Allen & Heath says it's been over a decade since they've released a new dedicated recording mixer within their ZED line of mixing interfaces. The ZED-R16 ditches USB with 18 Firewire ins and outs. While Allen & Heath calls the ZED-R16 a "true recording mixer," they also offer a gentle reminder that it can be used as a live front-of-house mixer as well.

The ZED-R16 boasts powerful preamps and quality Firewire A/D conversion. It also features extensive EQ options and a nice analog channel strip. Furthermore, output options allow for both control room speaker and alternate speaker setups plus two more artist monitor feeds so that your drummer can have whatever wacky mix of clicks and instruments he needs that particular take. A built-in talkback microphone also allows the engineer, mixer or producer to remind the musicians to tune before the take, stop noodling around before recording, etc.

Other built-in features credited towards Allen & Heath engineers who have home studios themselves include dual function audio / MIDI faders and sequencer transport.

The internal soundcard features the aforementioned 18 Firewire I/O plus 16 ADAT I/O. Each mixer channel has an independent soundcard channel so that you can record all of your audio simultaneously and separately into your DAW. In a live setting, the ZED-R16 takes a page from Optimus Prime's book by transofrming its four aux busses into foldback feeds and FX sends.

Fast features:

• Low noise, two stage preamp design
• Sophisticated EQ with two swept, fully parametric mids and high and low shelving EQ
• Two pre and post aux busses
• 18 Firewire I/O and 16 ADAT I/O
• MIDI software control -- even channel faders can be switched to become MIDI controllers
• Control room monitor and alternate monitor outs
• Built like a tank using individually mounted circuit boards and professional 100 mm faders
• Includes Cakewalk SONAR LE