a great sounding rig...I'm not generally big on Alesis stuff but this could be OK in the right application)
Nothing wrong with the iPod though...I've seen plenty of Sound Guys (including myself) with an iPod (and/or their Macbook) behind the console! Most musicians I know carry them as well now. As the earlier poster mentioned it is capable of a variety of compressed audio formats as well as linear. Yeah, if you are playing 96 kbps MP3 files it will sound like crap. 128 kbps protected AAC files don't sound so hot on good gear either. I ripped my CD collection at 256 kbps MP3 which sounds just fine on good gear. These days I might re-rip them at 320 kbps AAC. The D/A converters in the iPod are surprisingly good. Plug it into something better than a $5 set of earbuds, play some decently encoded material and it actually starts to shine in terms of audio quality. I usually use a miniplug to dual 1/4" cable to connect to the console but have thought about a rack mounted dock for a while...For pre and post show music it's at least as good as a CD player. It's also much less expensive and more convenient than some of the alternatives. This isn't the first rack mounted iPod dock...It's just the first one with an integrated mixer...
Heh. I know...It's so much fun to wind up fanboys, isn't it? :-)
I never use the preset EQ functions. Yuck. If they would let me port the EQ presets _I_ create to the iPod that MIGHT be useful. It also doesn't help that the Apple supplied earbuds are enough to make your ears bleed (literally--the plastic can have sharp edges!). They're pretty horrible. Those two things in combination probably made your experience with your friend's iPod suck pretty bad. I use a pair of Shure in ear monitors with the foam earplugs. Much better than the stock earbuds.
I'd have to agree with you on form versus function...Something that looks good but absolutely sucks in terms of quality does absolutely no good. At least IMHO the iPod is a good balance of the two. Apple does tend to make things "pretty" but most of their designs tend to be fairly functional as well or we wouldn't see so many of their computers (and iPods) in the pro audio community.
Thanks for the reply and may your mixes not suck!
Cheers,
--Shane
just the thing to go with my iPod levi's. Props to Alesis. I was just saying the other day how what we need, what we really need, is proprietary dockage.
Look I'll level with you, I just enjoy winding up macboys on Engadget, no offence intended. My ears are still hurting from my friends ipod mini (eq = awful) some years ago, couldn't believe people would get sucked in by something so badd... Functionality > Form forever dude
Amen to that! The D/A converters in the iPod are just fine. In fact, there are companies that will modify them or provide you with a digital output from the iPod if you don't find the quality sufficient. With 16 bit 44.1 kHz linear audio it will sound at least as good as a decent CD player.
Sorry...Meant to reply to Cody's comment on that last one...Blast this comment system...