Modern sound cards can be temporarily
divided into 2 categories: consuming sound devices which are designed to ouput
game, music, and video sounds, and narrower equipment aiming at musicians. It
is certain that Propellerhead Balance is in the latter, with 2 XLR microphone
inputs that can provide one 48V virtual power, two ¼-inch guitar TRS inputs,
two pairs of ¼-inch TRS balanced line inputs to receive the stereo sound source
from the external source, one ¼-inch headphone output to follow some perfect
pairs of ¼-inch balanced line outputs so as to connect to speakers keeping
track of studio.
Propellerhead
Balance Recording Interface For Reason
It allows you to connect almost any
electric musical instrument you may want, whether it is stage microphone,
electric guitar, or keyboards with stereo outputs. You can only record from 2
inputs at once, but that is enough for guitar and vocals. Switching between
inputs is quite simple – labeled buttons help you easily switch input for each
track among microphone, guitar, and 2 line inputs, depending on what you want
to record. The total unit is incredible well designed, with inputs and controls
marked clearly together with short and fat volume knob.
Recording on PC (or Mac) becomes simple
thanks to Propellerhead Reason Essentials Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
software, a full production environment for MIDI and PCM sound. Although it is
a reduced version of Reason, it has everything you need to record, produce, and
edit songs. Unlike many competitors, it is so simple and clearly designed that
you will not need to spend many hours reading the instruction before using it.
We created a 3-minute song with guitar and harmony in many tracks in less than
1 hour after plugging in Balance. Reason and Balance are integrated perfectly,
and you have an easy access to features such as line input tracker – allowing
you to keep an eye on inputs’ amplification to avoid unexpected distortion during
the recording – and a convienient guitar adjustment kit. Preset guitar effects
help you easily apply distortion, Fa specification, and many other adjustments.
Concurrently, it is easy to access if you just want to increase the distortion.
Propellerhead
Balance Audio Interface
Sound quality is outstanding. Propellerhead
does not reveal accurate details about sound processing, DAC and ADC
components, but the specs show that they can record 24 bytes at the resolutions
of 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz. Drivers with low lateness mean that you can record and
apply real time sound processing to inputs quickly. Standard Windows sound
drivers are also provided, so you can use Balance to output sound from any app.
Balance and Reason Essentials package is
$490.5. It is more expensive than competitive devices such as M-Audio Fast
Track Pro, but is easier to use, has more inputs, is well designed, and has
better software – this is the reason why Reason is the industry’s standard.
With more than $187.5, you can upgrade Reason Essentials to Reason 6, which has
many additional things such as more advanced mixer features and extra bank MIDI
sounds.
Although it is the first sound hardware of
Propellerhead, it is difficult to imagine that Balance can be more suitable for
this purpose. If you are a musician and want to create home studio -quality
recordings, this is an advanced combination between hardware and software for
this job.
Summary
Verdict. This sound card package is a perfect home production environment.
Sound card. USB interface, two XLR inputs with 48V
virtual power, two ¼-inch TRS mono inputs, two ¼-inch TRS balanced line stereo
inputs, one ¼-inch TRS balanced line stereo output, one ¼-inch headphone
output, 24bit/96kHz sample speed and maximum resolution
System requirement. Windows XP/Vista/7 or Mac OS X 10.6.3+, multi-core processor, 1GB
RAM, 3GB disk space
Ratings: 
Price: $490.5
Website: www.dv247.com
