PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE PREVIEW

It’s due out at the end of this month, but what is this mysterious new product from the Propellerhead camp? I felt that it was time for me to find out! Please note that this article is a preview, not a review as I haven't used the Balance yet... I'm simply doing some research to inform you of what we can expect when it is released...

PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE – INTRODUCTIONS

The Propellerhead Balance is a 2-in, 2-out USB 2.0 audio interface, designed to work seamlessly with Propellerhead’s Reason software, although it can also be used with any other big-name DAW. It even ships with Reason Essentials – more on this in a bit!

The Propellerhead Balance interface has been designed with the home-studio in mind but it is also an excellent product for the beginner, who may not be too comfortable with recording and setting up an interface on their own. he Propellerhead Balance features colour coded connections and controls, large easy-access dials and buttons for all your most regularly used functions as well as pre-installed drivers and licenses, making the whole process from set-up to recording, as simple as possible.

PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE – CONNECTIONS

I would question Propellerhead’s suggestion that it has ‘all the inputs you’ll ever need and then some’, but for a 2-input device, the Balance is certainly equipped with a lot more input connections than similar products.

So, this is what the Balance gives you: 2 mic pres with phantom power, 2 high impedance inputs for guitar/bass with pads, four line inputs and 2 main outputs (1/4” balanced jacks).

Now, initially the thing that confused me was the inclusion of four line inputs… if this is only a two-input device, why on earth does it have four of the same type of input connection? However, after a little research and thought, it all became clear…

Although the Propellerhead Balance does contain a number of different inputs, you can only record from up to two of them at any one time. However, having this many inputs allows you to leave all your gear plugged in at once and you can then quickly switch between whatever you want to record with the push of a button. For example, let’s say that you have two different hardware synthesisers and you have a stereo bass sound on one that you want to use in your track and a stereo lead sound on the other. Now, with most 2-input devices, you would have to plug-in the first synthesizer, record the part through from that, then unplug it and hook up the second synthesizer and record the part from that… and if you want to switch back to the first synth? Yep, you would have to go through all that unplugging and plugging again! What’s more is that most interfaces combine mic inputs with guitar inputs, so you can’t even have two mics and a guitar plugged in at once, or two guitars and two mics, etc, without having to keep fiddling around with different leads.

With the Propellerhead Balance it is much simpler… simply leave everything plugged in! You can then use the buttons on the front of the Balance to select which inputs you want to record from! What makes the Balance especially quick and easy to use (especially for beginners) is its easy colour-coding and labeling system. With conventional interfaces, inputs are labeled numerically and so you always have to remember which instrument relates to which input number. In my home studio I tend to numerically label my wires so that I can quickly see which cables and instruments attach to which inputs on my interface, but the Propellerhead Balance makes this whole process extremely simple…

First of all, the connections on the back of the Balance are colour coded. The mic inputs are green, the guitar inputs are blue, the first stereo line input pair is pink and the second line input pair is orange. Then, on the front of the Balance, there is a coloured and named button corresponding to each input… a green button for ‘Mic’, a blue button for ‘Guitar’, a pink button for ‘Line 1’ and an orange button for ‘Line 2’. To make an input device active for recording, simply press the related button! Easy! So for example, if you want to record from a microphone that is plugged into the first mic input and a guitar that is plugged into the second guitar input, simply press the ‘Mic’ button on the first channel and the ‘Guitar’ button on the second channel... could it be much simpler?

Yes, it is a little bit like painting-by-numbers for the producer, but if it helps you get up and running quicker than ever before, why not? I honestly think that this product will be a huge hit with beginners and seasoned home-studio owners alike.

PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE – CLIP SAFE

A brilliant little feature of the Balance is the ‘Clip Safe’ mode, which you can set using a button on the front panel. In this mode, any recordings that you make are automatically captured on two tracks within the software. The first track captures the recording at the levels that you set… the second track records the same signal but at a reduced level. This is a very simple idea, but a very useful one. It basically acts as ‘insurance’ for your precious recordings. Have you ever thought that you have nailed the perfect take, only to look down at your level meters and realise that there was a slight clip somewhere in there? If this hasn’t happened to you then you’ve obviously not made enough recordings! Yes, it’s a fact that even the most seasoned professional will sometimes be caught out by an unforeseen amplitude spike.

If you are using any other conventional interface, this event would usually be followed by a hefty bout of swearing, before the levels are tweaked and the recording starts again… or the swearing may even be followed by a second session of curse words if you are working with a less-than-adequate musician who has only just managed to nail the take on the 37th time of asking and after almost 3 hours in the studio!

However, with the Balance you can replace the swearing with overwhelming joy! Yes, the signal clipped, but luckily the software recorded some back-up audio, captured at a lower level! This should mean that it is useable and doesn’t contain any clips! Hooray… unless it does contain clips, in which case you really aren’t setting your levels very well at all in the first place and a bit of time needs to be invested to improve your general practice before you go any further!

PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE – REASON ESSENTIALS

Although the Propellerhead Balance can work with any DAW, it is specifically designed to work with Reason and Reason Essentials, the latter of which is included in the Balance pack. Although I don’t know for certain having not used the Balance yet, I doubt that features such as the ‘Clip Safe’ mode would work on other DAWs... although I may be wrong!

However, the Propellerhead Balance and Reason Essentials form a fantastic team for the beginner and professional alike. Reason Essentials is basically a cut-down version of the full Reason 6 program. It still features everything you need to create professional projects, including unlimited tracks, recording, editing and mixing tools, instruments and effects. It just doesn’t come with some of the more advanced effects and instruments that are featured in the full version.

PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE – EXTRAS

Pressing the ‘Meter/Tuner’ button on the Propellerhead Balance brings up a large guitar tuner/level meter. This allows you to tune your guitar or set levels from across the room! There are also some useful indicator LEDs on the interface itself, which display the record status of channels in the software, indicate when a signal is being received on each channel and when it is clipping (presumably using a bi-coloured LED), and show when Phantom Power is activated.

The other controls featured on the Propellerhead Balance include level dials for each channel, an output muting/direct monitoring button (hit once or press and hold to trigger different functions) and two large level dials, one for the main output level and the other for the headphone level.

Finally, there is the all-important matter of the software license. The license for the included Reason Essentials software is actually stored on the interface itself, meaning that all you need to do is hook up the Balance to your computer and everything will work! If you are working off a laptop and find that you don’t always have the Balance with you (although it is very portable), then you can also authorize the software over the internet if you want. Plus, if you were wondering about drivers, if you are working on a Mac, you don’t need any and if you are working on a Windows computer, the drivers that you need come pre-installed with Reason Essentials so there is no need to download and install anything else!

PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE – SUMMARY

Now, I think that the Propellerhead Balance looks like a really well thought-out product and in combination with the Reason software, seems like an ideal solution for the beginner to home recording and music-making – it just looks like it is going to do all the important things really quickly and very reliably.

However, because this looks like such a good product, I was both amused and annoyed at Propellerhead’s use of marketing talk in their official product description. Now, I’m not against marketing talk altogether, hey, I’m guilty of it every now and again and I think that it is an important tool if you need to get over just how good a product is in words.

However, I thought that some of the Propellerhead marketing talk did take it a step further and it certainly brought a smile to my face. For example, saying that the product ‘sounds as good as it looks and works as great as it feels’ was a little confusing since it hasn’t been released yet and so we haven’t had a chance to play with it! Also, stating that the headphone amp is so powerful that it ‘ensures earshattering volume with even the quietest of headphones’ was a little scary! I don’t want to shatter my ears, please! However, my particular highlight was the statement that the Propellerhead Balance is ‘for people that like things that work.’ What kind of a statement is that? It’s meaningless unless there are actually people out there reading this and thinking, ‘oh, I like things that don’t work, good job I read this before I ordered, dodged a bullet there!’ Now, we all know what they mean, but do marketing sentences really need to be this silly?

Still, it looks like a brilliant product! Ignore my moaning, I think I’m still probably a bit riled from a recent festival where a performer (who I shall not name), stood on the stage and declared, ‘I like going out and hanging out with my friends and having fun’, whilst pausing in-between each statement in expectance of a cheer or round of applause. Why would I cheer for that?! Well done, you have characteristics that are typical of the rest of the human race! It’s not an achievement that deserves recognition in any way, shape or form! Having said that, it’s probably something that would not have annoyed me a couple of years ago… its my 25th birthday in a couple of months… is that about the time that you turn into a grumpy old man?

My favourite features of the Propellerhead Balance (just from researching it) are definitely its simplicity, the ‘Clip Safe’ mode and the Output Muting/Direct Monitoring button, which you can use to quickly mute your main outputs or to perform latency free monitoring of the input channels.

My least favourite aspect was that the phantom power and pad switches are located on the back of the unit, meaning that they are not as easily accessible as they could be. However, I must admit that all the other controls featured on the front panel are spot on for home recording purposes.

If Reason was my main DAW of choice, the Propellerhead Balance is what I would want to use with it. I just hope that it sounds as good as I think it will and I would also like to see Propellerhead bring out a larger model in the future with more inputs.

I hope you found this article useful! For more information on the Propellerhead Balance or to buy one, click the link below:

Propellerhead Balance – More Info/Purchase

Propellerhead Reason 6 – More Info/Purchase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od_0DEppnXc&feature=player_embedded