Audient Zen

The most recent addition to the Audient fold is their Zen console. A simplistic description would be that the Zen is essentially a cut-down ASP8024: it has lost all of the channel EQ, some of the auxiliaries, and (optionally) the mic preamp section too — but some DAW control facilities and moving-fader automation have been added in. At a basic level, the Zen serves as a very competent, high-quality external summing mixer, with all the monitoring control facilities you could possibly want, but if the optional mic-preamp section is installed it can also make an excellent no-frills tracking and recording console too. However, its real strength lies in the optional moving-fader automation system, enabling fully automated analogue mixdowns within a sensible budget for the serious project studio.

It’s worth noting that the fader-automation package relies entirely on a DAW system to provide the fader data record/replay facilities, but since most studios use DAWs as the recording platform by default these days, this is actually a very efficient, cost-effective method. While this approach means that the Zen also offers some simple DAW-control facilities, it’s important to understand that it isn’t a fully-fledged DAW controller. It doesn’t offer panning control, for example, and certainly isn’t intended to replace the likes of a Mackie HUI or a Euphonix Mix: that’s just not what it was designed to do. The DAW control features basically boil down to the moving-fader and channel-mute automation, and transport controls.

Also worth bearing in mind is that the Zen doesn’t have USB or Firewire connectivity built in to integrate directly with your computer, and it includes no A-D/D-A converters for the channels: it’s entirely analogue in that respect, and you’ll still need an external multi-channel audio interface to hook the console up to the DAW. However, a master stereo output A-D interface is available as another user option.

Every input channel features two electronically balanced line inputs (‘Line’ and ‘DAW’, both presented as rear-panel XLRs), and the architecture has the capability to run two separate signal paths through the channel if required, thus doubling the number of available mixdown channels. If the mic preamp option is installed at the top of the channel strip, under the channel bar-graph metering (adding another XLR input socket and switches for phantom power, a 12dB/octave, 75Hz, high-pass filter and polarity inversion, plus a 6-60dB mic gain control), the mic input signal can be selected as an alternative to the line input. The mic preamp is identical to the excellent design used in the larger Audient consoles and outboard products. Each channel also boasts an impedance-balanced insert send and separate, electronically balanced return (both on rear-panel TRS sockets), with an ‘insert active’ button to enable outboard equalisers or compressors to be patched in when required.

In addition, every channel provides an electronically balanced direct output (with a very healthy 27dBu maximum output level), which is intended to feed the DAW when recording. A pair of push buttons allows four options for its source selection: direct from the Mic-Line input stage; after the Mic-Line/DAW selector switch and level-trim control (but pre-insert); post-insert point; or after the main fader and cut switch. There’s considerable operational flexibility in these options, matching the versatility of many high-end consoles, with a variety of practical possibilities including ultra-short signal paths, compressing ‘to tape,’ fader-riding while recording, and so on.

The channel Solo button operation depends on the console’s global configuration, and can serve as either a stereo after-fade or mono pre-fade listen, or as a true solo-in-place system. For the AFL/PFL modes, the pre- or post-fade channel signal is sent to a separate monitor bus and auditioned independently of the main mix outputs, although a nice additional feature, called ‘Solo-in-Front’, allows you to blend a proportion of the main stereo mix in with the AFL/PFL signal, to allow it to be auditioned in context. If the console is configured for solo-in-place operation, the main mix bus is monitored all the time, and pressing the channel solo button leaves that channel unaffected while all the others are muted — and this ‘destructive soloing’ clearly does affect the main mix-bus outputs! Every channel also has a ‘Safe’ button which can be used to prevent the channel being muted when another channel is soloed, which allows reverb returns to still be heard, for example. Again, these are all typical high-end console functions.

The 20-segment bar-graph meter at the top of the channel strip can be switched to show the signal level either after the mic-line input stage or going to the direct output. It’s worth noting that these bar-graph meters are calibrated in digital style, with 0dB at the top and -38dB at the bottom. A 0VU mark at -14dBFS conforms to the EBU standard of 0dBu = -18dBFS (assuming that 0VU = +4dBu).

The channel input signal can be panned and distributed to any of two stereo groups, two mono groups, or the main stereo mix bus. It can also be routed to one of two stereo Cue buses and two mono aux sends (switchable to buses Aux 1 or 3 and 2 or 4, each send with its own pre-/post-fader switching). The stereo cue signal is normally derived directly from the mic-line input path and switchable pre- or post-fader. Alternatively, it can be sourced from the DAW input instead, if required, and as the Cue send control can also be panned and routed to the two stereo groups and stereo mix bus, this provides the second mixdown path capability. As a result, the console can accommodate up to 32 inputs on mixdown and/or can be operated as a ‘pseudo in-line’ console, with dual-channel (mic-line) and monitor (DAW-Cue) signal paths in each channel strip. There’s even an input ‘flip’ switch to swap the mic-line and DAW inputs between the channel-fader and cue signal paths.

All four group faders have 10dB of gain in hand, like the channel faders, and the same solo and cut buttons, but lack the channel’s solo-safe buttons because they are immune from solo muting; it would be pointless muting the groups when soloing channels which may well be routed through the groups, of course!

The main stereo mix bus starts out much like the stereo group, with the same stereo insert-point facilities and sum button (allowing the output of another external mixer to be introduced to expand the total number of mixed signals, if required). The signal is then routed to a stereo bus compressor, which is derived from the ASP8024 console’s bus compressor. This has all the usual controls: threshold, ratio (from 1.2:1 up to 20:1), gain, attack and release (with an auto recovery mode), and a gain-reduction bar-graph — but also a wet/dry control to enable instant parallel-compression effects to be dialled up. It can also be bypassed, and its inputs and outputs are then made available directly on rear-panel connectors, enabling it to be patched into a stereo group or used for other external signal processing. The mix-bus signal path continues from the bus compressor to the master output fader (calibrated with unity gain at the top) and then on to the actively balanced main outputs on the rear panel, as well as to the monitoring section and an optional A-D card. This can generate sample rates of up to 96kHz (192kHz given a suitable external word clock) and output AES3 and both coaxial and Toslink S/PDIF formatted signals.

The Zen’s talkback facilities are simple but equally flexible. There’s a built-in electret mic (located in the bus compressor section of the front panel), along with provision to accept an external mic signal via an XLR (with phantom power, if required) located under the front arm-rest. The controls comprise a rotary gain knob (20-55dB) and two momentary push buttons. The first (Slate) routes the talkback to all mono and stereo groups and stereo main outputs, while the second (Cue) routes the talkback only to the two stereo cue buses. Pressing either talkback button attenuates the monitor speaker outputs automatically, to optimise audibility and prevent howlrounds.

The monitoring sections of Audient consoles are always comprehensively equipped. The default feed to the monitoring chain is the main stereo output, of course, but a number of alternative sources is also available. A ‘Src’ button selects the output of a five-way external input matrix, with provision for the DAW Mix and DAW foldback inputs already mentioned, two more balanced external inputs, and an unbalanced ‘i-Jack’ input (with its own rotary level-control), which is intended to accommodate an MP3 player. Usefully, these five external sources can be monitored individually or as a mix.

The output from the Mix/Src button is overridden when any of the solo buttons is pressed, of course, and two more buttons in this section determine whether the console operates with global AFL or PFL, Solo-In-Place or Solo-in-Front modes. As I mentioned earlier, the useful ‘Solo-in-Front’ option allows a user-adjustable proportion of the main mix to remain audible in the background when channels are soloed, and a solo level trim control provides ±10dB of overall level tweaking.

The selected main mix, external input, or solo monitoring signal is displayed on another long stereo bar-graph meter (this time with 30 segments and a 10dB wider dynamic range than the channel and group meters) and routed to the speakers. The usual monitoring controls are provided, including a left-channel polarity-reverse button, mono, dim (with user-adjustable level), left and right cut switches, and an overall speaker-cut button. I was pleased that the configuration of the mono and individual cut switches allows true mono monitoring on one speaker, as this gives a far more realistic impression than a phantom mono image. The main rotary volume control can be bypassed by pressing a ‘Ref’ button, which sets a fixed (but user-adjustable) reference monitoring level instead: another excellent idea. The monitoring signal can be routed to any of three electronically balanced outputs to feed the main speakers and two alternative sets, the latter with individual level trims. There’s also a single headphone output, with its own volume control and an on-off button.

Although there’s no obvious provision on the Zen for working with, or monitoring in, surround sound, it certainly has been thought about and can be done! The monitoring side is taken care of by the inclusion of a nine-pin D-sub socket on the rear panel, which provides integration of the Zen’s solo and dim control signals with the company’s own ASP510 surround monitor controller. Surround mix outputs can be generated fairly easily by using the channel fader and pan to feed one stereo group for the front left-right pair, with the channel Cue send and pan to feed the second stereo group for the rear left-right pair. The channel auxes can be used for centre and LFE feeds. Okay, so it’s not as intuitive as a console with dedicated surround-sound panning facilities, but it’s certainly a workable solution for occasional use.

On the subject of sound quality, this Audient design (like its sibling 8024 consoles) doesn’t impose its own character, but instead allows the source material to shine in its own light. This may not appeal to those potential users who want their analogue summing to colour the sound in some way, but it certainly will appeal to many others, who prefer to shape the tonality of their material with mic and preamp choices rather the mixing console.

If the optional mic preamps are installed, the console also becomes a very efficient recording front-end. The mic preamps are very clean and quiet, with plenty of headroom and a neutral tonality: they’re just the same as those in the 8024 console and Mico preamp. With this console configuration, the Zen would be ideal in a technical training situation — such as at a music college, for example — as it would allow a wide range of recording situations to be captured to a DAW using a variety of analogue console operating techniques, and then remixed in a very elegant and simple-to-understand way, too.

The next level, of course, is to add the optional fader automation (see ‘Zen & The Art Of Automation’ box), and this is where the console really starts to blossom — once you have grasped the working concept, which initially will be a little unfamiliar to most. Fortunately, the manual is excellent, with lots of very clear diagrams and explanations about both the interfacing and operation of the console itself, as well as detailed step-by-step guides on configuring and fine-tuning Logic, Pro Tools and Cubase/Nuendo for automation.

The optional automation package is certainly effective and efficient, and obviously makes it far easier to create, develop and manage externally summed mixes on the Zen. If viewed in isolation in that context (as an automated analogue console), the Zen system is a sure-fire winner, no question. However, I fear that younger engineers who have grown up with comprehensive DAW controllers as a standard part of their routine working practice will find the lack of panning automation and the limited DAW control facilities a little frustrating and restrictive.