The four stereo-fader channels have balanced line inputs with low and high-shelf EQ only. There's also an unbalanced insert (post-filter, pre-EQ). The high-pass filter is 3 dB down at 100 Hz and drops 12 dB per octave-great for reducing vocal tubbiness or guitar wonk. The mid band has a wide, fixed Q (1.75 if I had to estimate) that's very musical but not at all surgical-great for recording but not what you want for something like a stage mix. The low and high bands are like the straightforward bass and treble controls on a nice stereo they sound smooth with their gentle slopes. Keep in mind that during normal operation, you should have more than enough clean, undistorted headroom!Įach mono channel has a three-band EQ with a sweepable mid band and a high-pass filter. Extreme overload causes the channel to "roar" and then oscillate at a frequency that drops quickly (down to single-digit Hz) as the level goes up, and when that happens, the distorted signal bleeds onto the output buses, even when the fader is down. The mic preamp is of the clean and uncolored variety, and it only starts to sound "pinched" when driven into hard overload. Indeed, I found the noise levels for both very manageable, especially considering the unit's compact size (and therefore high circuit density) and there is plenty of gain, even when using my Royer R-121 and SE Electronics R-1 ribbon mics on quiet sources. On other affordable mixers, it's common for the line input to go through an attenuation circuit (pad) before going through the mic preamp the ZED's two-stage approach results in less noise and coloration for the line inputs, while still providing a wide range of gain for both mic and line. The mic input goes through two stages of amplification, while the balanced line input goes through only one. For the past few months, I've had the pleasure of using a ZED-14, the first and smallest of the ZEDs with its six mono faders and four stereo faders.Įach of the mono-fader channels has both mic and line inputs.
ALLEN HEATH ZED DRIVER SERIES
The rackmount MixWizard series is now in its third generation, and Allen & Heath have recently added the new desktop ZED line to its family of small-format consoles. I purchased the MixWizard while in the middle of tracking and mixing the compilation CD In My Living Room (featuring Richard Davies, Ida, Mary Timony, Karate, etc.), and the jump in sound quality from a Mackie was immediate. It was a major step up from other small-format consoles of the time, both functionally and sound-wise. Some years ago, I owned an original Allen & Heath WZ20:8:2 MixWizard designed for use with an 8-track.