It won over musicians who needed a professional-quality recording solution, both at home and “on the go.” Introduced at the Summer NAMM show some time ago, this FireWire interface offers two analog inputs with independent phantom power and gain control, two insert points, MIDI I/O, two digital I/O channels (optical S/PDIF) and four analog outputs with a headphone jack.
In addition, the digital outputs support AC3 and DTS surround sound formats, and everything is configurable through a software control panel. With that calling card, Yamaha's GO46 is bound to win over musicians who need a professional-quality recording solution, both at home and “on the go.”
To offer a complete system that lets you get to work right away, the interface comes with a software bundle that includes the Cubase LE DAW, the HALion SE sampler and the Groove Agent SE plug-in, all from Steinberg.
Mobile Audio Interface
This is the label that appears next to the manufacturer's logo on the front of the unit, clearly indicating the “nomadic” nature of the interface. Designed from the start to be carried around often and to allow recording in practically any location, the chassis is built from an aluminum alloy that provides sturdiness and light weight.
Also on the front are two combo XLR/TRS connectors (balanced) for feeding analog signals into the interface, with their respective input gain knobs offering ranges of -60/-16 dBu for the XLR option and -34/+10 dBu for the TRS.
Next to these knobs are the switches for enabling phantom power (48 V) on the XLR connections. This power can be activated independently on each channel—and not common to all of them, as is usually the case—which allows the use of a condenser mic on one channel and the connection of a phantom-sensitive source on the other, without risk of damaging the source. What we miss, however, is an LED indicating when phantom power is on, which is very useful when working in dark environments.
The front panel is rounded out by the Master control, the headphone jack and its gain control.
Moving to the rear, two more TRS connectors (balanced) offer another way to feed signal into the two analog input channels, with a range in this case of -3/+9 dBu. These inputs have lower priority than the front ones, which means that if two sources are connected to the same channel, one in front and one in back, the rear input is disabled.
Next to these additional inputs are the two insert points (TRS, one per channel) and the four analog outputs (balanced TRS). These outputs are grouped into two stereo pairs, called Main and Monitor, whose main difference lies in the supported sample rate: the Main output can operate at 24-bit/192 kHz, while the Monitor runs at a maximum of 24-bit/96 kHz.
The level of both outputs is regulated by the Master control on the front panel. To tell which output the knob is affecting, there are two LEDs next to it, labeled Main and Monitor respectively. A brief press of the knob (which also acts as a button) switches between controlling both outputs simultaneously, only Main or only Monitor.
While this is a clever way to save space—since two knobs don't have to be fitted—in my opinion it has a drawback: because the level on the two outputs can differ, the knob is an endless encoder, meaning it has no minimum or maximum position. This means you can't tell the output level at a glance—since the knob doesn't indicate any position—and you have to turn to the control panel software to see it.
If you're one of those who always check the output level before sending anything to the monitors to avoid nasty surprises (it's no fun when the knob was inadvertently at maximum...), having to go to the control panel frequently can get somewhat tedious.
In any case, this knob has even more functions, since it also acts as the “Mute” for the outputs. Holding it down for more than two seconds mutes whichever output is active at that moment, and the respective LED starts blinking to indicate the new state.
The digital audio I/O connections are TOSLINK type, and accept S/PDIF signals of up to 24 bits at 96 kHz. In addition, the digital output can also use the AC3 (Dolby Digital) and DTS (Digital Theater System) surround formats.
The six-pin FireWire port connects the interface to the computer and also supplies it with power. If the computer's port is four-pin FireWire—which doesn't supply power—there is an additional DC power jack (the power adapter comes with the interface).
Between the FireWire connections and the power jack are the MIDI In and MIDI Out connectors, which complete the rear panel.
Sample Rates and Drivers
The maximum sample rate on the analog inputs is 192 kHz at 24-bit resolution, although you should keep in mind that with this configuration, simultaneous audio playback with MIDI data input and output is not possible (that is only possible at sample rates up to 96 kHz).
While this limitation may discourage at first, the truth is that in the applications the interface is aimed at, such a high sample rate is probably not needed, and working at 96 kHz is more than enough.
As for drivers, on Windows platforms there are two options: MME and ASIO. Both allow resolutions between 8 and 24 bits at sample rates between 32 and 192 kHz, although the lowest latency values are obtained with ASIO.
On Mac systems the device doesn't require installing any special driver, as it is fully compatible with Apple CoreAudio and CoreMIDI.
The Control Panel
Aside from all the physical controls, the GO46 can also be configured from a software control panel that provides access to practically all of the interface's features. This control panel is divided into three tabs: Digital Mixer, Output & Settings and About.
The first section offers a digital mixer that lets you control the interface's four input channels and the six output channels coming from the DAW.
The second section holds the interface's configuration settings, such as sample rate and synchronization, a section called Routing that routes the various mixer signals to the outputs, and the analog output faders (equivalent to the Master control on the front panel).
This section also gives access to the ASIO driver settings for controlling system latency, and to a feature called Scenes. As the name suggests, these scenes let you store different interface configurations, saving the mixer, routing and output level parameters, so you can quickly switch from one setup to another.
Finally, the About tab contains information about the system, driver and firmware versions, control panel version, etc.
In Action
The interface certainly performed very well during testing. We used Cubase SX on a Pentium D with 3GHz of RAM, which let us set the latency to a very respectable 3.6 ms working at 96 kHz.
The mic preamps are of good quality, as you'd expect from a Yamaha product. They work very well on a wide variety of sources, and the input gain delivers good signal levels in the DAW.
Unlike other manufacturers, Yamaha continues to bet on including insert points on the analog channels, which can make a big difference if you're used to working with outboard gear.
The ability to enable phantom power on just one of the channels is appreciated, and the function for muting the stereo outputs with the Master knob is very useful for directly comparing two pairs of monitors, since one or the other can be quickly muted as needed. These secondary outputs can also be very handy during tracking, providing a way to send the musician a headphone mix different from the main mix.
The software package is very complete and provides many of the most in-demand tools today: a DAW (Cubase LE, with up to 48 audio tracks), a sampler (HALion SE, a cut-down version of Steinberg's acclaimed sampler) and Groove Agent SE, also a cut-down version, in this case of the powerful plug-in for creating drum tracks.
The control panel gives access to the interface's settings from the computer itself, which can be extremely useful if the unit isn't easily accessible. In short, as is usually the case with Yamaha products, careful design, quality components and broad functionality make the GO46 a serious alternative in its field.
