Review: Eleven Rack

October 8, 2010 by Alan Ratcliffe

Digidesign (now Avid) introduced their amp modelling plug-in “Eleven” a few years ago and it has since been widely accepted for use in the studio and used on many professional recordings. The Eleven Rack is the new hardware version of the Eleven plug-in which functions as an amp modeller, a multi-effects unit, and as a Pro Tools interface.

Avid describes Eleven Rack as a “Pro Tools Recording System Designed Specifically for Guitar Players” – think of it as a studio amp and FX modeller which can be taken on the road to duplicate your studio guitar sounds as well as being a Pro Tools LE recording interface capable of up to 8 simultaneous channels of 24-bit/96 kHz high-resolution recording. It includes a mic input and comes bundled with the Pro Tools LE 8 software, which itself includes over 70 good plugins as well as a brace of virtual instruments. Basically, Eleven Rack includes everything you need to create high-quality recordings.

First impressions

The front panel of the Eleven Rack

The Eleven Rack is a 2U high rack-mounted unit with an attractive and distinctive orange and black colour scheme. The feel is rugged with a sturdy construction and a good, solid weight without being too heavy. Rotary controls, switches and sockets all have a good, solid feel to them and the orange backlit display is large and clear. I was pleased that the Eleven is powered by a standard “kettle” socket on the rear, something which I demand to see on any professional piece of gear.

Connections

The rear panel of the Eleven Rack

There is a comfortingly wide range of inputs and outputs, including S/PDIF, AES/EBU, XLR, USB2 and 1/4″, a mic input, and two 1/4″ line level inputs, allowing for a flexible setup for either studio or stage. The microphone input on the front panel is the same high quality circuit as found on the Avid 003 family of interfaces and features it’s own gain control and pad switch as well as a 48V phantom power switch, making it suitable for use with pro studio condenser mics.

My one complaint with the connectivity is that one of the two 1/4″ jack outputs is situated on the front panel and the other on the rear – this means if you need to run stereo from jacks (as I did), you have to rout a cable from the front of the rack to the rear. I would have preferred to see a stereo pair on the rear panel with a third, additional socket on the front.

Controls

Rotary controls on the Eleven are well thought out, with a dedicated output volume control, a “scroll” control and a row of six control knobs which are reassigned depending on what is being edited. A nice feature is the reassignable controls are internally lit to show which are active at any time, which makes editing quicker and easier. Eight effects control buttons on the front panel make for quick access to the major effects blocks of the signal chain to switch them on or off from the front panel  – another great time saver.

External control and switching can be done from the computer via USB in the studio and via an external expression pedal and MIDI for both studio and stage.

The input’s the thing

The feature I was most interested in was the True-Z input, which is a unique guitar input designed to replicate the input impedance of guitar amps and stompboxes. Every guitar reacts differently with each amp or effect it is plugged into, which gives it a specific dynamic when playing (this is also the biggest problem with many recordings where the guitar is DI’d and then processed with a software modeller). The Eleven Rack’s True-Z input changes the input impedance automatically to mimic the amp or effect that is first in the signal chain. What’s more, it does this with analog switching of capacitors and resistors rather than a digital emulation. I found this feature works well and went a long way to making the modelled amps and effects feel more realistic than other modellers. Furthermore, these settings can be changed manually and are stored per preset, so different settings can be stored for presets used with different guitars.

Amp, speaker and mic simulations

The Eleven Rack features 12 amps, seven speaker cabinets and seven mic models. All but two of the amps are modelled on popular classic and modern models, and together cover the entire gamut of tones from classic cleans through to modern high gain. Aside from the usual suspects, there are two custom amps which combine features from a few different amps. Firstly there is the DC Modern Overdrive, which is a Marshall 100W with more low end and drive as well as a modern EQ and Fender style tremolo. Secondly the DC Vintage Crunch, takes a tweed-era Deluxe and adds more gain, a blackface tonestack, a Bright switch and a tremolo. The speaker and mic simulations are well selected to cover most player’s needs (and the inclusion of a ribbon mic is nice).

Effects

This is where the Eleven Rack falls down badly in comparison with the competition. Digidesign have chosen a range of popular stomp effects to model and have modelled them very well, but they have given the player little choice. Most types of effect have only one effect model – one overdrive, one distortion, one fuzz, one phaser, etc., which given how most players have very specific tastes in effects (particularly distortion effects) is a major shortfall. On the plus side, the effects they have chosen to model are modelled very well and all spot on with the original pedals they model.

On the bright side, the effects loop is very good sounding, can be assigned and moved anywhere within the signal chain, features switchable level (for use with either pedal or rack effects), and works with either mono or stereo on both send and return.

Pro Tools Special features

The Eleven Rack software editor

The driver allows the Eleven Rack’s parameters to be controlled via an Eleven Rack window within Pro Tools rather then using the controls on the front panel of the unit. The editor is very good and selecting, editing and saving patches is all very easy and intuitive. Effects order can be changed with simple drag and drop editing and parameters can be changed quickly and easily. Pro Tools also embeds the audio files with the Eleven Rack settings used to record the track, so if overdubs need to be done later on, the exact settings used to record the track can be instantly recalled. Also, when recording the processed audio, a DI’d guitar track can be recorded, allowing you to go back later and change amp settings.

Other DAWs

Eleven Rack ships with Core Audio drivers, ASIO drivers and WaveDriver MME drivers, so will work as an interface with any major DAW.  However you lose the editing window (and there is no third party software editor yet) and embedded preset information.

Sound

The Eleven’s amp models are mostly very good, with plenty of character and a surprisingly accurate low end response. The True-Z input gives all the amp models excellent touch response and authentic guitar volume response. Generally the models of the heavier amps are the better models, while the lower gain Fenders tended to feel and sound a little off. The speaker emulations are a little bright, which suited the higher gain amps quite well, but gave the cleaner amps a harsher edge than I like, although I was able to tame this a little with mic choice and positioning. The effects are generally very good, if somewhat limited in range.

Conclusion

The Eleven Rack is a great solution for the guitar oriented studio, offering everything you need to get up and recording in one package and to keep the same amp sounds when you gig. It would also be a great choice for rock players wanting good amp emulations and a few good effects live. However, the effects junkies among us would probably want to add a more powerful effects unit in the loop and use a few stomp boxes on the floor too.