I believe it’s mono cable in sync throws things out of whack. That’s why the volcas come with the 1/8 trs to 1/8 trs cable to use for syncing. Using strictly a mono cable on the headphone jack of the volcas it causes only half of the signal to be sent resulting in the low volume problem people have because the volcas send a split mono signal. This is so the headphone jack can double as a mono output.
Yeah 93-95 was when I was on there, used to love his show and Colin Faver’s (RIP) too, actually thinking about it it was Colin Faver who mis-pronounced my name, I think I still have the tapes in my loft, good times.
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Good times for sure, still have loads of tapes too…
Used to rewind the tape if the track wasn’t much cop and then record back over it, editing live!
That was a really exciting time…
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Yeah I actually quite like the look of it. There’s not that much else out there that gives you a send with such a small footprint, unless I’m missing something? Could be a really good tool if you’re playing live but don’t want to bring a proper mixer, which is usually at least double the size. Saves you bringing a compressor too if that’s your bag.
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FWIW the volca FM also does some stereo spread in unison mode, even with chorus turned off. Kind of odd but it does sound nice.
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Fair, but it’s double the price and looks incredibly cramped! Plus if you’re doing a live set that requires 8 channels you probably don’t care much about footprint anyway.
It was not my intent to advocate for the Vixen - merely to answer the question that was posted.
I am pondering the various pros/cons as a multiple Volca owner myself.
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Also fair, thanks for answering and sorry if I came across as combative.
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As far as alternatives, I don’t know if anyone has any feelings either way about the Bastl Dude, but I like mine. It’s mono only, but it’s tiny, runs on batteries, and can provide good boost and even a bit of crunch at higher levels. And it’s cheap but it looks attractive, at least to me. I just hope that fairly soon they offer those passive attachments like the EQs they used in the demo video.
That said, @darenager’s mixer also looks appealing, if it works any better than those passive “ninja star” things from Belkin et al. I bought a couple of said ninja stars and they really do not work well - one of the inputs (I think the PO-12 is particularly hot) always seems to clobber the others, even with the volume all the way down. Also, I like the idea of being able to toggle between stereo and mono operation.
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Yeah, the belkin rockstars are not really useful beyobd summing max two sound sources. Add a thrid sound source and the impedance loads get ridiculous, voulme drops to mickey mouse levels…
I’d say either two of these or one of these plus the new koma elektronik fieldkit /fieldkit fx and you’d be good for some minigear jamz. But I must say I prefer the trimpot+fader method on the fieldkit, much much better for hectic fader moves IME.
If the volca power supply is clean and is important to you, go with the v mix. If not, perhaps the fieldkits or the dude would suit better. And indeed, for simple summing, I bet @darenager ’s summing mixer is a superb candidate.
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Aux in? So this has another (stereo?) channel?
Correct, guess they put it there as a return channel.
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Necroing this old thread as I just got a volca mix for cheap.
Some first impressions:
This thing doesnt look as ugly IRL as in the photos. The faders are larger than I thought and have an acceptable response. The fader stems seem to be of a standard size so swapping the fadercaps to DJ mixer caps seems like it should be possible in theory. Will try this later.
However, whoever designed the electronics on this thing either messed up or had to cut way too much corners. Just plugging in headphones reveals a nasty hum in the signal path, suspecting it has something to do with the PSU and power handling as the sound reminds me alot of the whine that is created by plugging in a USB-volca powercable (was it made by MyVolts? god that was awful). The hum/whine becomes audible already after the 9 o clock position of the mastervol knob. FAIL.
Mute buttons also seem poorly designed. On my ecler, the kill buttons work in a way that depressing the button engages the kill, but only releasing the button when pressed again brings the sound back. This mute button here just reacts to the downpush, making unmuting unnecesarily inaccurate.
Now then, on to the better stuff. I kinda like the compressor on this thing! Its weird and pumps easily but when dialed in moderate amounts, actually makes stuff sound a bit grungier in a way I like.
The filters are also lovely in their crudeness. For some reason, cutting the lows with the filter introduces low end distortion.
At this point I’d rate the volca mix as a 3- / 5. Korg coulda easily made it 4/5 with a bit more attention to details in UI and engineering, bit of a shame…
Will be getting a fieldkit fx at some point now, no doubt. Putting your paws on a tiny mixer like this doesn’t feel all that bad, so why not check em all out and cherry pick the best one 
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Thanks for that - it’s useful to have some honest impressions like these.
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Sure. Just wanted to post my opinions since there is not alot of indepth info about these mini mixers wrt sound quality, handling etc. I think this mini mixer product category is actually cooler in practice than in theory, I was very spectical before I got this one. But now I certainly see appeal in these and intend to look further. These kind of minimixers are a really good pair to “casual” little gizmos like POs, volcas and the like, its bizarre they haven’t really seemed to catch on just yet. I’ve seen more of those lumpy battery powered behringers in rigs where something like this actually might be more appropriate (but as usual YMMV and all that).
Someone needs to come up with a volca mix on steroids, with proper lo/hi filter per channel, trimpots+faders (DJ fader caps pls!), hipass filter on the aux return, clean sound and vibey summing, something like a simple FET-based design…? Price it somewhere in the 300-400 range and make it USB-C power compatible (100W max current oughta be enough? lol) for portable use, heck chuck in one micpre in there while you at it 
If the form factor is tight and UI is spot on, it might do quite well in the markets - there are so many lil portable music box gizmos these days
So how about it elektron? Would look cute next to all those upcoming model:* series units 
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Having spent more time with the mix, its certainly become a keeper for me! I even ordered custom knobs and fader caps for it (need to glue the fader caps in place though, using putty to fill out the stem hole) for better UI feel/handling. The knobs are “0 degrees” D-shafts, so while exotic, not impossible to replace.
Once you accept the fact that it sounds a bit lofi and hasnt tons of headroom, it certainly has its uses
Here’s a volca mix with chroma caps… Maybe I shoulda gone with black knobs and faders?
I wish there was more clearing for the aux send knobs, those are tricky to use fast The redundant mute buttons shoulda been left out from the design, would have left more room for the send knobs…
The new mk II fader caps fit tighter than the mk I’s so not sure I’ll need to glue em on after all… time for a stress test! EDIT: After a slight test, initial feeling are promising. Seems like the mk II fader caps dont fall off in casual use. YMMV for going heavy handed though.
EDIT 2: This board doesnt let me make a new post, adding this here
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Opened the mix up to peek inside and thought I’d share the innards since there is so little info online about these. Its a single PCB affair, two small ribbon cables connect to the speakers.
There’s a peculiar piece of foil paper covering one of the screws next to the rca outputs - this has something to do with grounding?
I was hoping to be able to do something to lessen the whining noise of the master output. Any ideas @darenager ?
First thing I always try is a ground loop isolator, often most of these kind of noise will be cured, if not then it is inherent to the circuit and not much can be done aside from component level mods, and often not worth the hassle especially on smt boards. I’m pretty sure a ground loop isolator will sort it, you can get them from about £10-20 on ebay, amazon etc.
Edit: yes that copper foil is for ground.
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