Hi. I have Cakewalk Proaudio 8. I am giving serious considerations towards buying the DS2416 instead of a hardware Mixer. This would be used to produce jingles, and post production for radio and TV comercials.
Can the DS2416 fill the shoes of a hardware mixer like the 03/D? The stereo input and output is enough for me. Will I find unpleasent surprises once I buy it?
I apreciate any light. Thank you.

I have now (almost) finished my first song with DS2416 + AX44 (using Cubase VST/24 3.65, PII 350MHz, 128MB RAM, UDMA IDE). Eleven audio tracks seemed to cause very little load on the PC CPU.

I used the latest drivers from Yamaha web page and have had no problems (except that the card I got first had some problem with EFX processor, caused glitches on efx return even if there was no input signal at all).

VST supports the card very well. Check www.prorec.com for a test/review of DS2416 controller SW (including Cakewalk).

I have no complaints about the sound quality.

I already knew before I bought the card that it does not have inserts for external gear, so if you want to have an external leslie (or compressor or distortion) on your organ sound and on that use the internal reverb you need to either

1) rerecord the dry organ track through the leslie or

2) route the (mono) organ sound from HD through one mixer channel to aux/bus out and through the external effect back to two mixer channels. For this you need to use total 3 mixer channels which may or may not be a problem.

Automation works well but sometimes I feel I would like to have an external controller (I'm designing my own currently, just waiting for Cubase or C-Console to support external controllers).

Conclusion: I am very happy I bought DS2416 (I was thinking first of 01V with digital I/O option plus MOTU 2408 but it would have cost 2-3 times the price of DS2416 + AX44).

regards VP

Well... Thanks vp, that's about what I needed to know

You're welcome Carlos.

Couple additions:

0) If you need to connect mics to DS2416 I would say you need a small analog mixer or mic preamplifier. I'm using Mackie 1402VLZ.

1) Actually I have no problems in using faders with mouse but the rotary pots would be easier to have as real HW knobs.

2) In my leslie example 2 of course the only two (if no AX44 attached) analog audio inputs are spent to input leslie outputs to mixer. So if external effects are used in realtime during mixdown a AX44 is very useful.

AX88 from AdB International (www.adbdigital.com or was it www.adb-digital.com) would be good but maybe pricey?

I haven't specifically checked the AD / DA converter quality but as I said the whole 'thing' sounds very good.

Also the Keyboard magazine review was very positive.

VP

Hi vp: well, I already have a 1202 mackie. I also have a Gina card. I would replace the Gina with the dsp factory. I would connect in the 1202; the dsp factory, the mics, and the keyboards that run along with the computer. I have one more question. Does the DSP have the guitar amp simulator like the 03/D?
Thanks.
You can e-mail me if you want. carmir@sinfo.net

According to the manual it does. I believe it has the same FX processor as 03D (??) but I haven't tried that effect so I don't know the quality (I'm a guitarist myself so I don't like the general effects device distortions anyway).

I have connected the 1402VLZ so that:
- ALT3/4 outputs go to DS2416 analog ins.
- DS2416 analog outs go to mixer stereo channels (e.g. 11-12).

With this you have two easy-to-use possibilities to connect the external MIDI sound modules:

1) Feed HD tracks (via DS2416 outputs) and outputs from MIDI modules to mixer main stereo output (mute buttons up).

I use this while I compose/build the song. It allows me to record one external instrument to DS2416 (via ALT3/4, mute down) while I listen other external instruments and HD tracks from DS2416 via 1402VLZ main outputs.

2) Feed outputs from MIDI modules to mixer ALT3/4 channels (Mute buttons down). Since ALT3/4 are connected to DS2416 analog inputs they go to DS2416 mixer channels 17-18. There you are able to process the MIDI module sounds (e.g. common EQ, aux effects or compression).

The final mixed output (HD tracks and MIDI module output in DS2416 channels 17-18) then come out from DS2416 outputs to 1402VLZ main outputs.

I use this method for the final mix. It allows me (at least with Cubase VST) to record the final mixdown directly from DS2416 to harddisk (while I listen it via analog outputs).

Also:

In both cases the 1402VLZ mute button is up for the DS2416 output channels.

If you would have 4 (or more, real) bus mixer then you would of course use the busses instead of ALT3/4.

regards VP