I’ve been using a Behringer XENYX QX1832USB mixer for my work over the last decade (with a small Allen and Heath Zed 10 as a submixer / live mixer), and was considering an upgrade to something a bit more robust (higher end Allen and Heath, or minimize things with a Jellymix, etc).
While reviewing options I realized this might be the perfect time to jump into a multitrack approach to mixing, but I’m at a loss for what is considered decent within my sub $1.500 price range. Looking around, I mostly see digital styled Tascam mixer/recorder hybrids of dubious quality, but maybe I’m just being cynical? I’ve also never used a digital mixer, and a worried it’ll have a thin quality (irrational fear?).
Would it be better to get a hybrid mixer, recorder, or stick with a solid higher end analog mixer, and just run cables from the channel inserts (half plugged, or modified cable) to a dedicated multitrack? For the cost of a really nice mixer I could get a Jellymix and a 1010music blue box (though I’d also have to get a patchbay and half normal the instrument outs to the multitrack, which feels a bit cheap).
Anyhoo, all of these feel messy… so I thought I’d ask the experts.
I don’t but at some point I was thinking about getting one and watched tons of videos and read lots of reviews and didn’t really see any concerning comments and lots of praises for the sound.
I’m a total Tascam fanboy so there’s that. Some bias for sure.
If I ever get a mixer like that it’ll be that one.
There just isn’t anything else like that on the market afaik.
I love my Qu24.
3 stereo aux + 4 mono are very useful!
Multitrack direct to ssd if you need, or to computer (48 kHz/24 bits).
And motorized faders beg for you to power on the mixer ^^
But it’s big, and I found that I rarely use all the inputs now that I have a solid Samson S-plus patchbay. But it’s very useful to be not lacking, even with 3 friends jamming ^^
I have just got a Zoom L6max and if you don’t need more than 5 stereo at the same time, highly recommend it! floating 32 bits means you can never clip your inputs, and always keep full definition whatever you are recording.
Plus it’s crazy how portable it is.
…like lyingdalai, i can assure u, some 2nd hand qupac digital mixer by allen&heath will get u into studio multitracking and live mixing/recording with good ad/da converters at 48k and solid pre amping for sure with nothing left to miss…defenitly a heavy upgrade to what ur working with right now…
Zoom makes stuff that really doesn’t last all that long. My H6 recorders screen is all white, can’t see shit from it anymore. Also the surface material has become alive, it’s gross.
Also I had a Zoom R24 which had this issue that when you stop recording it freezes and you have to power cycle. When turned on again the recorded material was lost.
I ended it’s miserable life with a hockey stick eventually.
Now this band I go jamming with weekly has that same model and it has that same problem.
Interesting. I have one of their recorders, maybe the H4. It works well enough, and hasn’t flaked out on me, but the boot time is pretty miserable for something made this decade.
Looks like the Tascam or Allen and Heath options are the way to go. Thanks.
It scans the whole SD card, 1s/GB so you’d better use a 4GB card ^^
H6 doesn’t have such problem.
I’ve owned both
Zoom L6Max doesn’t seem to use materials that become sticky, though, and boot time is perfect (I have a 128 GB SDcard inside).
I do think they did a (perfect?) little gig table.
I am a mixer addict, but i think i will get a DAW controller with motor faders, for the analog glue i use decapitator. But that ride the fader part is … fun… so why not make the DAW fun with a cool overlay. Possibly cheaper if your interface has enuogh ports already.
SSL UF8, i personally may go with a midi plus DAW controller. (Also can be stored more easy, takes less space possibly.)
It’s not clear what exactly you’re trying to accomplish but I assume you’re avoiding a computer? Otherwise a multi channel interface with a DAW is the best way to get into multitrack recording.
Typically the reason you would want to track through a mixer is either because you need its mic preamps (I’m guessing you don’t), or you want to track through its EQs. If you took outputs from the channel inserts into a multitrack recorder then the mixer isn’t really doing anything beyond the initial gain stage which you don’t need if your sources are line level outputs. If what you really want is to track through multiple channels of eq, you need to look for a mixer with post-eq direct outs. I think some of the AH mixers let you do a direct out post-eq if you change some internal jumpers.
The Jellymix/Bluebox combo doesn’t make a lot of sense because the bluebox is already a mixer so there’s no need to put the jellymix in front of it, and anyway there are no direct outs and even if there were, a simple tilt eq probably isn’t something you would want to track every instrument through. Tbh in the demo video I thought it sounded kind of bad. Immediately harsh when he turned it to the right and immediately muddy when he turned it to the left.
I have a Tascam Model 12 and it’s fine. Build quality is nice imo. Recording quality is probably equivalent to any budget interface. EQ is digital and it’s also fine but you’re not really getting any magic from it. Don’t know about the bigger analog Tascams though.
Just a quick comment here, I presume the Bluebox is digital, so the Jellymix would offer better saturation, plus the performance features (I also use eurorack; not sure if the Bluebox would accept modular level signals without issue.
You’re correct in your guess that I do not use a computer, but that’s less a philosophic commentary, and more an oversight in my own thinking**; your comment now has me considering a MOTU solution as well (I do own an Ableton license, own Izotope stuff and have a macbook).
That said, another reason I am considering the mixer option is I do not always want to mix in my computer. I prefer hardware mixers, and something compact for live play would be nice as well. If I went MOTU and called it a day, I’d always need to boot my computer to hear the audio stream, right?
** - what I mean is I’m DAWless for production, but am agnostic on using them for mastering / recording.
But the bluebox doesn’t have multiple outputs, just stereo. So you wouldn’t be able to mix your multitrack recordings through the jellymix. And the jellymix doesn’t have direct outs per channel so you can’t use the jellymix as a recording front end for the bluebox. Not sure how they fit together.
Actually I have the M6 and it works standalone as well which is pretty cool. I’m assuming some of the other models can too. It has physical gain controls on the first 4 channels so you can use it as a very basic mixer. It’s not going to be adding any vibe or anything though.
I said how the Jellymix/Blue would work in my initial statement - a small patchbay half normalized. This allows you to split the outputs.
When normalized , the top jacks are wired to the bottom jacks in the patchbay (e.g. Digitakt out to Jellymix channel 1). You break that relationship by plugging cables into the top front slots. When half normalled, this no longer breaks the connection, allowing you to split a signal in two directions (but this can attenuate that signal’s volume marginally).
Sounds like a mixer with direct outs is a simpler and more streamlined solution. There are a lot out there (watch out if its pre post eq comp and so on, sometimes its even switchable), and for example the upcoming from boredbrain got ones too.
