Cymatic Audio uTrack24 24-track Recorder / Player and USB Interface Reviews

I use it for playing my backing tracks from the studio when my band plays live, so our live sound is just like on the albums. I have already been using the LP-16 (the smaller version of this) for about 2 years and have never had a problem with it. But I wanted something a little more rugged and transportable. Also I wanted a backup in case this critical piece of equipment that is so essential to our live shows should fail. so I now have the U-24.
It's exactly what I expected and works perfectly. I will point out however that the USB sticks are not directly transferrable from one to the other. I had to reformat one, then in the utool software, recreate all the songs and playlists etc in the U24 section and write from that onto the USB stick to be able to use it. But with that done. It's working perfectly. I use 24 bit and 48hz for the highest quality sound possible. I only use 6 tracks though. 1 track for click track intros that I run through stage monitorsbut not the mains, then one for bass track, then all other instruments in stereo on tracks 3 and 4, then the backing vocals in stereo on 5 and 6. This combination works great because it retains the stereo images and appropriate mix levels,while still giving flexibility at live stage time. More vocals in the monitors to harmonize with but the appropriate mix out front, for example. Bass in for practicing alone, but out for live when I have a bass player. I highly recommend these units based on 2 years plus with the smaller LP-16 plus the apparent quality and features of the the U24. I can't speak to the recording aspect though,since I haven't used it for that.

This is exactly the multi-track unit I have been looking for to replace my beloved Alesis HD24s. An audio engineer friend recommended it to me. Over the years it has become more and more difficult to reliably and quickly transfer audio from the no longer supported HD24. I don't like using a computer in live orchestra and opera recording situations (which is all I do), so this Cymatic unit is just what I have been looking for. It is compact, straightforward, and a great value. It is relatively new on the market, and from the promotional material I see, the company is serious about enhancing and expanding the unit's capabilities. Thanks, Cymatic, I'm glad I discovered you.

In reference to the low headphone volume I was complaining about, since then, Cymatic answered that issue and reminded me about the 12 db monitor increase I could use. Well I tried it out, and it made quite a difference on the headphone volume. Shame on me for complaining so bad without re-reading about the monitor settings.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I purchaced an ADAT card, which Cymatic sells. It has 3 toslink inputs, and three outputs. It was easy to install, just plug it into the Utrack 24 in the back of the unit, after removing a plate and your good to go. I'm now hooking three of my interfaces up to it and I'm very happy with the sound and the clarity. I'm also running a Black Lion clock on all the interfaces and the Utrack's and it all is locking together very nicely. I think you might be able to lock clock sync with just the Adat inputs or outputs, but I had trouble getting that to work, so I got the Black Lion mircro MKIII clock and everything works fine now.

Ok, I know when I put the ...but... in the title, most times, I at least get kind of an Oh God, what now, kind of feeling, but this ...but... is fixable. To get to the point it's the lack of volume in the head phone output. At first I thought my headphones were goofy or something, but I've since used different well working phones and I found that in my opinion you can barely hear it with the nob turned up. I got on line with the Cymatic forum and complained about it in a post, but got no response. I did read other reviews about the low volume, and I was getting so sore about it all, I almost sent the unit back, but after using it a few times live and working with it at home, I believe it's worth it, especially compared to what you get, i.e. 24 tracks in & out, plus at least readable meters for each channel, and other things too. I went and bought a headphone amp to boost the signal and now I can hear it fine. I'm ticked that Cymatic won't seem to fix that problem, but compared to some of the prices of other units and how decent it sounds, I actually think it's a good deal. I only do live recording so this fits the bill just right. I'm still using my computer DAW as the main recording, but using the U-track as the backup. Of course you could use it for the primary recording, but I just decided to do it this way.

I also bought an RME digiface from Sweetwater, and after a few hoops of trying to get that to work, I finally figured out how and now it works like a charm. I use the Digiface to split as many as 4-8-channel preamp interfaces, even different brands, and with the Digiface I can lock them all in sync and what I do is run them digitally into my DAW, for the DAW recording, but for the backup, right now I'm running out of the 8 analogue outs of each interface into the U-track 24 using the DB-25 connectors for the Utrack. I'd like to get the ADAT card for the U-track later on, so I could run digitally out of the Digeface not only into the computer but digitally into the U-track 24. So far I've done a couple of live recordings with it and it sounds as good as my Zoom H6 in my opinion. I'm happy with it so far. Marc Trainor

I was very excited about this product when it was previewed at NAMM in 2014. Very similar in features to the JoeCo Black Box BBR1-B recorder, and at about 1/3 the cost. There were a couple things holding me back. One was the primitive metering. The Black Box is by comparison quite luxurious with three VU meter LEDs per channel. The uTrack 24 only has one tri-color LED per channel. Yes, there is a mode where you can dedicate all of the LEDs to create one gigantic 24-segment VU meter for a channel you designate, but you have to menu-dive for that, and who has time for that in a live situation?

But there’s very, very good news on that front. Whereas the Black Box unit requires a $500 accessory to use an iPad as a meter bridge, this capability is essentially free on the uTrack24. If you use iOS, the uRemote app is free and you probably should download it just to check it out, as it has a demo mode so you can play with it even without being connected to a uTrack24. You can change all the record parameters, as well as monitor the VU meters over WiFi using an iPhone or an iPad. (Apparently an Android version of the app is in the works). I have my uTrack24 racked up with 24 channels of mic preamps. Because the uTrack24 has a network connector on the back, all you need is a wireless router. I bought a ZyXel MWR102 wireless router off Amazon for under 25 bucks. It’s tiny and I have it attached to the inside roof of my recording rack with double sided tape. So my little recording rack puts up a secure wireless hotspot and I can monitor my recording levels, and stop and start the machines from anywhere in the vicinity. I cannot overstate how convenient this is. In addition the uTrack24, when it’s sitting idle, is actually constantly buffering audio data. So even if you’re a second or two late hitting the record button, the pre-record buffer is written to disk so you don’t end up missing anything. Another very nice feature.

So far I’ve recorded one gig with it, and the results look promising. Two things to note: Many digital recorders I’ve used have some amount of margin at 0 dB. Yeah, I know, you’re never supposed to go to 0 on a digital recorder, but the reality is, a blip of red usually isn’t the end of the world. Not so here. On this device, 0 dB really is zero dB. Here be dragons. It does not help that on the front panel LEDs, warning orange and here-be-dragons red are very hard to tell apart. Best to use the uRemote app for metering. With 24 bits of resolution, there’s really no need to push the signal has hard as I did. Bad me.

The other issue I discovered is that the WD 1TB USB hard drive I was using doesn’t take kindly to vibration. During especially loud passages, if the drive is vibrating, it will be unable to write and the buffered audio data gets lost. What you hear are gaps in your recording. The uTrack 24 tells you right on the front panel whether it’s encountered any dropouts. So I will need to experiment with how I place the drive. At this gig I simply had it sitting on a metal rack shelf, inside the rack case which was right next to the bass rig. In retrospect, not a great plan for success.

The manufacturer does not recommend solid state thumb-drives because, while average access times are fast, sometimes these drives momentarily experience very high write latencies, and these write latencies will cause dropouts. I tested a 64 GB Kingston thumb drive, and was unable to record at 24 bits / 24 tracks / 44.1 kHz without dropouts. I did a 2h test recording at 16 bits though without any issues.

Sound quality is great. The uTrack 24 can also be used as a 24 in / 24 out interface for Windows or MacOS, and I have not yet had a chance to try that out.

great unit. works as advertised. simple front panel with big transport buttons. I primarily use it for live recording ...it is very easy to set up and use for live gigs. Files easily import to PC. I am using a Seagate 1TB hard drive ..works great..no issues. 4 stars because it does not have input pad or gain / trim... otherwise would be 5 stars...but I knew that before the purchase so I was not surprised or disappointed.

This unit has quite a lot of horsepower in a small very easy to use package. I have recorded some live bands and artists that have 10 to 40+ years in the biz with this unit....they loved the tracks I gave them.

Others have mentioned the single LED per channel metering as a pain ...but you will need something in front of this unit to trim the input anyway ...pick something with metering so its not too much problem.

I will probably purchase a second one at some point.

Purchasing this product was one of the worst decisions I've made in a long while. The first unit was DOA (thanks to Sweetwater for getting another out asap). The software for this product seems half baked. It's not intuitive and seems to add additional steps in to do things that should be fairly simplistic.

The documentation is sorely lacking. You'd be hard pressed to find an area just simply stating the requirements for the HDD or USB drive needed. There is not a straight forward narrative of ho the unit functions and how to use it given specific use cases. Basically its a rendering of the unit and labelling of the buttons.

The unit itself quirky and not stable. It generates random sounds through my rig, doesn't work with a number of mainstream HDDs and USB sticks, and generally is a real pain in the butt for something that should be fairly straightforward. Trying to get help via Cymatic's site is just as bad. From long response times to down right mean reps they have not done a good job there either. There must be a good reason for the huge price drop in this product which actually was my reason for buying it. I'm really glad I didn't pay $ for this.

This is probably worst investment in my music life so far. D-sub connectors are very bad, don't hold cable, they are always falling off. Usb connections throw computer is very slow and very easy to make computer slow. As soon as I connect this device to computer, everything goes slow. Only useful thing on this is recording capability. I didn't test it yet, but I hope it is better than usb work. I was hoping that I will be able to use this device with 24 track output to my mixer, but usb is so slow and always lagging, so It is useless for soundcard jobs. I only hope that this device can record good quality, and I will use it for that only. If it don't record good quality, I will sell it and forget it hopefully.