It’s that time of the year again. It’s getting cold in Illinois (it even snowed today), and you’re more than likely thinking of gifts other people should get for you as well as what you’re going to be getting your friends and family. If you’re an otherwise audio nerd, then you’re no doubt looking for something new to add to your studio. Why not let Ask A Sound Guy help you?

The first item you should look at is the Cakewalk V-Studio 100, a portable 8-in/6-out (plus headphone) standalone SD recorder and audio interface.

At its heart, its an extremely well built 96kHz/24-bit interface. On the input side, you have two preamps (with XLR inputs) with phantom power and input sensitivity. There’s also two 1/4″ inputs and a 1/4″ Hi-Z guitar input. It’s run off USB 2.0, however it does require a separate 9v power supply. It supports  , WDM, WASAPI, and Core Audio.

I got the chance to use the V-Studio in a number of different sessions and had a good time with it.

Recording with a computer…

As stated on the V-Studio 100′s website, you can use the 100 with or without a computer. Most of my experience with the 100 was with a computer, and I had no major problems with it. I used it with Logic 9, Reaper, Ardour, and Live 7 and 8. Friends and I recorded vocals, bass guitar (both DI and thru an amp), as well as some more folky stuff which combined a DId electric guitar and some vocals. The V-Studio 100 worked flawlessly with all of the DAWs it was used on. It was simple to set up and we were able to to get up and recording in a matter of minutes making the sessions with the 100 very low stress.

The preamps were exactly what you would be looking for in an interface like this. They’re quiet, transparent, and boost the signal accordingly. The input sensitivity on the two XLR inputs are really nice for situations when you need that extra bit of gain. Having phantom power on the first two channels is nice and will obviously come in handy for when you’re recording with some condenser mics. If you need anymore than that, however, you’ll need an external phantom power supply. However, this interface is more aimed at traditional home studio projects. If you’re in need of more inputs with phantom power (or more inputs in general), perhaps you need to move up to the V-Studio 700.

As far as recording with a computer, I think my favorite feature was the onboard EQ and compression that comes on channels 1-6. I personally like tracking with a certain amount of both, usually a high-pass filter at around 60Hz and some light/heavy-ish compression depending on the source. I didn’t do any real surgical EQing on any of the recordings, and if that’s something you’d like to do, you may have to look at some more advanced software EQ. Once again, the EQ and compression was nice and clean. The EQ is a pretty basic three band parametric EQ. Both were extremely nice for tracking. For mixing, however, you may want to choose something else if you want to inject some character into your mixes.

Sadly, there’s no comp/EQ on the coaxial channels (7 and 8), but I didn’t ever find that to be a problem.

The V-Studio 100 also comes with four different types of reverb which, while perhaps not ideal for a home studio setup, would be great if you were using the 100 to mix a band live on a smaller PA. The reverbs sound pretty decent, but I think I’ll stick to my software reverbs for any serious processing.

As a control surface…

The V-Studio 100 can be set up as a full fledged control surface as well as an audio interface. Its set up via the Mackie Control protocol and can be used within any DAW. I only set it up to be used inside Logic and Live, but it worked well both times. The 100mm touch-sensitive motorized fader was a really nice feature to have. Its probably more of a personal thing, but I enjoy seeing a fader move when its reading back automation inside my DAW of choice.

Aside from the fader, there’s five encoders knobs as well as 11 buttons and full-featured transport controls. Pair all of this up with the LCD display and you have a pretty nice little studio right out of the box. The 100 also allows you to plug-in a fully programable footswitch which I didn’t do any real testing on.

I can’t stress how nice it was to have some more advanced DAW control at the tip of my fingers while recording with this V-Studio 100. While there might be other units that may do control a little bit better (and are separate all together), its hard to be down on this unit for simple shortcomings.

As a standalone recorder…

I really wish I was more involved in location or production sound because I have a feeling this thing would excel in those fields. The standalone recorder does stereo .WAV recording and playback and is supposed to transfer recorded audio easily onto any computer. There’s also a dedicated volume knob for playback from the SD card. The build quality of this thing makes me think that this unit would do really well with the everyday wear and tear that comes with location recording. Seeing as any location work I’ve ever done has been, at the most, two different channels at one time, the V-Studio 100 would work well for any location recordist on a budget.

That being said, if I was in a band that rented some rehearsal space, I’d have to have this with me for every package. The fact that you can sum all the channels onto a nice stereo .WAV and dump it onto one of your bandmates laptops before you all leave the building.

I did a bit of recording with the V-Studio 100 as a standalone recorder and it was very much the rehearsal space situation. We had a live band consisting of drums, bass, guitar, and vocals playing live. Two mics on the drums, a 57 on the guitar cab, condenser on the bass cab, and vocals directly into the V-Studio. It sounded good: it was live and sloppy rock and roll, so while not technically amazing music, the band was pretty thrilled with the recording.

Another point to consider when discussing the V-Studio comes into the crosshairs when you’re talking about it being used as a standalone recorder that musicians are going to be using and that’s ease of use. A lot of musicians don’t know a lot about recording and don’t really want to deal with it, and for them the V-Studio 100 is perfect. It takes very little recording knowledge to get up and recording onto your SD card, which is pretty crucial.

And all the rest…

The V-Studio 100 is pretty full featured, but it also comes with some pretty awesome software. The VX-64 Channel Strip, Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 LE, Boost 11 Peak Limiter, Dimension LE, Rapture LE, and Studio Instruments Bass, Drums, Electric Piano, and Strings. While this may not be the main selling point for the V-Studio 100, its definitely worth noting and it more than sweetens the deal.

This package also comes with the SONAR VS DAW which, sadly, is Windows only. Its marketed as the perfect DAW for someone who’s just getting started. You’re able to record, mix, and master all of your tracks. You’re limited to 64 audio tracks (which is more than enough) and unlimited MIDI tracks. It includes five different instruments and 12 different effects including the staples like reverb, delay, and a lot more. It has a main and mix window (a la Pro Tools) and allows you to share your music via burning a CD or publishing to the Internet.

The Conclusion!

Sanjay and I both saw the V-Studio 100 and the 700 at AES this year and we were genuinely surprised at how nice this stuff was. I asked to review it because I thought that I might have some fun with either one of these units, and I was right. Not only was it easy to to setup and a joy to work with, but it also sounded as good as you could imagine it. If you’re in the market for a new interface and control surface, you should be considering the V-Studio 100.

Pros: The build quality really is amazing; plenty of inputs and outputs for an interface at this price range; onboard EQ, compression, and reverb; lots of extras to keep you busy
Cons: Included DAW is Windows only; would’ve preferred 1/4″ input jacks in place of the coax and RCA inputs
Recommended for: Producers/engineers looking for an interface and control surface in one, bands looking for a an all-in-one recorder, location recordists on a budget.

The Cakewalk V-Studio 100 is available now from all major retailers with a price tag of $699.99. For a sample of what I recorded with the V-Studio 100, check out this link.

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