Event Ezbus $100 Rebate, Only through January 31st! Options

[Levon River]

Event Technology is offering a mail-in $100 rebate on any EZBus purchased prior to December 31st. Since most places sell it for around $599.00, that brings the net price for the little powerhouse down to just under $500.00 if you want one and can act fast--and can find any.

I realize the time is short for this notice, but since, as usual, Event Technology's Marketing Director (if they even have one) appears to be working overtime to keep this machine out of the hands of potential customers, I just found out about this myself and I thought I ought to post it if only on a better-late-than-never basis.

For those who don't know, the machine is an audio interface, a standalone digital mixer, a 2 I/O MIDI interface, and a control surface for music software, all rolled into one compact package, with an amazing array of configurable bussing/routing options built in. It provides two channels of audio I/O to the computer via USB out of the box, and there is an optional PCI card (the EZ8) that provides multiple I/O with the standard digital I/O formats. There is no OS X driver for that card at the moment, but MacMusic's own venerable buserror was working on one the last I heard, so hope blooms eternal.

I personally don't know of any similar bang-for-the-buck item, so with this incentive and some Christmas money, I broke down and ordered one. I'll come back with war stories and show you my scars after it arrives.

[Levon River]

I've got an ezbus hot in my hands here, but alas, here isn't home, so I've nothing to plug into it

Ouch! Lutefisk, I feel yer pain.

Next week, I'll also offer some ezbus/logic comments as well.  But ease my pain now....

Well, so far, it's a pip and a joy. There's nothing to do except hook 'er up, spend a couple of minutes in "Audio MIDI Setup," and go. Jaguar recognizes it right away; all you have to do in "Audio MIDI Setup" is define your own MIDI controller/modules, do the virtual hook-ups to the virtual EZBus MIDI I/Os, and set your audio options.

Unfortunately, it arrived when a major rearrangement and renovation is going on around here (partially because it and some other stuff was coming into the lineup) so I still haven't gotten a chance to really smoke test it.

On the MIDI side, I've only used it for a little while in Reason, but it worked flawlessly.

Right now I've also got several feeds from a patchbay in a rehearsal/recording room being fed through it, and I've got the EZBus's Main Outs going to an amp that's feeding a speaker switch box. A band has been patching their vocal mix from a Mackie mixer through it and back to the monitors in there for rehearsal. It all sounds great wherever its output gets sent.

There's still a lot of hammering and pounding going on around here, but it's finally winding down, and this week I'm setting aside some time to get to know it.

For one thing, there are control maps for it for Deck and Peak that I want to try out in OS X.

As I imagine you know by now, one very endearing (and very unusual) thing about it is that the manual and the reference .pdf are very clearly written and easy to follow, with lots of appropriate photos to walk you through the various functions and features.

Like many digital mixers, it departs from the analog mixer paradigm by not having rows and rows of knobs all dedicated to their own peculiar functions; there's some button-pushing to do to switch into the relevant menus, and there's no way to get familiar and facile with that but to work with it. What's great about it is that once you set up the basic routings and what-have-you for a particular use (e.g., recording certain instruments and mics on certain channels in a certain program), you can very easily save all those parameters and routings as a "Mix," and call that back up anytime in a trice, saving enormous fussing and fiddling for often-used set-ups.

And now's as good a time as any to mention that, contrary to the photos circulating around of the thing, it's really *not* a putrid electric blue--it's actually a sleek matte black, and built like a Humvee.

So far, I can't find anything to complain about. And anybody who knows me very well at all will tell you that is high, high praise indeed.

I'll write more when I know more.

I'm looking forward to your report. Get home and get that thang hooked up!