Review by Russell Cottier
It is not often that you walk into a professional recording studio bereft of that familiar aluminium keyboard, white mouse or a glowing fruit logo. Apple computers have been the mainstay of the recording industry for many years but there does seem to be a growing trend towards Windows and Linux in recording and live sectors, something that broadcast has embraced all along.
The Recorder.1 is a Microsoft Windows-based 1U rackmount workstation produced by German high-end computer system manufacturers XI Machines. For more than 10 years the company has provided hardware solutions for new-media applications that demand 24/7 mission-critical stability and speed, ranging from 3D and video render-nodes to audio production workstations and virtual sound library servers. The Recorder.1 system is certified by RME, Focusrite and Steinberg (among others) and is primarily marketed towards broadcast and live audio. The system comes in a variety of flavours and claims an impressive 194-track recording capability at 48kHz/24-bit via MADI and 128 tracks at 96kHz/24-bit for the Dante/RedNet version. A 64-track DVS version (at 48kHz/24-bit) is available that uses the onboard ethernet port with Dante Virtual Soundcard software. XI Machines also offers a very similar SSL live recorder system optimised and certified for use with SSL consoles.
The unit initially has very little visible in terms of controls, the front panel looks to be a black metal frame with tinted acrylic windows. This is merely a bezel to prevent any accidental shutdowns or drive removal which can be unlocked with a thumbscrew at either end of the unit, cleverly hidden behind flanges. The bezel is secured with a peg and hole system at one end and sprung ball bearings at the other that give a satisfying clunk as they engage. Now exposed are four locking drive bays, a sprung momentary rocker switch for bootup/shutdown and a couple of LEDs for power and drive status that show through the bezel with transparent plastic rods. There are also two USB ports on the front of the unit, ideal for the supplied mouse and keyboard. For mounting there is a set of slide rails included.
Each drive bay has a set of smaller LEDs to indicate activity which can be also monitored through the acrylic window. The unit is sold as stock with a system drive and one of XI Machines’ RecPack S data drives. The publicity material doesn’t give much information on the capacity of this drive but it turned out to be 240Gb. On sliding out the bay it was evident that a 2.5-inch form factor SATA drive had been used with a large finned heatsink. The unit seems to be very well constructed. Keys are supplied for securely locking the drive bays though they do have a sturdy latching system when inserted anyway. Other drive capacities are available in the form of RecPack M (480Gb) and RecPack L (800Gb) these are designed for use with the system but are not cheap (at UK £485 and £695 + VAT).
The rear of the unit is much like any other computer — sockets are laid out in positions familiar to any ATX form factor PC user starting with an RJ45 ethernet connector and a couple of USB ports. Adjacent we have the standard computer rear panel offering more ports, Firewire, eSATA, HDMI, DVI and even onboard audio 3.5mm jacks and lightpipe. As we move across the back panel we reach two expansion slots for PCIe cards. In our case this was loaded with a Dante RedNet card and a blanking plate. Several versions of the unit ship with different options — MADI, Dante via the onboard ethernet or Dante with a RedNet card. The website hints that there is no facility for adding further cards to the blanked bays but that might warrant further investigation. Finally we reach the IEC power socket and fan. The power supply is clearly well built and has a wire clip to prevent accidental removal of the IEC cable. There are two vented areas on the top panel for cooling; the 1U is impressive but obviously needs well thought out and reliable ventilation and XI Machines makes some impressive claims about this in its literature. Without extended use it is impossible to know how that will hold up but basing the system on established server designs seems a logical route to take and each unit is tested before shipping. The system was near silent as the manual suggested even during high CPU usage. Booting took around 20 seconds (although the manual boasts only a modest 33 seconds) and Nuendo Live was autoloaded on startup. Not surprisingly XI Machines has chosen to bundle this rock-steady example of German software engineering and with a value of £241 the inclusion of Nuendo Live is not to be sniffed at. Usefully, you can simply press the record button with no tracks armed to record to all tracks. Usefully there is a handy 60-second prerecord buffer in case you miss the start of a take.
The workstation was running Windows 7 Professional with 8Gb of RAM and has an Intel Core i5-3570T CPU running at 2.3GHz. The system ran fast and smoothly with no hiccups even while recording high track counts. Interestingly XI Machines has removed non-essential elements from the operating system installation to optimise efficiency. Such optimisation can add significant robustness — let’s not forget those old BeOs RADAR machines that are still running strong. A Life Saver module is available on initial order also that offers a backup operating system should the main drive fail. According to XI Machines, Windows 10 support has not yet been evaluated, but as a dedicated system, upgrades are not so important.
A keyboard and mouse are supplied with the unit that seemed good quality as far as plastic peripherals go but with so many of us using designer metal keyboards and mice now you can’t help but feel a little disappointed, especially since the main casing is so well built. However this would be mitigated to some extent by remembering transport will be operated remotely in many cases.
This system in essence has one job only, to record digital audio and it did that job very well. There are no conversion quality issues to discuss as we are looking at bit for bit accurate recording and reproduction. Of course, starting at £2,795 (+ VAT) for the DVS version (Dante/RedNet model £3495 + VAT) there are competitors. However this unit is really aimed at the pro user who cannot afford to lose a take — large stadium shows, TV studios, and so on. The pricing is justified by reliability rather than ergonomics, in fact each unit comes with a 36-hour minimum system stability test certificate. The system optimisation and component selection of the Recorder.1 are what you are really buying into here.
