Keith McMillen K-MIX (Opinions Thoughts?)

[Claid]

So! I picked up a cheap second-hand K-Mix to use as a means of achieving physical/analogue outputs from the Maschine+ (and Ableton Live, but not at the same time) via USB. Seemed like a great idea, despite the K-Mix’s degraded sticky surface (which I was gonna remove). However, I can only seem to send USB audio into the first two channels, and I can’t understand why… Hoping someone can help me out here because I can’t seem to find the answer online. Trust me, I have searched.

The K-Mix:
I installed the K-Mix Editor (still works on M1 Macbooks, wahey) and with this have updated the K-Mix to the latest firmware, set up the eight tracks as four stereo pairs, set all the (paired) channel levels to 0dB, even made a separate preset that disables all effects on all channels in case those were the problem.

The Maschine+:
I set up the Maschine+ to use the K-Mix as an interface, had sounds playing from the first four Groups and sent the audio of those Groups into K-Mix channels 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8.

Ableton Live:
I set the K-Mix as the interface, configured the Inputs and Outputs as the four stereo pairs and set up four stereo tracks sending to 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8.

The Results:
Despite seemingly setting things up correctly on two separate systems (M+ and Ableton Live), I can only hear audio being played into the K-Mix when said audio is being sent into channels 1/2. If I only play one track from say, Ableton Live, into K-Mix 1/2, I can hear it. When I change that channel to output to K-Mix 3/4, 5/6 or 7/8, there’s nothing but silence.

Is the K-Mix only capable of piping USB audio into tracks 1/2, or is something wrong here? I fully appreciate I may be misunderstanding something fundamental, and/or overlooking something obvious.

[Mistercharlie]

Try the USB pre/post routing options in the K-Mix app. I can’t remember offhand which way they work, but I think that’s the setting you need.

[Diefenbaker]

Let’s see if I can help.

Since the Kmix is an interface, mixer, and control surface, you’re dealing with a collision of mental models. It’s inherently confusing.

I set the K-Mix as the interface, configured the Inputs and Outputs as the four stereo pairs and set up four stereo tracks sending to 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8.

Forget about the faders for a second. The outputs, like the inputs, are physical: 1-2 is your main output, probably hooked up to your monitors or something. The problem is that your configuration above is sending the audio of your Machine/Ableton tracks out of the physical quarter-inch Mains (1,2) AND Aux1, Aux2, and Aux3 (3,4-5,6-7,8). You don’t want that – you’re only going to hear whatever’s being sent to Mains.

Make sure all your tracks are being sent to 1,2 so you can hear the motherfuckers.

The levels of the tracks are being controlled by Ableton/Maschine, not the faders. Kmix is acting strictly as an interface.

Is the K-Mix only capable of piping USB audio into tracks 1/2, or is something wrong here?

You don’t send USB audio into “tracks,” you’re sending audio to outputs, of which there are 10, if you include the headphone jack.

The faders aren’t going to affect USB audio being sent from your Machine or computer, they affect the levels of audio physically plugged into the quarter inch inputs.

UNLESS…

… you want K-mix to act as a midi control surface for your Maschine/Ableton faders. Then you’ve got to also set that up, so the faders are sending midi CC and affecting the software responsible for spitting out the USB audio stream.

[Claid]

Hi, appreciate your help! These are my K-Mix Editor settings:

I’ll be honest - my experience of mixers and their settings is limited, so I am likely to have made a grevious error.

@Diefenbaker

Forget about the faders for a second. The outputs, like the inputs, are physical: 1-2 is your main output, probably hooked up to your monitors or something. The problem is that your configuration above is sending the audio of your Machine/Ableton tracks out of the physical quarter-inch Mains (1,2) AND Aux1, Aux2, and Aux3 (3,4-5,6-7,8). You don’t want that – you’re only going to hear whatever’s being sent to Mains.

… OH! Deary me, I can see where I’ve been going wrong now. I’ve been treating the 1/2 outputs as a master output, assuming they would carry the signal from all the inputs, rather than just the signals sent to the 1/2 inputs. D’oh!

@Diefenbaker

You don’t send USB audio into “tracks,” you’re sending audio to outputs, of which there are 10, if you include the headphone jack.

Excellently put, I think I understand now. This actually works rather well, as I’d intended to send M+ Group 1 (kicks) to 1/2, Group 2 (bass) to 3/4 etc, then send those K-Mix physical outputs to my Clarett interface for multi-track recording in Ableton Live. Sounds like it works exactly as I’d hoped, and frankly I’m stoked!

@Diefenbaker

The faders aren’t going to affect USB audio being sent from your Machine or computer, they affect the levels of audio physically plugged into the quarter inch inputs.

UNLESS…

… you want K-mix to act as a midi control surface for your Maschine/Ableton faders. Then you’ve got to also set that up, so the faders are sending midi CC and affecting the software responsible for spitting out the USB audio stream.

That’s good to know, I didn’t understand why it wasn’t affecting the levels of 1/2. That confusion would have increased had I managed to get the other channels going.

I’m assuming then, that I can ALSO use the physical inputs to pipe audio into the K-Mix tracks? That would be awesome, as I’d be able to get my TR-8S individual outputs to play into the K-Mix tracks of the same group types (kicks/bass etc) and smash everything together for composition in Live.

[Diefenbaker]

@Claid

I’m assuming then, that I can ALSO use the physical inputs to pipe audio into the K-Mix tracks? That would be awesome, as I’d be able to get my TR-8S individual outputs to play into the K-Mix tracks of the same group types (kicks/bass etc) and smash everything together for composition in Live.

You can, but probably not at the same time… not sure about that scenario.

Edit: Aw shit, right, the PRE-POST thing, Your screenshot is telling me that I may have misspoken here:

“You don’t send USB audio into “tracks,” you’re sending audio to outputs, of which there are 10, if you include the headphone jack.”

If your USB OUTPUT (Computer Audio to Mixer) is set to POST, as yours are, then the faders should affect the level of the USB audio coming through. Now I’m confused. I’ve owned this device for 10 years.

[Claid]

@Diefenbaker

You can, but probably not at the same time… not sure about that scenario.

Just tested the mixing of USB and physical inputs - it works!!

Sent the M+ audio to USB K-Mix 1/2 and the TR-8S sending into physical 1/2. Both blended together.

This is a really cool thing, being able to mix USB and physical sources of audio into a single mixer. What a nifty bit of kit.

Now I need to re-read your previous post and figure out how to get audio from the M+ individual groups out of the K-Mix physical outputs 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8. This is the reason I chose the K-Mix - out of all the class-compliant mixers, it’s the only one I could find that seemed to allow for ‘breaking out’ USB-only multitrack devices into the physical realm. I was set on the Allen & Heath PX5 until I realised it sums to a stereo output. Hopefully I haven’t misunderstood the capabilities of the K-Mix.