Connect everything you’ve got, route however you want (including A/B monitoring), and adapt this rack to any setup. Arturia’s new 16Rig is an audio interface, and it’s a standalone mixer, with a bunch of extras. And even as it’s being dropped at New York’s AES, this one might have as much appeal for live setups and producers as it does for studio engineers.
Arturia’s AudioFuse range has come a long way. And the 16Rig is unusually feature-packed. The basic idea – take a bunch of connections for gear, give you flexibility for routing, and then operate either as a live recording/production interface or live mixer. While it’s got tons of high-end features, it’s still in a price that a producer or live artist might consider, at US$1299.
And that solves some basic problems. If you’ve got a studio with a lot of gear, especially a shared studio, you really want everything connected all the time for maximum flexibility. You could kind of do that with combinations of ADAT and mixers and interfaces, but you might want to change the routing for use, and even patch bays can be a bit of a chore. Plus you can easily wind up with cable spaghetti in live scenarios if you don’t have enough connections. Ideally, you want your box making those connections work with or without a computer – both in the live and studio use cases.
Features:
- Two low-latency internal mixers with standalone operation (including with audio and MIDI operation)
- Easy routing, with effects sends/returns, A/B monitoring, and more (via AudioFuse Control Center software, but this is also quite functional via the front panel)
- 16x TRS line inputs (1-2 are XLR/line combos)
- Configurations and mix setting preset saving and recall (which you can also use live)
- Reamp feature for guitar tracking
- Matrix routing
- 1x MIDI in and 2x MIDI out/thru (see my recent explanation of what thru is)
- 8x line TRS outputs – DC coupled so you can also send signals to modular gear
- Double double ADAT (16 channels in and out at 48k or 8 channels at 88.2/96k)
- Word clock I/O (BNC)
- Headphone out with high-impedance support
- Analog clock output (for drum machines and modular)
- 24-bit AD/DA at 192kHz
- USB-C audio interface operation
- Desktop mounting
- Rack mounting (cute little orange ears that you can mount either for the rack or as a stand)
- Front and rear USB hub ports for connecting USB stuff
And across the industry, we’ve watched as high-end A/D and D/A access has expanded and costs have come down. This has ESS and Cirrus Logic components inside.
There’s also a lot of great software in the bundle – _Pre V76 and 1973 and Trid8, _Filter Mini (the Moog filter), _Comp FET-76 and DIODE-609, _Delay TAPE-201, _Rev PLATE-140, _Chrous JUN-6 , _Phaser BI-TRON, and _Pre TridA, plus _Analog Lab Intro for some extra synth sounds.
Obligatory promo video:
I’ve not gotten hands on this one in person yet, but if there’s interest can find out more. And Arturia will be showing it at AES if anyone’s in New York.
More:
https://www.arturia.com/products/audio/audiofuse-16rig/overview
Available from various resellers:
If you buy something from a CDM link, we may earn a commission.
_AudioFuse 16Rig – Perfect Circuit