Antelope Audio Zen Studio Portable Audio Interface

I plan to revise this review as time goes on, but knowing how eager I was for any user experience with the Zen I’m starting with a preliminary overview before extensive in-the-field testing. This first review will focus on the user experience with the Zen, NOT on sound quality… so far I’ve only tested (but pretty excessively) in an office environment; in the next couple of weeks I’ll do a lot of testing in the concert hall.So: 11 initial impressions:1) Installing/activating/starting the Control Panel seems to require internet access. For me, this is a BIG PROBLEM for what is supposed to be a mobile device. If I'm in the field and have a problem, and need to start using another computer, I don't want to have to be internet connected to start working.2) The control panel software is installed in a hidden directory (.antelope) in the home directory, rather than in the Applications or Utilities folder. It is also named only "1.31". I know it is supposed to autolaunch when the Zen is plugged in, but during troubleshooting I quit the Control Panel and wanted to restart it... and it was nowhere to be found. And, once, it did not open automatically when I powered up the Zen. Software should install in the proper place, and have a name that relates to the product - not just the version number!3) After installing recommended firmware updates (1.30 and 1.31), the device was non-functional, with a flickering display and and jumping asterisks. The standard reset procedure (hold down “Power” button then push “Down” button) did not work. Luckily online somewhere I found the power up while holding “up” and “down”… and that seems to have fixed things).4) There is a button referred to as both “Power” and “Standby” in the Antelope docs. I’m not sure what its function is, as the Zen remains active and functions as an interface and with ProTools while in “Standby” mode - it just seems to blacken the software control panel. However, it is right next to the knob that controls the monitor and 2 headphone levels, and it is unlabeled. It just sits in the place one would naturally put a button to select amongst the functions of the knob. But, if pushed, it will introduce a glitch into your recording. This is dangerous! The “Power” button should be nowhere near other controls, and should be labeled. If I keep the unit, and firmware doesn't address this, I'll seriously have to construct a physical barrier to pushing this button. As a classical location recordist, I often have composers and such sitting next to me and wanting to adjust their headphone levels as we go. I am certain that some of them, no matter how instructed, would push this button rather than the knob. I was hoping that the Zen would allow me to not have to bring along a separate headphone amp for small sessions, but the current implementation would force me to.5) Why waste buttons on the up/down functionality of the two right buttons? There are so few options one button would suffice. I hope future firmware updates will find better uses for them - say, for allowing setting of preamp gain.6) The preamp gain controls in the software Control Panel are the only way to adjust gain for the preamps, and I find them very problematic! They respond only to vertical motion of the mouse. They are at the top of the window, and I would want them to be at the top of the screen while operating my DAW, but I need to move the cursor half the height of the screen to go from min to max gain... so in practice I have to shuffle the gain up in 3 or 4 gestures in many situations. Ugh! A rotary (vs vertical) mode, or the ability to click where one wants the blue indicator dot to be would be a tremendous improvement.7) There are many options for metering (on the front panel and in the software control panel), but not the ones I would most prefer. I would like a metering mode that shows all analog inputs (rather than the current either/or of 12 “preamp” and 8 “line” inputs (though “preamp” inputs can be line-level as well). There are 32 spaces available on all the metering screens - there should be some modes that are more comprehensive, and which use the 32 spaces efficiently. It IS possible to group things together to “USB Rec” outputs and meter them as such, but that is not sufficient in some complex playback/monitoring situations where what you’re recording is not the same as what you’re playing out.8) There's a LOT of dangerous stuff in the software control panel that can be accidentally clicked while recording... the presets, especially, are very close to some of the gain controls. Instead of "Standby" mode, it might be preferable to have a mode that locks out all controls that one wouldn't want touched during a recording pass… that, maybe, shows only gain knobs and headphone/monitor level controls, a little more separated?9) I don't see any benefit to the odd way that routing is handled / displayed in the Control Panel software. A two-dimensional grid of sources and destinations would be far clearer. An interesting but unsuccessful attempt to try things a different way, I’d say.10) The whole feeling of the software and documentation is beta-y. This may be a GOOD thing, as Antelope seems to be releasing firmware versions with revisions and improvements pretty steadily perhaps documentation and user interface will be refined once the feature set plateaus. The hardware itself seems pretty solid, and it does seem that basic functions of the software are reliable.11) After the initial firmware updates and settings reset, the system has been reliable. I’ve been recording sixteen channels to ProTools for a total of over twenty hours these last two days (a kind of torture test) with no problems whatsoever. Heat doesn’t seem to be a problem, though I’ve not been using any preamp gain, which may make a difference. I haven’t done any real testing yet of the sound, but informally, it sounds good.So, in short, and with the caveat that I’ll be adding actual SOUND aspects to this review shortly, I’ll say that there are some interface issues which may or may not be addressed by software and firmware updates, but overall the Zen seems like a reliable and good-sounding unit. For me, at least, the feature set (basically, the “unmatched by any other portable interface” 20 analog inputs/12 preamps of decent quality) already trumps the interface issues. So I am ready to recommend trying this for anyone in my situation, though for me to start with glowing praise will have to wait until I revise this review after testing the sound in real situations.

OK, I've been using the Zen Studio extensively for about a month now, and have a good feeling for its strengths and weaknesses. I will say first and foremost that the strengths are great and set the Zen well above any competitor (for my purposes at least), while the weaknesses I'll discuss are all addressable by firmware or software updates, and Antelope has shown itself to be very responsive to customer feedback, and I've been told by their easily-accessible senior staff members that many of my comments will indeed be addressed in firmware/software updates that will be out soon.THE SOUND: The Zen is a very transparent interface that doesn't add its own personality - an excellent device for classical work. I can't yet separate the influence of preamps and converters (I will be making more extensive comparisons with other preamps soon), but the combination here is beautifully unobtrusive - no appreciable noise, even at high gains, no frequency emphases, no blurring or high-end harshness. It handles high mic outputs at high vocal frequencies very well... better than anything I've used except my Millennia HV-3Ds. I record a lot of operatic sopranos, and their dynamic range really exercises all aspects of a preamp. I've found that loud soprano passages are where most preamps (and some converters) start to show their weakness, growing harsh or even artifacty; the Zen has been handling these with exquisite smoothness and, again, transparency. Also, in recording live opera, the distance from the singer to the mic varies during the performance from 6 inches to 40 feet. Combining the wide dynamic range of the material at the source and this tremendous variation in distance to the mic, you can see how demanding this is on preamp and converter quality. The Zen has proven itself to really excel here. I'd feel comfortable, finally, using this interface in most location situations without the Millennias in front of it.FEATURES: The outstanding feature of the Zen is its ability to handle 20 simultaneous analog inputs (12 with the excellent preamps, 8 line-level only). The size and complexity of my portable system is significantly reduced - no more external units connected to the main interface via ADAT! It is common that I need more than the 8 analog ins on most competitive units, and somewhat common that I need more than the 12 that are offered by the highest-analog-count competitors, and rare indeed that I'd need more than 20. So this is basically what I've been waiting for for a long time! The converters are better than I'd find in outboard ADAT units, the pres are excellent, so there's no reason to lug a separate interface and one or two ADAT units for 99.44% of my projects - this little unit will handle them all. It will take up to 16 channels of ADAT input as well if ever its needed - though only a maximum 24 channels can be sent to the computer via USB simultaneously. So, as the main feature and the one that alone makes the Zen worth the price - this and my Millennia HV-3D alone give me 20 analog channels of quality suitable for - really, perfect for - the demands of high-dynamic-range classical recording. Many of the other features are useful as well, especially the recallable settings of the control panel, the on-board mixing, flexible routing, etc. There's a lot of DSP power and flexibility that I'll likely never use, but which will be of great utility to folks working in other genres.RELIABILITY: The system has been rock-solid reliable in both real-world situations and in "torture testing" where I recorded 20 analog channels at thigh sample rates for a number of 6-12 hour runs. There were one or two issues with the process of early firmware updates on the first day I had the Zen that frighteningly made the Zen seem fried... but a system reset button-combination cured this. So... if this happens, don't be worried until you've gone through the system reset procedure (remove power, apply power while holding the up and down buttons).IN USE: The biggest change I needed to make to accommodate the Zen has to do with the fact that EVERYTHING is controlled via the computer GUI - preamp gains, phantom power, metering, etc. As in my testing I've generally NOT used the Millennias (which have nice big physical gain knobs), I've felt some frustration with the gain setting. Especially when you have to juggle between DAW windows and the Zen Control Panel GUI. And, even more, because in the current implementation the GUI knobs are hard to control, the gain numbers are near impossible to see. Metering is also difficult to see, both in the GUI and on the device front panel. There's really no reason for this... the GUI just uses tiny, tiny numbers with a lot of space around them, and no resizability. There are also several controls that are dangerously easy to hit by mistake when crowding your screen with Zen Control panel and DAW windows. Metering during recording is not such a problem as I can use the much better meters in the DAW (though it would be nice if the front-panel meters were a bit clearer); but metering of factors in the on-board mixers is a problem, especially metering the main outs of these mixes - there seems to be no meter for this in the mixer views. So - this is a big change, and currently, the implementation makes it more problematic than it should be. However, the folks at Antelope have recognized these issues, and have solutions in the works. Specifically mentioned also has been the addition of the ability to set preamp gains using the big knob on the front panel. And oh, the front panel! The only controls are the big knob (which rotates and clicks), the up and down buttons far away from it on the right, and the "Power/Standby" button right next to the knob on the left. This is a dangerous and counterintuitive button placement - the Power button seems like what you would push to select between the functions of the knob, and indeed can be accidentally pressed when reaching for the knob. While the unit is active via USB, the Power/Standby button doesn't shut the device off, it just stops functionality of the GUI... but in my testing, pushing the button again to get the GUI back (and ALL CONTROL IS VIA THE GUI) always resulted in a glitch in the recording. So... not a button that should be anywhere where it can be accidentally pressed. I hope that Antelope will address this in firmware (I'd love to be able to completely disable the button, or use it for something else since Standby is not clearly useful); until then I've made a physical block to insure its never pushed (gaffers tape and a toothpaste cap!).CONCLUSION: I am loving the Zen... and importantly, I'm loving it more every day rather than having the common fading of the "new purchase glow." It is truly excellent and beautiful in functionality, which is what counts most. The ergonomics of the controls and metering are serviceable, but need a lot of improvement... but in the short time I've had the Zen, I've seen a lot of updates to address user concerns, and I've gotten personal responses from Antelope folks that make it clear that they are working hard and effectively to address the issues I have. So, that is the beauty of the GUI-based system - it can evolve and improve, and the beauty of Antelope seems to be that they are indeed dedicated to such evolution and improvement. So, for me this is in current form a five-star device with a few issues; but with an update or two (which have been said to be on the way) will be elevated to some higher state beyond the rating system. The Zen really has raised the bar for similar products, and is unmatched in portable utility for classical work. Bravo!