PORTABLE ZEN
By Graeme Hague
11 March 2014
Antelope Audio is introducing its Zen Studio USB audio interface as the first portable device to provide 20 analogue inputs, including twelve microphone preamps. This depends a little on your concept of “portable”, however the groovy built-in carry handle will help. Otherwise, the Zen Studio appears to be a full-width, 1RU and an external power supply is required. Antelope Audio Acoustically Focused Clocking promises authentic analogue-sounding A/D & D/A conversion and there’s the same custom USB technology in the Zen as used in Antelope’s 32-channel Orion interface. Zen Studio also offers powerful DSP, based on an FPGA device with parallel processing capabilities. The proprietary FPGA makes the DSP chip in Zen Studio “eight times more powerful than the ones used in similar devices” – we’ll take their word for it. All audio I/O is available simultaneously for a total of 38 possible input and 32 output channels, plus 24 simultaneous I/O channels via USB, supporting 24-bit, 192 kHz audio. Users can create up to four independent zero-latency mixes assignable to any outputs, including the two independent headphone outputs and monitor outputs. The unit is fully controllable using a desktop application on both PC and Mac. Zen Studio is planned to start shipping by the end of Q2 2014.
Australian Distributor: Awave Pty Ltd www.awave.com.au
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