After owning a Yamaha 01X for exactly 10 years, I am just now concluding that its probably time for me to consider my other options in terms of an audio interface.  Its a shame because I REALLY liked the 01X.

The 01X really was a breakthrough product when it first came out hardware wise. Even now, nothing comes close to what it was capable of doing within its price point. I didn’t realize just how much I took for granted that the unit was an 1) audio recorder; 2) midi interface; and 3) DAW controller all rolled up into one. So far, there is nothing out there that can do everything this beauty can do and I have been looking.  At best, I’d have to buy more than one unit to get the same flexibility that I could with this unit.

Although Yamaha stopped officially supporting the 01X for some time, the drivers still managed to work on Snow Leopard and Lion as long as the OS was running in 32 bit mode.  I have been using the 01X on my Snow Leopard iMAC without any hiccups.  As with most Yamaha gear, this thing is built like a tank and everything still works, even the flying faders.

Unfortunately, my laptop died on me and I was forced to get another MacBook pro.  Mountain Lion is the first Mac OS that does not have the option to run in 32 bit mode so the drivers no longer work.  Its a shame because the 01X was killer. I understand some thought mLAN was too complicated to understand with the average musician user, but having mastered it for all these years, its great.

I am really going to miss using that unit.

First, let me say thank you for being one of the many out there who did get the technology. I agree it was a bit ahead of its time. It did point out that there was a market for a sophisticated small format mixing console with ultimate flexibility. The virtual Graphic Patchbay was a major stumbling block for the average small format user (seems even less people understood how to route digital cabling than understood analog cabling).

Being able to move signal digitally from device to device, processing it and ultimately recording it into most any of the popular DAWs that supported ASIO drivers was an innovation. Along with the ability to “hot wire” (add new devices to the setup with interrupting audio and MIDI flow, made the system a breakthrough.

What we needed was a way to teach audio engineering to musicians ... It was a great system. mLAN is not completely gone.. The Motif XS transitioned from the old system (mLAN) to the new FW system that Yamaha has now. You can still send multiple channels of audio and MIDI via FireWire to a computer DAW, but each connected device must speak directly to the computer (thus ensuring it as the “master” device

Computer operating systems were struggling, more with the concept than anything else, of handling the 100 audio and 256 MIDI channels that could be routed via the virtual Patchbay… I think really what was at issue was the mLAN system’s ability, once configured, to run sans the computer. This idea got very little support from the folks who wrote OS updates for computers. And from their perspective, I guess this was seen as a threat… Who knows?

And the added cost of each device being able to be the master clocking device, precluded all but a few other manufacturers from building their own mLAN compatible devices. Even when mLAN was established as a separate IEEE1394 Trade Association meaning the protocol could be used by anyone… The cost of producing a product precluded mLAN from becoming universal, like MIDI protocol.

Today’s digital mixers that sport the ability to record multiple channels of audio do so, not from the viewpoint of the recording studio engineer, but more from the perspective of the “live” sound engineer. The recording engineer demands a different set of options when it comes to routing signal within the console. The “live” sound engineer is primarily interested in the FOH mix, and simply wants to send a feed from each input directly to a separate channel out… Then sort everything out later.

Anyway, the n12/n8 mixers were also transitional products from the older mLAN drivers to the newer FW drivers.. They were based on mLAN but also could be updated to work with the newer OS updates from the computer systems. These did not have motorized faders, and although they were digital consoles had a very analog feel to them. Instead of a single set of knobs that worked for the currently selected channel (as on the 01X), each channel had its own set of knobs. This made it easier for the ‘non-technical’ target audience: mainly musicians wanting to have a no-compromise home studio recording system.

Working against software systems that were relentless in promoting the fact that “...you don’t need a mixer” after all, there is picture of one in the software DAW (sarcasm). Well, of course, you need a mixer. They are only playing on the lack of understanding about what a mixer’s role actually is and what it does.

Anyway… Glad you enjoyed the 01X - it was a personal favorite of mine, because it really did put a lot of power into the hands of the home studio musician. Let us know what you decide to do next.

And, again, thank you! We feel your “sad day” feeling.

It may be possible to load snow leopard on my new mac book pro. If so, it looks like I still may be able to continue to use my trusted 01X! I’ll keep you posted on my findings.