MACKIE BABY HUI

The one thing that you absolutely have to invest in for your home studio is a Motorized control surface. It will speed up your recording and mixing process and will make recording FUN again.

One neat little thing about the HUI is that they are ROCK solid and relatively inexpensive to find these days.

HUI stands for HUMAN USER INTERFACE. Basically, it does what your mouse does when it comes to mixing digital audio; only it does it faster and more precise.

I mainly use a Mackie MCU for my Control Surface but keep my old tried and True Baby HUI for location recordings and a back up in case I need one.

When I say they are rock solid, let me explain.

My Baby HUI has been a staple in my studio for years, one late night session the drummer tripped and fell into it knocking it to the floor. The Pan Pot went flying and the Control board for the transport punched inside the unit below the surface. The paint was a little bit scraped and the corner of the unit had a small bend. I thought my Baby HUI was a now a paperweight.

After a few kind words to the drummer and after every left for the night I disassembled the unit. I put a slightly larger set of screws in the nuts for the Transport and reassembled the unit, turned it on and it functioned as if nothing happened. The shaft for the pan pot is broken and I have to either replace the board for $50 US or live with a knob that comes off and needs to be re-seated occasionally.

Not a bad result for a ten-foot drop into a concrete floor.

The one drawback is due to the compact size. Smaller throw faders. I can live with that for a smaller size and the tank like construction. This unit is staying in my arsenal of tools for many more years.

Converts Standard Analog in 1/4 and XLR to 24 ADA Digital output via Lightpipe.

- In What Country was it made? (USA, Japan, Mexico, France...)
Taiwan.

- How many frets, Pickup Type and Configuration?
24 frets, 2 active humbucker pickups.

- What are the setting controls (volume, tone, pickup selector position)?
1 volume, 1 pickup balance, bass, treble.
All except the volume have a middle setting that you can actually feel very easily.

- What type of neck?...
It's a 5 string so the neck is quite wide, and i have little bass experience so it's hard to tell, but it seems nice enough to me! ;-)

- Does the neck have a nice feel?
Yep!

- Easy access to the top notes (last frets)?
Yes, in fact it is, but do you really want to do that??

- Is it's design ergonomic(in terms of the shape, weight...)?
It's a heavy beast and it's a bit unbalanced, which is not so nice when playing sitting down...it leans toward the head of the neck... :-/

- Can one easily get a nice sound?...
Yes!

- Does it suit your style of music?
Yes. But beware that unless you EQ it this bass sounds very "slappy", metallic & 80's style. Say Billy Idol on White Wedding, but more slappy.
The EQ is powerful and both pickups sound very different so you can tune your sound to get something quite different, don't worry.

- With what amp(s) or effect(s) do you use it?
I don't have an amp anymore, i go direct via a tube preamp or preamp-compressor and it sounds great.

- For how long have you been using it?
I've had it for about 10 years, but haven't really used it for at least 5.

- What thing do you like most/least about it?
Most: it's probably the best you get without going into digital noise reduction, which came out afterwards and which had a signal/noise ratio of 90dB, whereas this is probably closer to 80 max.
Least: it's clunky when you operate it. It's very noisy when you press any button, not smoothe AT ALL in its operation.

- Did you try many other models before getting this one?
Oh yeah, lots with Dolby B...but this has B, C and S !

- What is your opinion about the value for the price?
Dont laugh: this was 2250 Francs at the time (£225 back then). Yes, you heard me. Amazing, eh? I even had this way before i had a CD player...
Later, the digital Dolby noise reduction came out and i hesitated to get it but i don't think it did Dolby S so then i was stuck...
Of course, for the same money or less even you could get a MiniDisc recorder, which i did too...

- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?...
Yes, actually, because this was the best spec at the time for that money, and it did come in handy more than once: it has 2 recorders so u can record in parallel to both at the same time, which is handy when duplicating many cassettes or rather one recording onto many cassettes. Both recorders are also auto-reverse, and have space search, so you can find the next song rapidly by pressing the search button.
It also has a "FLEX" button, which is an auto-EQ of the sound and that is a major enhancement to many recordings!
The only thing that could make it better is digital NR...and smoother operation.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep00/articles/zoom.htm

A Full Review is at the link.

- Is the general configuration/setup simple? Yes, via PC
- Is the sound or effects editing easy? Yes, via PC
- Is the manual clear and sufficient?... Yes

- Are the effects good, usable and sufficiently realistic? Yes
- With what instruments do you use them? Electric Guitar
- Which are your favorites and/or the ones you hate? Stock lousy, your own, incredible.

- For how long have you been using it?
A few hours. So i'll update the review at a later date.

- What thing do you like most/least about it?
The sound is detailed & clear & dynamic, all good!
The player is SOOOO SLOW!!! Takes ages to read a disc & start playing...really annoying.
There is a slight tick when playing...you need to be close to hear it though.
THERE IS NO VOLUME ON THE REMOTE!!! GRRRRRR!!!!!
Also, it has optical out and no coax.

- Did you try many other models before getting this one?
I had a Philips CD723 before this. It was less bulky, looked better, was 10 times faster & had volume on the remote.

- What is your opinion about the value for the price?
The sound is great, sure, but every player should have volume on the remote and it's unforgiveable that the damn thing is so slow. If it had been £60 i could understand, but it was £110 (actually it was 159,50€).

- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?...
No. I'd go for one that has volume on the remote, and i'd try to find a faster one.

- For how long have you been using it?
I had this for about 8 years.

- What thing do you like most/least about it?
It's plain & simple, and very fast at reading/playing a cd when inserted...unlike the brand new Sony SACD player i just bought damn it (SCD-XE597), which doesn't even have a volume setting on the remote, which the Philips CD723 did!!
Can read CD-RW too in theory but not all models did in practice...mine did, though.
Had a coaxial digital output, which i prefer to optical...again, the Sony XE597 has optical...aargh...
Also, i think the design is quite ok, even now...again, better than the pointlessly bulky Sony SACD i just got...

- Did you try many other models before getting this one?
None, saw a review in an audiophile magazine and they actually liked the CD723, which is amazing for a £100 player. So i got it.

- What is your opinion about the value for the price?
Obviously, the player must have cost virtually nothing to make, i mean there is nothing inside...but compared to other players i'd say it was good value.

- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?...
Yes, however i would have sold it sooner...i had a 5 year warranty and just before the end of that the drawer started to come out slowly...so i got that fixed under warranty. Then about 3 or 4 years later it started doing it again. Sometimes it wouldn't open, sometimes it would work fine. I sold it for 50€ (£30) and bought this slow Sony SACD player (the cheapest i could find) that doesn't even have a volume setting...what a rip off. That'll be my next review, and it won't be all good, i tell you! ;-D

Had the CD723 had CD-text then it might have deserved a 10.

- In What Country was it made? (USA, Japan, Mexico, France...)
I believe this was made in Korea.

- How many frets, Pickup Type and Configuration?
If i remember correctly it's a 22 fret.
It has 2 single coils & one humbucker.

- What type of Bridge(Floyd, Wilkinson...)?
Oooh, now the tremolo on this is really basic, and it won't let the guitar stay in tune very well...it doesn't lock the strings at all. Best not used?
The strings go through the body, vertically, for added sustain (the guitar doesn't have much...).

- What are the setting controls (volume, tone, pickup selector position)?
1 volume, 1 tone, 5 position pickup selector.

- What type of neck?...
The neck is nice, narrow, & easy to play. It is bolted, not glued, so little sustain.
The body is nicely finished.

- Does the neck have a nice feel?
See above.

- Easy access to the top notes (last frets)?
Yes, not bad, but only 22 frets.

- Is it's design ergonomic(in terms of the shape, weight...)?
Yes, quite nice.

- Can one easily get a nice sound?...
Errm, no.
Don't even try. A good player will make it sound ok, i can't make it sound like anything at all.

- Does it suit your style of music?
Maybe with the right effects...

- With what amp(s) or effect(s) do you use it?
I never use this, it was my first, and i have a proper guitar now.

- What kind of sounds do you get and with what settings(clean, distorted,...)?
Poor sound whatever the setting.

- What are your favorite sounds and/or least favorite?
The best sound is the humbucker, quite loud and lots of medium & treble: great for slide. But i really can't see what else this guitar could be used for. Maybe rhythm with the selector on position 2 (both single coils).