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Rayovac
Advanced Member
United States
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 Posted - 2009/07/17 : 17:08:16
What's a good mixer you would recommend for a bedroom studio, that also won't break the bank? I've found a few myself but I was wondering what other people thought.
I hope this isn't too dumb of a question. ._.
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Hard2Get
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 2009/07/17 : 17:13:47
The best mixer you can get while being cheap is probably the Mackie VLZ SR 24-4, you can get it for under 500 second hand. As the name states, it has 24 channels and 4 stereo bus's which is plenty to start with.
You can however get lower quality mixers new for under 500 too. Either way it's not going to get any cheaper than that really. Infact for a 24 channel mixer that is cheap.
The problem is though that if you are going to get a 24 chan mixer to use with Cubase or whatever, you also a sound card (or several sound cards) that has 24 in's and out's otherwise the 24 channels will go to waste :P Let's say you had an M-Audio 10/10, youd need 4 of those just to accommodate the mixer, so naturally this is the most expensive part of it all.
Why would it be a dumb question anyway?
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Edited by - Hard2Get on 2009/07/17 17:21:35 |
Rayovac
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Posted - 2009/07/17 : 18:12:14
quote:
Originally posted by Hard2Get:
The best mixer you can get while being cheap is probably the Mackie VLZ SR 24-4, you can get it for under 500 second hand. As the name states, it has 24 channels and 4 stereo bus's which is plenty to start with.
You can however get lower quality mixers new for under 500 too. Either way it's not going to get any cheaper than that really. Infact for a 24 channel mixer that is cheap.
The problem is though that if you are going to get a 24 chan mixer to use with Cubase or whatever, you also a sound card (or several sound cards) that has 24 in's and out's otherwise the 24 channels will go to waste :P Let's say you had an M-Audio 10/10, youd need 4 of those just to accommodate the mixer, so naturally this is the most expensive part of it all.
Good lord that mixer is huge. D:
My 1010LT card has 8 outputs on the analog side. I should note that equipment I plan on having in the future is a Presonus Firebox (I currently have a Firepod, although it's borrowed), and two Roland DS50A monitors (which will probably end up connected to the digital outputs from my 1010LT).
Maybe I don't even need a mixer?
quote:
Originally posted by Hard2Get:
Why would it be a dumb question anyway?
It seems like everywhere else I ask questions like these, everyone starts calling me an idiot or such.
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Hard2Get
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Posted - 2009/07/17 : 20:08:03
It's tiny compared to what i've worked with! Anyway i have some experiance with the mixer i mentioned too and it's a very solid mixer for the price, you can't go wrong with Mackie. Are you planning on expanding your outputs past 8? If not then you may aswell get a decent 8 channel mixer. The only prob with this ammount of outputs is that you will only be able to mix 4 stereo signals at once (or 8 mono, or any combination of mono and stereo you can think of) on the console itself.
I'm not going to argue with that though, i think it's a great deal more fun experimenting with analogue mixing no matter how many channels you get! If you do plan on eventually expanding the studio so it's fully outboard then this is a good starting point practice wise, also you don't sacrifice a mass of money in the process.
quote:
It seems like everywhere else I ask questions like these, everyone starts calling me an idiot or such.
That's because they are retards. Seriously.
To answer your question 'Maybe i don't even need a mixer?', no you don't, technically. Most people in Hardcore mix digitally (unfortunately) so it's not a problem to do it that way, but it hardly sounds as good as analogue mixing (in my opinion).
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Edited by - Hard2Get on 2009/07/17 20:12:50 |
DJ_FunDaBounce
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Colombia
2,009 posts
Joined: Nov, 2001
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Posted - 2009/07/17 : 20:09:18
This is what I use...
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Mackie-1202-VLZ3-Premium-12-Channel-Compact-Mixer-104203823-i1172627.gc
pretty good for the price AND new. 12 inputs but you only get 4 simultaneous outputs though. If you're looking for something with good preamps to record and control monitor and headphone levels this one should do.
or this...
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Mackie-802-VLZ3-Compact-Mixer-104806948-i1391874.gc
8 channels but you still get the 4 outputs as I mentioned and pretty much handles monitoring as the one linked above.
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Rayovac
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Posted - 2009/07/18 : 19:14:37
quote:
Originally posted by Hard2Get:
It's tiny compared to what i've worked with! Anyway i have some experiance with the mixer i mentioned too and it's a very solid mixer for the price, you can't go wrong with Mackie. Are you planning on expanding your outputs past 8? If not then you may aswell get a decent 8 channel mixer. The only prob with this ammount of outputs is that you will only be able to mix 4 stereo signals at once (or 8 mono, or any combination of mono and stereo you can think of) on the console itself.
I'm not going to argue with that though, i think it's a great deal more fun experimenting with analogue mixing no matter how many channels you get! If you do plan on eventually expanding the studio so it's fully outboard then this is a good starting point practice wise, also you don't sacrifice a mass of money in the process.
quote:
It seems like everywhere else I ask questions like these, everyone starts calling me an idiot or such.
That's because they are retards. Seriously.
To answer your question 'Maybe i don't even need a mixer?', no you don't, technically. Most people in Hardcore mix digitally (unfortunately) so it's not a problem to do it that way, but it hardly sounds as good as analogue mixing (in my opinion).
I've seen (but not used) some pretty big mixers too. The department at the University of Arkansas where my dad works at used to have a mixer that was almost three body lengths long... last I heard it got removed when they switched from OS X to a combination of Windows and Linux systems (And in the process ditched Media 100). But it was HUGE.
Back on topic, the mixers FunDaBounce linked to look perfect for what I want actually. How exactly would this work out with Cubase and Friends anyway?
Thanks for the advice Hard2Get and FunDaBounce.
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DJ_FunDaBounce
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Colombia
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Posted - 2009/07/18 : 21:58:48
quote:
Originally posted by C Cell:
How exactly would this work out with Cubase and Friends anyway?
Thanks for the advice Hard2Get and FunDaBounce.
you're welcome C Cell. ;)
The way I have mine set up is pretty basic. I use the last stereo strip for inputing the stereo out of my sound card. That way I can monitor through headphones. The main outs are for my monitors. The Alt 3/4 out is what I use to send any signals like mics/turntables for exmpl. to the inputs of the sound card.
Basic.
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Hard2Get
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 2009/07/19 : 17:32:21
There is quite alot of ways of routing signals in and out of mixers. The general method though is to run the outputs of the sound card parallel to the mixer's channels. So you'd plug out 1-8 into channels 1 to 8. Make sure that on any stereo pairs (i'm guessing you'd chan 1-2 for the main output) are panned fully left and right (1 left and 2 right) otherwise the resulting sound will be mono.
You may aswell plug all 8 channels of the sound card into your mixer since you have them, that way you can also mess around with sending an instrument or 2 to the mixer and create a small sub mix. You wouldn't be able to mix a whole track this way but you could send some drums into the mixer and you could get around 6 things (since drums are mono anyway) going on in the sub mix; maybe a drum loop or something like that. You could then send that sub mix as a single stereo pair back to the computer through the bus channels.
For monitors/speakers/amps there should be a monitor output, but it dosn't make that much difference which stereo outputs you use, the main output would be fine as mentioned. The only difference is some outputs have more controls than others.
This is just for mixers in general though, FunDaBounce's comments are specific to the mixer mentioned.
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Edited by - Hard2Get on 2009/07/19 17:34:34 |
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