Phonic's well-established Helix range has made the jump to Firewire: we look at the 12-channel version, which is capable of sending 10 channels of audio at 24-bit/96kHz to your DAW. Phonic, who celebrate their 30th birthday this year, have a lot of experience of making robust analogue mixers for use in the studio and on stage. In the summer of 2005 they took their tried and tested mixer hardware and added a USB send, declaring their new Helix Boards to be 'the world's first professional USB-equipped mixers.' The concept was good, but the design could only send the stereo mix as an output, rather than individual channels, and the screen printing barely acknowledged that the USB interface was present. Two years on, Phonic seem to be favouring Firewire over USB, and have integrated the technology much more convincingly.

Helix Board 18 FireWire User's Manual PHONIC CORPORATION. The Helix Board 18 FireWire works with the primary audio drivers of Macintosh OS X.

It is now possible to output individual tracks over Firewire at up to 24-bit/96kHz, and from a choice of different points in each channel's signal path. A copy of Cubase LE is bundled free with the mixer, as is the relevant setup software, and there is full support for both Mac and PC. Although there are also larger 18- and 24-channel Helix mixers offering up to 18 outs over Firewire, they share an almost identical core of features with our 10-channel review model, so most of what is said here should be applicable to the rest of the range. The Helix follows an extremely traditional hardware mixer layout which should be fairly evident from the photograph in this review. As one would expect, the channels are lined up with their relevant inputs, the monitoring and metering controls can be found on the right, and the slightly more miscellaneous I/O is at the rear.

What isn't necessarily so apparent from the pictures, however, is that the mixer is exceptionally compact, saving lateral space by pairing channel 4 with 5 and channel 6 with 7, and reducing the other axis dimension by using thin pots and placing many of them very close together. A couple more inches have been shaved off the design by using rotary knobs rather than linear channel-level faders. Clearly, the mixer's size is optimised so that it can sit on a small desk with computer monitors and peripherals, rather than atop a rack. V 6 ruk noti. The preamps of the first four channels offer 50db of adjustable gain and a low-cut filter positioned at 75Hz. The next four, organised as two paired channels, have no gain knob, just a -10dBv to +4dBu switch, and are intended to receive signal from sound modules with plenty of level.

The remaining four channels, earning the mixer the '12' in its name, are aux returns paired up and labelled 1 and 2. These do not share the same channel facilities — such as EQ, for example — as the others, but have their own controls over in the master section on the right. For the first eight channels, though, all things are more or less equal. The EQ is a simple three-band design and Phonic have helpfully written each band's frequency on the chassis: 12kHz at the top, 80Hz at the bottom and 2.5kHz in the centre, with each band providing adjustment of up to ±15dB. Next in the strip are a set of small switches accompanied by the distinctive Firewire symbol.

When sent to the computer from this point in the signal path, the audio is unaffected by the channel faders, pan position and mute status. However, if you throw the relevant switch the output point is changed to before the EQ and low-cut filter, and is therefore only processed by the channel-input preamps. Beyond the switches are the Aux 1 and 2 send level controls, which provide up to 15dB of gain. The first Aux is fixed pre-fader and feeds the Aux 1 jack socket via the helpfully named Aux Send 1 Master pot. The second Aux control, this time wired post-fader, has the dual role of supplying a signal to the internal 40-bit digital effects processor and a feed to the Aux Send 2 jack socket. Towards the bottom of the channels are the Pan/Balance controls, the rotary channel faders, providing up to 20db of gain, and a mute button that routes channels to the Alt 3-4 bus. Interestingly, there's a pair of jack outputs from this bus on the rear panel, enabling anything from click tracks to custom monitor mixes to be output separately from the main mix.

In the master/monitoring section there is a simple effects-selection interface with integral signal and clip LEDs and a two-digit display. There is a knob that can be turned to select an effect and then pressed to confirm the choice. If a delay is chosen, pressing the knob repeatedly sets the timing.

Below this are the Aux return controls for setting the level of inputs 9/10 and 11/12, plus a button that re-sends anything input into Aux 2 onward to the Aux 1 bus via its master level control. This routing simply expands the user's options, allowing them, for example, to route anything from the Aux 2 inputs to an effects device attached to the Aux 1 bus. Overall, there are quite a number of routing possibilities, many of which are evident from the Control Room Source array of buttons, which enable the user to select which set of signals they want to route to the Control Room bus, or to the main bus, where there is a 60mm master fader and eight-segment LED meter display. Naturally the two buses have their own physical outputs, so the system seems very flexible, especially as it is possible to combine multiple sources or isolate each one individually.