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Under the hood of this affordable new Alesis compact mixer lurks an 18-in/two-out audio interface. Is it too good to be true?

For the last few years, mixer manufacturers have been waking up to the fact that more and more recording musicians are working with computer-based studio systems, and have sought to simplify the interfacing between mixer and recorder to claim a share of this market — so USB- and Firewire-equipped mixers have been popping up like daisies. Alesis have already been responsible for a small posy on their own, starting with their original MultiMix USB range (offering stereo I/O) and expanding into their MultiMix Firewire range (with direct inputs to the computer from every mixer channel). The USB 2.0 range provides similar 24-bit multi-channel audio interfacing as on the Firewire models, but adds 88.1kHz and 96kHz sampling rates to their 44.1kHz and 48kHz rates. The requisite drivers are provided for both Mac OS 10.4 and Windows XP SP2 (WDM and ASIO).

Two frame sizes are available in the range, of which the MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 under review here is the larger, offering 16 channels, eight mic preamps, built-in digital multi-effects, and 18-in/two-out interfacing. The smaller MultiMix 8 gives roughly half the horsepower: eight channels, four preamps, and 10-in/two-out audio interfacing. Both models come with bundled Steinberg Cubase LE4 installers for Mac OS X and Windows XP. This compact mixer's 14 60mm faders control eight mono mic/line channels, four stereo line-only channels, and two stereo output busses.

The mic/line channels differ from the stereo line channels only in the input section, the former providing an XLR connector for mics, a balanced TRS jack socket for line signals, a preamp with up to 60dB gain, and an 18dB/octave, 75Hz high-pass filter. Phantom power is switched globally from the rear panel, so if you're planning to use dynamic or ribbon mics alongside your condensers, you'll need to check that their design allows them to be subjected to phantom power without being damaged. It's a bit of a shame that there are no insert points on these channels, as this means that there's no easy way to compress mic signals before they reach your recorder. And before you say 'most people will use plug-ins for that', let me ask you why Alesis have then bothered including EQ. I also felt that Alesis might have considered including a high-impedance input on one of the channels for DI'ing electric guitars, which would have saved the home studio owner the expense of a separate DI box. The stereo channels offer a simple pair of TRS jacks, without any gain control, and if you plug into just the left input the channel simply operates in mono.

The remaining channel facilities are common to both types of channel. A simple three-band EQ offers low shelf, mid peak and high shelf at sensible fixed frequencies of 80Hz, 2.5kHz, and 12kHz, and although there's no bypass switch the clear control detents allow you to zero the EQ easily — an important consideration, because the direct channel outputs are post-EQ. All the analogue connections are on the top panel, leaving the rear of the MultiMix 16 USB 2.0 — and hopefully your work surface — nicely uncluttered.Two mono aux sends feed TRS output sockets for foldback and effects-send purposes. The first of these can be switched on a per-channel basis for pre- or post-fader operation, while the second is fixed post-fader and fed by default to the internal effects processor. A pair of balanced stereo aux returns are provided on TRS jack sockets, and any signal plugged into the second of these replaces that from the internal effects.

Each has a simple rotary fader for level control. Below each channel's Pan/Balance control are two buttons. The top solos the channel in the monitor outputs and on the LED meters in one of two ways, depending on the setting of a Solo Mode switch in the console's master section.

The PFL (Pre-Fade Listen) option gives you the signal just after it's passed through the channel EQ, while the Solo option monitors the signal after the fader and pan controls. The former mode is obviously handy for initially setting up levels to minimise noise and distortion during recording, while the latter is more useful for mixing, as it gives you the same sound you're hearing via the mix bus. Well, not quite the same. Actually, as the returns from neither the internal effects nor the hardware Aux Return sockets are 'solo safe'. The mixer has two separate mix buses, Main Mix and Alt 3/4, each with its own master fader and a pair of TRS jack output sockets. The last button on each channel assigns that channel's signal to one or the other.