Phonic

Used in a rack. It's sturdy and convenient. The preamps are good, so are the connectors, the 4 aux & 4 busses are really convenient on an analog mixer. Enough channels for a beginner, but in the long term it appears quite limited. Some effects are not so bad, and the faders are sturdy. The global EQ is very convenient depending on the room and speakers, and allows to make the overall sound better. There are inserts for each channel, as well as for each buss and output section, I don't use them but I guess it's quite convenient. The FX sound can be sent on the first aux.

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I use this device at both home, rehearsal studio and live and I've not had any issues with it at all. I've since the beginning of 2010 been using a rack for all my guitar gear, and needed a power conditioner. On one hand for the safety of power surges and on the other, for the simplicity of only having to use a single power plug, when performing live. It does this job really well. Of course you can buy better units, like the ones from Furman, but this one suits my needs at the moment. What you get is ten (10) power outlets on the back of the unit, along with another one on the front. I only use the outlets on the back. But I can imagine the use of it, if you are a pianist or such, using a computer in your setup. You also get to lights and a voltage meter, to make sure you get enough power from the outlet. Last but not least, you have a master on/off switch for all the gear plugged into the unit. The lights on the front are dim-able, making it easy to get the correct amount of light, in order to see your gear, but not draw (too much) attention to on stage. Some lights on the back would be nice though, as it can get quite dark on the back of a rack, when on stage, or just backstage! The only issues I've had with the unit, has been caused by the power supply at the venues I've been playing. An option to switch the phase on the unit, would be rather nice, since I run all my units with ground. Some older buildings does not have this wired all around the house. Other then that, I can recommend this unit, if you're on a budget and need a power conditioner.

I bought two Phonic Firefly 808's, with the idea to daisy chain them to obtain 16 inputs/outputs. The installation of the drivers was a real pain in the neck! I got messages as "The device doesn't start", "No device found" etc. After a full day of trying I finally got it working, anyway: that was what I thought... The next time I turned the computer on, I got the message "No device connected" again. Again it took me hours to re-install the driver. It seems that as long as there are traces from a previous installation, the setup procedure for a new install doesn't seem to work. The only way the reinstall is to manually remove all previously installed software components and also manually cleanup the Windows registry. Now, WHEN it works, the quality is good. Daisy chaining works if you use the firewire connection. But you have to use the same firewire port as when you installed the software. At the moment you (accidentally) use another firewire port, the Firefly 808 is not recognized. Microphone inputs could have been a bit more sensitive, especially when using dynamic microphones you have to turn up the record volume to the max. In practice, the Firefly 808 runs pretty hot after a couple of hours, hotter then I think would be wise. And another thing: I never managed to get the ADAT input working... The result is that I sold both my Phonic Firefly 808's and found myself a better (and more reliable) multichannel interface. So: think twice...

The Phonic Helix 18 is a 14 channel mixer that will work with Windows computers running XP service pack 1 and service pack 2 and even Vista computers in 32 and 64 bit. You will just need to have a faster processor for it to work perfectly. These specs are very important with this interface because there are some driver issues and compatibility issues that can come about. UTILIZATION Setting up this interface is quick and easy, it does come with a manual that is easy to follow and understand. This unit is not rackable and does require wall power. You can connect this to you computer via USB or Firewire, but I prefer Firewire because it was a faster and more reliable connection for me on my Windows computer. SOUNDS There are over 100 programs and internal effects processing in this mixer and you can even expand it with daisy chaining 2 of these together to expand. You can use this with a Mac computer and form my personal experience it will work with just about any Mac running 10.0 or higher OS X. There are no MIDI ports on this unit but you can record up to 16 tracks at the same time. This interface is perfect for a larger set up, possibly to record live instruments with for a band or group. This mixer has never given us any problems out of the dozen or so times that we have used it. OVERALL OPINION Being that this interface has great preamps and over all sound, the distortion is also very low. I recommend all home studio musicians who want to record a lot of tracks at the same time get this. It is very affordable for the specs that it has. Even DJ’s will love this mixer and it is should cost more than what it does. It is very powerful and versatile.

The Phonic Firefly 302 is a Fire Wire interface that you can record simultaneously up to 5 channels. It only cost around 150 dollars when it first came out and it was perfect for a beginner. I had not heard to much from Phonic as a company especially when it came to interfaces so I was very skeptical if it would be any good. I wont say that it was a very good interface, it was average at best. I feel it would be a very good interface for the “new” musician recording at home because of its features and the price. You will get a copy of Cubase LE with it which will help you get your feet wet in the DAW game with understanding how everything works. The quality isn’t that bad for a 150 dollar interface. UTILIZATION The headphone amp was a little noisy to me and it needed some work, that was really the only issue that I ran into with it while trying to monitor and listen to playbacks. But it’s a very cost effective interface that you can use to get your recording career off the ground with. I never saw an update for any drivers either and the latency seemed to be pretty low. GETTING STARTED I never saw a manual for Phonic Firefly 302, but setting it up took no effort at all. Especially if you set it up in Cubase LE that comes with it. OVERALL OPINION Outside of the noisy headphone amp, I am pretty pleased with this little interface by Phonic. I would have to say the thing that makes this interface appealing is that it can record up to 5 channels at a time and the quality is pretty decent. I wouldn’t expect to get that out of a 150 dollar interface. So if you are a beginner go for it.

The Phonic DB2 box has a dual band EQ in addition to the standard features found on a DI box. It has 1/4 inch connections and is an analog piece of gear. It isn't a rack mountable piece of gear. UTILIZATION The Phonic DB2 box is generally really easy to use, even though it is a little more in depth than most DI boxes because of the EQ features. Each EQ band has parameters to set the frequency, octave and gain (cut or boost). Each also has a switch to put the EQ in or out and there is an overall volume knob as well as a phase switch. It is a pretty basic make up and even if you don't have any experience with EQs you shouldn't have too much of an issues learning this DI box. The manual for the Phonic DB2 DI box is pretty thorough but isn't necessary to learn the unit. SOUND QUALITY The sound quality of the Phonic DB2 DI box is really clean and for this reason it is suitable for both in the studio and on the stage. The EQs are a bonus as it allows you to have further control over your sound, but I don't always use it as I generally like the sound it has without it when I record bass guitar with it which I was I use it for mostly. The EQs sound good too, but this makes it money on its great inherent tone. OVERALL OPINION I've been using the Phonic DB2 DI box for about a year and it is one of my favorite DI boxes out there because it has a super clean tone and great sounding EQ. It is however a bit pricey and for this reason I only have one of them as I generally like to have a few DI boxes around of the model. If you're looking for a great sounding DI box either for recording or for live shows, the Phonic DB2 DI box will exceed expectations.

This is a review of the Phonic Helixboard 12 Firewire Mixer.When I walked into the music store, I knew exactly what I wanted. I had been using a USB interface for the longest time, and though it's a great piece of equipment, I wanted something new and something different. I asked the clerk, "Hey man, what's a good mixer for somebody on a budget?" He showed me to the mixer rack, and I saw on the bottom in the last box, the Phonic Helixboard. He said, "Yeah, that's the Helixboard. It's a Firewire mixer. It's great," to which I replied, "Can't afford it bro. It must be five hundred or so dollars. I mean, it's FIREWIRE, and it's a mixer." Little did I know that the piece would cost me a very slim price compared to that, and with no pun intended, I was sold on the piece of equipment. For all you techies out there, you are probably waiting for the specifications of this board. I'll give it to you here. It has 12 channels. It has four individual 48V Phantom-Powered preamps with nearly no noise. It has maybe a 5cm fader (estimate) for all of your stuff and over 100 effects. The streaming through Firewire is at 96kHz. It has a phone jack, monitor RCA jacks, and control room L/R jacks. It has axillary send and axillary return jacks for the channels you choose. UTILIZATION When I got home, I was excited about my purchase. I opened the box and was immediately flabbergasted at the board itself. So many knobs and inputs. I was expecting a small mixer. A high-medium-low frequency knob for each channel, and that would be it. However, I was very wrong. I saw a control room channel for stereo speakers, headphone jack, PC RCA cord jack for those without Firewire ports, monitor RCA jack, effects knob with around 100 effects, and much more. I could monitor those effects, too with just a little switch. I saw 4 preamps with Phantom power, gain knobs for each mic as well as a master volume knob for the channel itself, and even more bells and whistles. I plugged it into my Firewire port and it showed up. I popped the CD in and installed the drivers. Though I dread it, I had to restart my PC for the board to work. However, I was upset. I had been able to use my last USB interface as my soundcard, but what about the Helixboard? What would I do? Would I have to switch headphones every time I used Cubase? A little research in the control panel made it easy for me to make the Helixboard the primary sound processor for the entire PC. The Firewire connection made it seamless to transfer sound from the PC to my ears. SOUNDS I plugged a microphone in and started messing around with the effects. I heard various delay, reverb, chorus, and flanger effects. I could send these effects to the monitors, too. Another great feature that I noticed was the addition of the Alt 3-4 channel. It was easy to solo out vocals then mess with the effects. I was also able to change what went through the monitors with a little collection of switches that control the source that enters the control room. I was able to assign all my sounds to the main fader, which made it nice because I could turn down the volume on anything just by moving the fader, especially the PC. The bright fader lights made it easy to see when I was bleeding, as well as peak lights on each of the channels. Another feature that proved handy for me was the low cut on the input channels. I was able to low cut the vocals before they entered the computer so I wouldn't have to EQ them later. I could also adjust the trim on the volume from the computer, an adjust the amount of FX that go to the master channel. What also proved handy was the two channels with dual instrument inputs so I could plug my MM6 into it and use the sounds from my MM6. Because it's a Firewire mixer, I could send vocals and MM6 sounds and many other stuff to the computer at the same time. You have the ability for many simultaneous inputs, so you can record essentially four vocalists and two stereo instruments at once. The jacks on the four vocal/XLR channels accept balanced or unbalanced cables, so you have the ability to run your unbalanced cable a short length if balanced cables are out of your reach. To talk about the Firewire one more time, you can basically stream 10 independent channels, at once. You can stream four XLR mics, then a couple of instruments through the mixer, independently if you pick a different input for each audio track in your DAW. The 9/10 channel is seamless, zero-latency, and can be sent to your DAW if you want to pick specific tracks like all of them, or whatever you have selected as your Alt 3-4 tracks. Channels one and two have independent sends and returns, as well as inserts that you want to throw in there. All in all, the EQ is solid, as well as the panning and the gain knobs. They are easily manipulated with little hiss, and the low cut is great. The FX are also high-def, so I found them useful. OVERALL OPINION Overall, I love this product. I still use it, after over a year, as my main audio source for my PC, too. Its drivers are easy to install and setup takes almost no time. If you fiddle around with it, you will see that it's a truly versatile mixer. Being a Firewire interface at around $250 with built-in effects, everybody should consider it a steal. I recommend it to anybody who wants a Firewire mixer that won't break the bank.