Alva Nanoface Overview Video
The new Alva Nanoface is a compact, mobile, easy-to-use, professional sounding audio interface with real power. Ideal for musicians, DJ's, Gamers, Hifi, Home Movie Theatre and Surround Sound applications.
You have the capacity to connect a turntable, CD player, mics, a guitar, speakers, keyboards, the list goes on! And all this controlled with just one rotary encoder button.
In this film, we show you the Alva Nanoface capabilities and how easy it is to use.
Alva Nanoface
The ALVA Nanoface is a great combination of efficient, easy-to-use design with a sound quality that will allow you to take your recordings to a higher level.
On opening the box you'll see that you get the Nanoface itself of course, and then there is also a USB cable and a breakout cable. On the Alva Nanoface breakout cable you have two XLR connectors for analogue inputs 1 and 2 which are perfect for hooking up microphones. There are another two analogue inputs on phono jacks, so you can easily plug a CD player in for example.
There are also two line outputs on phono plugs which are ideal for speakers. And finally two MIDI outputs and a MIDI input, so you can attach a keyboard.
On the Nanoface itself, you’ve got a headphone output and a guitar input. Last but not least, you’ve got an optical SPDIF input and output – so you have digital connectivity as well.
All in all a nice spread of I/O, giving you the capability to work with a whole range of different equipment.
Connecting It Up
The Alva Nanoface gets its power via the USB socket on the computer, so when you connect it you will see the Nanoface light up. This of course means that you do not need an external power supply which makes the Alva Nanoface the perfect mobile device for field recording with your laptop.
There is a second USB connector you can use for a ‘power boost’, but 99% of computers will produce more than enough juice so it’s unlikely that you’ll need this.
The Alva Nanoface comes with a CD which contains the driver, but we would always recommend that you check the Alva website for the latest drivers before you install your device.
From there all you need to do is select it in your audio software and start working.
Controls
One of the nicest things about the Nanoface is that you can control everything from a single rotary encoder knob.
You’ve have a set of LEDs here and two level meters. As you click the encoder knob it scrolls through from outputs 1 & 2, to headphones (you’ll see 3/4 is lit as well, more on what that means later), then you have inputs 1 & 2 and inputs 3 & 4. Finally there’s an LED for the guitar input. We’ll show you how to activate that shortly.
Let’s go back to outputs 1 & 2. Here a turn of the encoder gives you control over the gain level.
Moving next to the headphone output, you’ll see 3/4 is also lit. If you want, you can instead have the same signal that is being sent to outputs 1 & 2 sent to the headphones. You will get a separate gain control, so you can control the volume of your speakers and headphones independently.
To switch to feeding the HPs from 1 & 2 simply hold down the encoder and turn to the left. To go back to 3 & 4, just hold down and turn to the right.
If we continue to the next LED – inputs 1 & 2 – we can again control the gain. You can also control the gain for each channel individually, for example if you are using two microphones that you want to set at different levels.
If I want to go to the left channel, just hold down and turn to the left. Now we’ve got control of the left hand gain. Whilst you’re here you can also turn on the phantom power for when you’re using a condenser microphone. Just hold down the encoder for 3 seconds.
You can do exactly the same for the right channel by holding down and turning to the right.
Next up, if we click the encoder again is inputs 3 & 4, where you will also have control of the level.
The last LED is for the guitar or instrument input. It takes the place of input 2 and is activated by a double click when you are at the input 1 & 2 LED.
One last feature worth mentioning is ‘direct hardware monitoring’.
So for example, let's say you have a singer who wants to hear themselves while they are recording. Now, if you were to take the foldback signal coming through your computer, the singer would experience a slight delay which is known as latency and this would of course be unworkable, but with the Nanoface direct hardware monitoring feature, there is no delay. To activate this simply double click once you have selected inputs 1 & 2.
Conclusion
So as you can see, the Nanoface is a compact, mobile, easy-to-use audio interface with real power.
You have the capacity to connect a turntable, CD player, mics, a guitar, speakers, keyboards, the list goes on! And all this controlled with just one rotary encoder button.
If you’re considering buying a great sounding, easy to use professional interface, make sure you contact one of our authorised dealers for a Alva Nanoface demo.