Alesis MultiMix 12 FW

This mixer seems amazing until you need to rely on it, then it lets you down. I've owned my Alesis MultiMix 12 FW for 14 months, in that time the firewire interlace has stopped working (back to Numark/Alesis) and now the A/D converter has blown (so all you hear from any input on the desk is BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ).

It also has an annoying nack of just 'stopping' every so often (so you'll be recording into the computer and suddenly the mixer disappears)

Over the years my experience of PC sound cards has not been great. Many of the cards I've had - often quite expensive ones - have been inclined to suffer from interference from other components inside the PC, resulting in background noise, albeit slight, that I'd rather not hear, and which, of course, has affected my recordings.

So, imagine my excitement when recently I learned that, nowadays, there are available external USB and Firewire devices that connect to a PC via a single cable and exchange data with the host along that single line without the need for a sound card at all. These 'devices' can either be USB or Firewire 'interfaces' or outboard 'mixers' with all the 'ins' and 'outs' you would expect to find on professional kit.

But please beware. USB devices like these, they are only capable of recording two audio channels at the one time. Whereas, with Firewire, due to the greater bandwidth, you can record several channels. Hence my decision to opt for a Firewire device, and the Alesis Multimix 12 FW in particular. Alesis is a well-respected name in the music business.

At around £350 MultiMix 12 FW cost rather, which is more than I initially wanted to spend. But, at the end of the day, quality doesn't come cheap, and when you also consider that this mixer incorporates a sophisticated digital effects processor to spice up your work without the need for any outboard gear, my decision was vindicated. All the previous pops and crackles have gone, and now I get perfectly clean sound, in addition to all the facilities afforded by a premium audio product.

After taking Multimix 12 FW out of its box I first loaded the Alesis Firewire drivers from the supplied CD-ROM. Then I plugged the mixer into a spare Firewire port and it installed like a dream, at once showing up in Device Manager as 'Multimix Audio' with no annoying yellow exclamations marks. So far things were going well.

However, getting Adobe Audition 1.5 to recognise the mixer was at first impossible, doubtless because I was using the Firewire interface on the SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum II sound card as opposed to a dedicated interface. So I uninstalled all the Audigy software as well as Adobe Audition, replaced the sound card with an ADS Pyro card, rebooted the PC, reinstalled Audition and - hey presto! I was laying down tracks in no time.

But don't worry if you don't already possess good audio recording software. Alesis Multimix 12 FW comes with a copy of Steinberg's Cubase LE which is plenty enough to get you started, and probably more than what most people will ever need.

Therefore, all in all, I can strongly recommend this hardware combo as an excellent way of getting audio in and out of your PC minus the 'noise' problems often endured with some sound cards in certain configurations.

In my view Alesis Multimix 12 FW has been well worth every penny, and it is a hassle-free solution I am extremely glad to have adopted.