![]() Push a Listen button, the meters switch to the solo channel’s levels, and you can adjust gain and EQ with ease before putting the source back in the mix. The solo functions of the ZEDi-10FX are simple and unintimidating to the novice and encourage experimentation. One lesson that novice mix engineers can have trouble learning is that if you get a sound perfect in solo, it may not work in the context of a full mix… but the flip side of this is that if you can’t solo a sound, you may miss details and nuances that will come back to haunt you later. For one thing, having a proper PFL solo bus means that it’s really easy to tweak input signals without distraction. While the ZEDi-10FX can do all the standard things a desktop mixer does, there’s a lot more than meets the eye at first. Oh, and there’s no wall wart the rear panel has a power switch and 3-prong custom cable socket. While I didn’t open the box, A&H states that every input channel lives on its own vertical circuit board, implying that this is a mixer you could actually repair rather than just throw away if a channel went bad. For one thing, there’s solid strain relief on every pot in the form of a tightly-set nut under each knob you get the impression that this mixer would easily survive an accidental drop on its face. There are RCA Monitor Outs, XLR Main Outs, and two 1/4″ outputs for Aux and FX sends (the latter can also be used with an on/off footswitch for the FX processor).Īnyone used to cheap mixer build quality might find the ZEDi-10FX a bit startling at first. The Master section has a smooth long-throw Main Mix fader, a Phones level control with 1/4″ TRS jack and multiple input selections, a PFL indicator, dual 8-step LED level meters, Aux and Monitor controls, and a global 48V phantom power switch. It also has controls for routing analog signals to the USB interface (see below). ST3 takes its input from USB and can be blended into either the Aux or Mix buses, with PFL. It has pots for send amount to either the Aux bus or the L/R Mix and PFL control. ST2 serves one of four different functions: you can choose whether it serves as an extra stereo input, a stereo FX return from an external processor, a stereo USB return from your DAW, or a source for the built-in FX processor. ST1 is a full-on input channel with a pair of 1/4″ TRS inputs, Gain control, 2-band EQ (HF and LF shelving identical to what’s on the M channels), Aux and FX sends, Pan, Mix, and PFL. There are three stereo channels, each with its own I/O and features. This lets you solo channels to tweak their EQ and levels easily. Then there’s a Pan pot, a Mix (level) pot, and a button marked with a headphone ico-n that switches the channel over to the PFL (Pre-Fade Listen) bus. These mono buses are prefader and postfader, respectively, and would normally be used for a monitor mix for musicians and for adding delay/reverb effects to the inputs. MF adds body and heft to guitars and vocals, and the HF shelf is nice for taming overly sparkly condenser mics or adding a touch of “air” where needed.Įach M channel features send pots for the Aux and FX buses. ![]() These are slightly unusual frequency choices - it’s more common to see Mid control around 1 kHz and Highs at 10 kHz - but they sound quite musical. The M channels feature 3-band EQ, with shelving HF and LF bands (12 kHz and 80 Hz corner frequencies) and a broad bell MF band centered on 600 Hz. On the other two M channels, the switch places a 20 dB pad on the inputs for hot line signals. The first two M channels have a switch to convert the 1/4″ input from line-level to Hi-Z instrument level - the specs don’t list the input impedance, but I didn’t notice any significant degradation on the sound from my test instruments’ magnetic and piezo pickups. Each channel offers an XLR or balanced 1/4″ TRS input with Gain control (55 dB of gain range) and a lowcut filter switch (100 Hz corner frequency). The ZEDi-10FX’s layout starts with four mono input channels, labeled M1 – M4. This month we review the new ZEDi-10FX, a desktop mixer/interface with surprising hidden power. I’ve been a fan of Allen & Heath mixers since reviewing a MixWizard console nearly 20 years ago.
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