Muff's Modules & More

Chopper28

I've spent the last few years slowly building my modular, as time and finances allow. Now sitting at around 30 5u modules. This is for the home 'studio'
It is almost exclusively Oakley, and as a professional electronics engineer, I cannot speak highly enough of Tony Allgood's designs. Superb in every respect.
And yet, and yet.... I have always felt there is something missing. There is no real 'fatness', no well defined timbres. All a bit, er, mushy. At age 55 I have to put it down to my hearing, especially since I have worked in very noisy environments. Why do I bother?
And then today, just out of interest, I bypassed everything and fed the synth straight into my KRK VXT6 speakers.....
Oh my God! Even with just a couple of oscillators and a mixer, I got a couple of timbres that got the hairs on the back of the neck standing up eek!

Now I always knew that the Behringer 1604A mixer wasn't cutting edge, but assumed that a low noise level was basically what mattered. Seems not...
But I do want an analogue mixer, possibly with audio interface. I still prefer physical controls to doing it all in software.
So, suggestions please. Mixer, audio quality much more important than effects or features likely to be unused. Maybe with audio interface to the Mac. Budget: £300 - $500 ish.

Thanks in anticipation.

Malcolm

sascha.victoria · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 2:31 pm Post subject:

With all the DIY stuff out there you'd think someone would put together a quality DIY mixer project. Maybe it exists and I'm not aware of it?

jonah · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:34 pm Post subject:

You may want to look into passive summing mixers. They shouldn't change the sound quality. If did want to build your own, it is one of the simplest projects although the wiring can get into bird's nest territory.

mumblinstevedubya · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:46 pm Post subject:

Hi Malcolm,

It all depends what you want to do with the mixer.

Mackie 1202vlz is a good little mixer or the SM Pro audio PM8?

I am slowly building up a modular, like yourself it is all Oakley, this is going directly into an RME Fireface 400 and out to my monitors. Sounds pretty good to me. nanners

The RME is primarily an interface into my Mac but can be used as a standalone unit.

Hope that helps some

Steve

fac · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:54 pm Post subject:

I have a couple of Mackie 1202 VLZs and they've served me well. I can also recommend the Allen & Heath ZED-14, which has an in-built USB audio interface (only 16-bit, though).

matttech · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:40 pm Post subject:

+1 on Mackie mixers. the Onyx preamps found in a lot of them were indistinguishable from boutique, expensive ones in a blind shootout on Gearslutz a while back (much to many folks' annoyance!)

We had a Mackie 24:8:2 desk in our college studio for about 8 years getting abused by students in all sorts of ways, and it survived intact

owen

causticlogic · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 6:23 am Post subject:

Another +1 on Mackie mixers, although Allen&Heath come in at a close second.
I have a 1402-VLZ3 and I've been way happier with that than my Behringer 1604 that i traded in for a partial trade when i got the Mackie.
I was so disappointed in the Behringer that I deliberately avoid their products now.

spinach_pizza · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:18 am Post subject:

I have a Mackie CR-1604 I bought new in 1992, still performs great in every respect. Everything I do is run through this mixer.

chamomileshark · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:19 am Post subject:

I have a second hand Mackie 1604 - old school type thing - seems to sound ok. Not that expensive either.

I've got a couple of Oakley modules built by Paul Dalton in Frac format - nice.

rezzn8r · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 8:45 am Post subject:

I just ditched my Behringer mixer for an A&H ZED10, and I'm very happy with it.

sascha.victoria · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 10:50 am Post subject:

Do you have any gear you could sell to increase your budget? I feel the items mentioned in this thread aren't going to change your sound as much as you'd like to hear.