KVR Audio

ni-cad · Post by **ni-cad** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:03 am

What would be a good mixer for a home studio that's mostly sampler/synth based?

My set up has no mic's at all in fact and only three mono instruments, everything else I use outputs stereo line level signals, synths & samplers etc. . I would like to mix around 16 (stereo) line signals but I've found that most of the newer digital mixing desks aren't built to accommodate stereo so much, most of them featuring mainly mono channel strips, for example the new Presonus Studiolive has 24 channels (all mono) this would only allow me to run 12 of the stereo channels from my samplers and synths, I'd find it hard to justify nearly £3000 on just 12 channels no matter how good the desk is, so I'm looking for something perhaps better suited for this kind of work.

I'm unfamiliar with the current digital mixers. I need to mixdown an AkaiS6000, an E-mu Esi-4000, an access Virus, an acoustic bass and a couple of mono synths, around 34 channels mono, I would be happy with something that gave me between 16 - 24 (stereo) channel strips.

I also don't like having to use two channel strips to accommodate a single stereo signal, it seems like a waste of faders and considering how much digital mixers cost these days I really think it's a dumb way to mix stereo. On top of that it doesn't seem like it would be all that good for work flow to always have to adjust two faders where you only need one.

I would appreciate any suggestions for any new or old/Analogue or digital mixers that might suite these kinds of mixing tasks, perhaps even a multi track recorder might be a better way to go, what do you think?

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:24 am

Check out the Speck x.sum. Xtramix may be overkill and way too expensive (~$4300 new), but it sure is awesome. If you need eq, etc, you may like a Mackie LM-3204 (discontinued and hard to find though).
I agree that the situation is really crappy. No more than a few stereo channels in mixers, especially digital ones. Tough.

JackD · Post by **JackD** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:30 am

I wanted a Speck, but couldn't afford it. So I settled for an Ashley LX308B. No aux sends, but it's really very quiet.

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:34 am

JackD wrote:I wanted a Speck, but couldn't afford it. So I settled for an Ashley LX308B. No aux sends, but it's really very quiet.

It does look good, but 8 stereo channels. Too bad they don't have a unit with more.

JackD · Post by **JackD** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:48 am

Shy wrote:It does look good, but 8 stereo channels. Too bad they don't have a unit with more.

I hear what you saying, but 8 stereo ins, is the same as 16 mono ins, on some mixers. There is a stereo submix in and out, on the back, for chaining 2 or more together. I think you could chain 2 without any increase in noise. I've also owned a small Yamaha mixer (some time ago) that was pretty quiet. I returned a 20 channel Behringer once, that sounded shrill.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 3:46 am

It's too bad the Alesis MultiMix 12R doesn't have all stereo channels (only two are stereo), that'd make a cool 20-channel mixer. Anyway, it and the MultiMix 8 might be worth looking at:

http://www.alesis.com/multimix12r
http://www.alesis.com/multimix8line

An entirely different sort of solution would be to get something like a MOTU 828 or Lynx Aurora and control their built-in mixers with a midi controller.

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:14 am

it's an issue if you want individual faders, pre, eq and sends per channel. you could probably build a tree of a few 8 channel. the main issue is keeping the noise down.. but it should be easier to have for example four sets of eight into a fifth with the four leftovers on the root.

if you just want to rough-mix groups of instruments though you could also either build your own (or, i'm not sure if these exist) find some mixer that just direct mixes using a single dual opamp. since you don't need the preamps that might be the best way to go. also, each device has an individual source level built into it meaning you shouldn't need to scale anything at the mixer itself.

with 20k inputs you should get 16 channels pretty easy per opamp pair.. so you'd need one low-noise quad opamp, lots of sockets and some resistors maybe for about $100 to do the whole thing.

there doesn't seem to be anything that i've ever seen at least designed for this specific problem. it's either thousands of dollars for full featured consoles with 32+ channels, or tiny featureless consoles with very few channels.

you could also add pots to level/pan the inputs, but hopefully that isn't needed.

you could possibly re-purpose a patch-bay for this if all you wanted to do was mix-down the already scaled stereo channels.

What would be a good mixer for me?