As I have written above, I did end up getting a model 12. For what I do, it works really really well. The #1 great thing about it is being able to start recording within seconds of having something I want to record. My main way of making music is DAWless and it’s great to be able to get an idea or a good moment down in a multitrack recording without having to stop, fire up ableton, etc.
Then, when I am editing/mixing in ableton, it’s a really handy control surface.
Given that I typically have 2-6 hours a day to make music, being able to get things running quickly is more important to me than basically any other feature. The recording quality to me feels comparable to the ultralite mk4 I was using before. I’m recording mostly line level synths but with a few vox, woodwinds, strings usually recorded through a UA 612. When using it as an interface and control surface for live, its worked totally seamlessly, and I didn’t realize how nice having naturally mapped faders and pan controls would be.
The main downsides for me are that the “feel” of the hardware is pretty plasticky, the sends don’t have returns and I wish there were more of them (I get around this, sort of, by sending the submix to a line mixer that has 2 stereo send/returns). Probably goes without saying but the onboard “fx” are not super useful.
My dream would be to have the 16 or 24 track version also able to work as a control surface and to have 2 more sends with returns. (and groups, and so on. . . hence my curiosity about finding a solid hard-disk recorder that would allow me to use a mixer with more routing capabilities).
_mark have you used the cymatic?
