Product Review - Propellerhead Balance
Article Preview :: USB Audio Interface
Reviews : Computer Recording System
We examine the Swedish soft-synth specialists’ first foray into the world of hardware: the Balance.
As all marketing experts and Dragon’s Den (Shark Tank in the US, apparently!) viewers know, every product needs a Unique Selling Point. For audio interface manufacturers it’s usually the particular combination of connectivity, audio and build quality, convenience, portability and cost that each model offers which affords it some uniqueness. It’s much rarer to encounter genuine ‘one-off’ features, but that’s exactly what we find with Propellerhead’s first hardware product, the Balance.
I’m going to get on to those Unique Selling Points in a moment, but first of all let’s get all the usual key facts and figures out the way.
Balancing Act
The Balance is a USB2 bus-powered audio interface — in fact it’s only bus-powered, with no mains or battery option. It has a two-in, two-out design and supports up to 96kHz, 24-bit operation. The output channels can simultaneously feed a pair of monitor speakers and headphones, and there are separate volume controls for both. A simple Direct Monitoring facility routes inputs directly to outputs to achieve near-zero-latency monitoring during tracking, and for when you want to use the Balance independently of your DAW. Used with OS X it’s class-compliant, and doesn’t require drivers, but for Windows users an ASIO driver is supplied.
Now for the more unusual features. The Balance has something I’ve never encountered before: front-panel input selector buttons, like you see on many hi-fi amplifiers. These work in conjunction with multiple physical input sockets for each channel: two balanced line level inputs on quarter-inch sockets, a high-impedance unbalanced guitar input with switchable pad on another quarter-inch socket, and a balanced mic input with switchable 48V phantom power on an XLR socket. Clearly the idea is that you can leave multiple input sources permanently connected, and then choose which you record with the input buttons. It’s a neat idea. Also uncommon, particularly at this price point, are stepped gain controls: 21 positive notches take each of the two pots from minimum to maximum gain level.
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Tue 22 May 2012
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