TC ELECTRONIC KONNEKT 24D
Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, BY MARKKUS ROVITO
Every once in a while, entire categories of music gear become stale and subsequently evolve in order to stay interesting. And it's lovely to behold. Several years ago, menu-oriented synthesizer and MIDI-control keyboards beefed up their hands-on controls to make accessing parameters much more immediate. Currently, these same devices are innovating their integration with computer software to better fit into DAW-dominated studios.
It's these very studios that made USB and FireWire audio interfaces so common that they saturated the market. Now, audio interfaces are standing upright and growing opposable thumbs, so to speak. This year, top manufacturers are spicing up audio interfaces with inventive features such as controllers assignable to nearly any command on your computer system or optional remote-control boxes for managing the I/O channels.
One of the first — and possibly the greatest — of this new wave of interfaces we've seen comes in the form of the TC Electronic Konnekt 24D. This 14 I/O 24-bit/192 kHz FireWire audio interface includes built-in DSP for using real-time reverb and channel-strip plug-ins when connected to a computer or during stand-alone use. Its three preset memories that store the full routing, mixing and DSP settings make the Konnekt 24D a treat for live use, while the excellent programmable software utility, built-in effects and very low latency designate it as a studio mainstay, as well.
THE BRAWN AND THE BRAINS
Every detail of the Konnekt 24D suggests a tradition of excellence, as well as forward-thinking ingenuity. All the components, including the anodized aluminum shell and steel back plate, are constructed for durability, yet the interface is elegant in looks and concept.
Channels 1 and 2 have phantom power and combination balanced XLR/unbalanced ¼-inch inputs on the front panel for mic and instrument-level inputs, as well as Gain Trim knobs and 20 dB pad buttons for instrument inputs. In addition, there are balanced ¼-inch line-level inputs for channels 1-4 on the back. The monitoring section of the front panel includes a multidestination push-button/endless-rotary knob with an LED ring for showing the current value. A Ch Select button assigns this knob to the level (and panning when pushed in) for channels 1, 2 or 3/4, as well as a user setting that can control reverb level or digita-output levels according to its designation within the control-panel software. There is a main Output Level knob and two ¼-inch headphones jacks, of which the top one will mute the main outputs. Finally, a DSP button selects one of the three Konnekt 24D program presets that you edit through the software but can access at any time (including stand-alone use).
NEAR THE TOP
Before hooking up the 24D, I installed the requisite drivers and TC Near Control Panel editing software and then downloaded the latest updates from the TC Electronic Website. On the first attempt to connect the hardware, I received error messages. After some troubleshooting, it became clear that the problem was having external hard drives hooked up to my iMac 2.1 GHz G5. The drives were on a different FireWire port, but still on the same internal FireWire bus. The FireWire 400 bandwidth is not enough to have the Konnekt 24D and external drives run successfully on the same bus. Once I disconnected all other devices from that bus, the 24D ran smooth as a baby's ass. FireWire bandwidth is an issue with other devices as well, so it's no mark against TC Electronic. Still, it's a bummer to not be able to connect FireWire hard drives if you're working on machines with one FireWire bus, like many laptops.
You don't need to use the 24D with the TC Near Control Panel open, but it is a nice way of working, as well as the place to program, save and/or load the 24D's three preset setups that can be instantly activated at any time (including during stand-alone use).
The presets include all the mixing and routing settings. To program those, TC Near includes tabs across the top where you select a corresponding window, such as the Mixer window. Here, TC Near detects which of the 24D's inputs are in use. For the Channel 1 and 2 combo inputs, it shows whether an instrument- or mic-level device is connected; it won't activate the channel for an instrument-level device until you press the Pad button on the interface. For each input, the Mixer window shows input-level meters with clip indicators, output-level meters, Mute and Solo button, panning and send levels for the Fabrik R reverb. There's also a master-level meter and Fabrik R return level. All the changes made in TC Near reflect on the 24D (when applicable) and vice versa. In my testing, these changes occurred with zero noticeable latency.
Settings for all the I/O, along with clock settings for optionally locking the 24D to incoming digital signals from the optical or S/PDIF inputs, reside in the Setup window. The software can link channels 1/2, 3/4 and the optical and coaxial S/PDIF inputs as stereo pairs, and that is done with Stereo Link buttons in the Setup window. When linked as a stereo input, those pairings will appear as one channel strip in the Mixer window. The 24D has eight total digital channels, and in the Setup window, you choose whether to reserve all eight for an ADAT optical input, use six ADAT optical channels and two for the coaxial S/PDIF or use two optical S/PDIF and two coaxial S/PDIF channels. You also choose the source of outputs 3/4 and the digital outputs from your DAW, the mic/instrument/line inputs, the Konnekt mixer output or the mixer sends. The Setup window can turn direct monitoring on or off and sets the User function of the hardware Monitor knob to control the level of reverb or a choice of various output levels.
In this window, you also set the 24D's sampling rate from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz. At 44.1 or 48 kHz, both the Fabrik C and Fabrik R DSP effects are available; at 88.2 or 96 kHz, only one of them is; and at 176.4 or 192 kHz, neither effect is available. Below this setting you can choose which effect will be active at 96 kHz and also choose whether the effects will be routed internally (applied to incoming signals) or will be accessible as send/return effects in a host DAW, such as the included Cubase LE.
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