This is NOT a toy!
Written: Jul 04 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Superb s/n ratio, 6 effects busses, 12 wave devices, 64 note polyphonic synth with 1200+ voices, I could go on...
Cons: No eq. per channel, 1 x 3.5mm stereo input
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| MacLellanA's Full Review: Yamaha SW1000XG |
OK, so you're into music. You want a new sound card. You want a hard disk recording system. You want on board synthesis with 1000+ voices. You want 6 independent effects busses. You want all processing to be handled by the card. You want an unrivalled signal to noise ratio. You want a Yamaha 02R digital mixing console worth £3000 on a card the size of 2 floppy disks for £400. Well - what you're basically saying is that you want a studio in a box... and that is more or less what the SW1000-XG is.
Where to start. Firstly - if you want to get the full potential out of this card you must understand MIDI - especially system exclusive messages. Although there are GUI editors to control most features on this card, there's a lot more that can be done if you understand SysEx.
The card has 12 independent wave devices and 6 effects busses. This allows any 1 effect to be applied to any one or multiple wave channels. The effects busses are: Reverb, Chorus, Variation, Insert 1, Insert 2 and overall Eq. There are too many actual effects types to go into here but rest assured you'll not find a lot missing! All effects processing is handled by the card itself - oh, and that's while it's also looking after your 1200 voice 64 note polyphonic synth, hard disk recording, real-time effects monitoring and any number of plug in boards available for it (including Physical Modelling).
On the down side it's a 2-IN, 2-OUT card with no digital input. Although the line OUT connectors are gold plated phono's, the line IN is an annoying 3.5mm stereo jack, probably down to space limitations since there's also the mini MIDI connector on the back. Another disappointing fact is that you can't have Eq. per channel on audio tracks. If you want this, in Yamaha's words, "...buy the DSP Factory which also allows multiple inputs and outputs.". On the SW1000, Eq must be assigned to either the Variation or Insertion effects busses allowing only 3 different Eq variants - but most sequencers these days can process Eq for you quite happily so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
This is a soundcard for either a) serious musicians or b) people with too much money on their hands! BUT BE WARNED - it's a steep learning curve for the first couple of weeks. To get the full potential out of this card you could be reading manuals and documentation for weeks. Don't bother - just play with it and see what it can do!
Tips:
- Careful on the mic / line input setting. On older firmware the card defaults to mic level which could cause speaker damage if not careful.
- You can't control the input level - you can MONITOR at different levels but the input level is fixed.
- Buy a MIDI controller such as a Doepfer Drehbank - makes life very easy for final mixes!
- DON'T accuse this card of being noisy. If there's noise on your recordings through this piece of kit there's something else in your set-up to blame.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 580
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Epinions.com ID:
MacLellanA
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Member: Andy MacLellan
Location: UK
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 1 member
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