Digidesign Eleven Rack review – part one
By Rob Sandall
| Posted in Guitar, Music Technology
The Digidesign Eleven Rack has been introduced to guitarists as the meeting point between sleek home production and finding the kind of no-compromise, perfect tone that all players yearn for. Well, as a guitarist first and home-production enthusiast second, I like to think that I have something of a relaxed attitude towards finding my tone. I grew up twiddling knobs (oo-er etc) and stomping on pedals, searching out a sound through band practices, not clinical clicking and EQing endless plug-ins.
When you’ve spent years revering wood, wire, magnets and valves, there’s something incredibly counter-intuitive about the process of digital recording. For many curious guitarists, even the baby steps can seem like strides. But fear not if the prospect of the Eleven Rack seems like another giant leap. In fact, it could be the definitive solution.
What we have here, in one stylish rackmounted shell, is a modelling DSP rig and recording interface, designed to work with the bundled copy of Pro Tools LE 8. We’ll cover the latter possibilities later, but again, as a guitarist first, let’s see how this baby plays.
I plugged the Eleven Rack straight into heavy-duty speakers via a PA mixer – all the standard inputs and outputs that you’d expect are here, along with a few extra surprises – and started to have fun. I could have just as easily hooked it up to my amp, or studio monitors.
Even before you start picking out different amp models, any guitarist will be at home with the front panel’s controls. All of the switches, knobs and buttons are sturdy enough here – they’re rugged enough to take on the road, too. That’s just as well, as Digidesign fully intend the Eleven Rack processor to be used as a live effects rig.
It won’t be long before you’re picking out amp models which, popping up as neat little visual displays on a digital panel, are based on classic tones, although licensing laws prevent them from being too obvious. Expect the manual to say, for instance, that the ’69 Plexiglass’ is based on “a highly sought-after, high-volume amp from the 1960s.” I think we get the hint.
Here’s the thing though: it sounds great. Fantastic even, to the extent that I started to crank everything up, cycling through the ’92 Treadplate Modern’, ’67 Black Panel Duo’ and ’59 Tweed Lux’. Each one presented authentic, sonorous tones that maintained excellent quality while happily pushing each amp’s individual nuances.
For those going straight to monitor or desk, there’s cabinet modelling too, and simulated microphones to ‘place’ in front of the cab. Kicking out a few jams on an SG through my virtual ’66 AC Hi Boost’, matching ’2×12 AC blue cab’, and ’57′ mic, I was thoroughly pleased by the results – not just for recording, but for pretty thrilling live tones too.
On-board ‘stomp boxes’ work in the same way, with a graphical interface popping up on screen and a plethora of copycat tones that you can line up in a virtual loop, dropping them in via easily accessible buttons on the Eleven Rack front panel.
I decided to get a bit Billy Corgan for a while, with a combination of ‘Tri-Knob Fuzz’, ‘U Phaser’ and ‘Black Wah’, and again the results felt natural, as did the whole experience – jamming out and feeling happy rather than ‘engineering’. If you have effects that you just can’t recreate, of course, there’s also an FX loop on the back of the unit.
find out more in part two of our review of the Digidesign Eleven Rack.
Tags: amp modelling, Avid Eleven Rack, home recording, Pro Tools LE 8