just bought a pretty good condition R16 and it sounds incredible apart from some "LR" buttons that may need more deoxit, but I cant seem to get firewire working.

Im on windows 11, Asus TUF 17 2022 laptop with thunderbolt usb c port. I think i finally go the proper drivers installed after a couple of days because now It is showing "Asio Allen & Heath Firewire" under "Audio devices" tab in ableton. Initially, I installed the Allen & Heath Firewire 4.1.0 control panel software but i wasnt seeing any of the firewire drivers in the device manager, so I sort of manually installed it from there and i think that helped. But nothing is being recognized except for my "Thunderbolt 3 [usb-c] to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter" that I have connected to my "Firewire 800 9 to 6 pin" cable. The Allen & Heath Firewire software from the AH website under "drivers" for the R16 isnt recognizing any devices, and i also manually installed the "Thunderbolt Control Center" software for windows, but that is not recognizing anything either.

While searching for how to get the proper drivers and get windows 11 to recognize firewire via thunderbolt devices, I read that sometimes you need admin permission, so I did those step. I also read that sometimes you have to enable thunderbolt ports in the bios, but I cant find thunderbolt settings at all, anywhere in my asus bios settings and i'm not sure that's the issue at this point, since it is recognizing the adapter itself, just not the mixer.

I have never used Firewire or Adat. I've never had a compatible pc until I got this one recently, but I think im caught up on the necessary steps here. Is there anything else I should be checking? is there an easy way to see if the firewire chip on my mixer has failed? Is there a more simple and affordable adat solution i can try between the R16 and a Windows 11 laptop?

Just wanted to see if anyone who has had past experience with a similar setup could maybe share any tips or insight into what I might be able to try here

thanks

Hi,
If you ask audio equipment designers they will tell you that -12 dbFS is optimal level for the best signal to noise ratio for any modern 24bit convertor chip…. Of course we all want to use full 24bit/120db dynamic range without clipping.
Bottom line …make sure that output of your analog gear match impedance of zed r16 inputs line or mic, in some cases you need to use di box, and stay in safe zone …I keep peaks around -3dbfs. If zed pre-amp goes in red for a sec it will be ok.
Hope it answered your question.
Cheers

Thank you so much for your details, now make sense, I'll keep everything at maximum as possible from my machines but some of them are not that loud, I will look into some di boxes, do you know some types that are good quality but with nice prices? Thank you again

Hi,
If its connected to line in on R16 and level is still too low then most likely you will need DI box.
There are tons of options for di boxes. It depends how many channels you need.
Im using Phoenix Audio DI. If you need 8 channels look at Phoenix Audio N-8 DI.
You can find them on ebay under 1000$
Cheers

2015 MacBook

Hi all,
Looks like there is a way to use ZED R16 as 18 I/O @ 96 kHz with firewire on new Silicon Chip Mac's .

Recently I got Metric Halo ULN2 3D interface with ADAT edge card so I can use ZED R16 as 16 I/O @ 48kHz ADAT interface and replace R16 channels 17-18 with 2 AD/DA available on ULN 2 for monitoring and printing mixes.

Adat setup works great and it's already big step up as MH 3D card offers amazing DSP plug-ins, zero latency monitoring, mastering grade AD/DA and many other cool stuff.

Digging through manual I discovered USB: Satellite Computer Port
as it turned out 3D interfaces can be connected to 2 computers at the same time and route audio channels in between computers at no latency.

Here is how it works.
It's 2 computer setup. Satellite computer is machine that still supports driver for Zed R16 , MH 3D interface is connected to old computer with USB and at the same time connected to ethernet port of new computer with MHlink.
I used Loopback app on old machine to route 18 I/O firewire channels to MH SCP USB driver.
On new computer SCP USB is available in MIOconsole 3d app and in your DAW as 18 I/O.

Here are the only limits of this setup
• 4-12 channels works at all sample rates (44.1k - 192k)
• 4-24 channels works up to 2x rates (44.1k - 96k)
• 4-48 channels works only for 1x sample rates (44.1k - 48k).

All other features, DSP plug-ins, zero latency monitoring and other cool stuff Mioconsole3D offers are available to USB SCP channels, too. You can even use adat port on R16 and send it to new computer.

Old (Stellite) machine can be any old OSX. New (root) machine can be any latest OS.
MH 3D technology is future proof and made to last for many years to come.
Any 'legacy' interface can be used in this setup.

Once it's all setup no need to do it again. It stays saved and just works next time you start computers, no latency no issues.

Life is good
Cheers
N.

Hello, after years of lurking here and learning loads of stuff, first post now.

Is it normal, when pushing mid eq on this desk, that the channel gets distorted even when Sig led is barely blinking green? Does that led ignore other freqs than bass content? Feels like I get better sound sometimes with Sig not blinking at all.. a reliable pre-fader signal indicator would be valuable. I'm using it only in analog domain for synths, no daw involved. I'd be thankful if someone could clarify whats going on there.

PSU capacitors might be leaking, because the desk is not showing up on MBP 2015 Yosemite, could that possible power leak affect behavior of eq section?

Sounds like you're just boosting so much that it clips the EQ stage. The headroom on this desk is ok but it's not especially high, +21dBu, so equivalent to a lot of 500 series stuff. If you feed it something close to 0dbfs from your DAW it's near +16dBu going into the EQ, so of you boost another +6dbs it's going to clip. Just gotta lower the input signal in your DAW if you want to boost more than that.

Hello @ ALL ,

it is not 20 years but 10 years later and i recently bought a ZED R16 2nd hand in really good shape for 675 bucks and a macbookpro for 200 bucks. I read the whole thread in the last weeks and I think this setup is all i need as the center of my homestudio.
Sure, if the FW-Module will break, it's gonna be difficult to get a replacement, so fingers crossed. But this setup costs me less than 1000 euros and installing the drivers and getting macbook + ZED connected worked like a charme!

I wonder if djmukilteo and cavern are still around. Hope you are well!
Thank you for caring all the Zed-Users over all the years!

I tracked a song out of my beloved roland w30 (8 individual outs) just to get used to the workflow and i am really impressed.

Wonderfull eqs and when driving the master into the yellow range, it is true some magic starts then...


I just want to get my mix recorded on 17/18 to be louder. Maybe i have to check the gainstaging of the individual instruments again. I track them dry without comps on the inserts. I think i have to just set up individual comps in my DAW to get them louder, too
.
Greetings from a new and really happy ZEDer!