Thinking about buying a Mackie 1604 and trying to get my head around the routing options. I don’t have a whole lot of synths but if I want to I’d need a mixer. First reason I opted for a mixer is the fact that the analog signal from the AR gets flattened when i feed it directly to the OT. Still I like to be able to sample and loop the output of the AR live into the OT. I also have a Heat that I for now intend to use as an aux send/return. As of now I imagine I’d be able to use the 1-2 and 3-4 Auxes for sending to the Heat for distortion and to the OT for looping. Would I also be able to send the wet return of the Heat to the OT?
Would you be able to wing it using a TLA Fat track? I’ve been eyeing this one many times but now have a bit too much gear (or at least individual outs) to make it work. Still lusting for that warm tube sound :).
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Those have pipped my interest a few times too, but for the same reasons as you say, and not enough channels to buy one.
I definitely think there is a gap in the market for a synth mixer, plenty of stereo channels, not too big, performance focussed, and creative eq/character possibilities.
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Do you know of one that is available?
Unfortunately not - saw one here in Sweden a couple of months back but it seems to be gone now. Think it was priced around €700.
Thanks, I was curious how much these would go for now.
If one is available for a bargain I might even seriously consider it…
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I just recently got a 1604. The routing options are great, I use the sub groups to send stuff to my octa because you can retain stereo field that way. I then rout the octa back to a free channel on the mixer. Also using sub groups allows me to say, cut my digitone from the main mix and only send it to the octa for thru processing back into the mixer.
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I’m eyeing this up. It’s got configurable low cuts and a master bus limiter/compressor, and it looks like it was lifted from a soviet powerstation. Don’t know anything about the mixer, but apparently they’re up there with vintage SSLs for quality and character
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And I’m also eyeing up the mixer Floating Points uses, but I can’t find a retailer anywhere so no idea how much they cost. It may be small-car territory 
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Starts at $15k. You can download the price guide on their website.
crosses sonosax off list
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These are great location mixers with excellent pres. Pretty good price too…
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and that’s just the FP live mixer. his studio mixer is an API 1608:
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So I’m eyeing a 1202 right now because the offer for the 1604 unfortunately didn’t happen. I think I’m gonna be able to do what I want with it as well and is much more compact what would be of advantage. My plan is to route the AR, DN and the OT on a separate stereo channels (the mixer has 4 of those). The Mute option on the 1202 routs the inputs through an alternative of the 2 main outputs namely 3 and 4. I intend to take the output from 3-4 and feed it to the OT. This way i could freely use the OTs FX and ofcourse be able to loop the sequence of all the other synths. My problem was how would i be able to monitor the OT’s other channels before puting them in the mix but I came to an easy sollution - I’ll connect the cue outs or the headphone outs from the octa to the tape inputs of the pult. This way I’ll be always able to hear the cued channels before integrating them in the mix. I think I understand now how the mixing console is working and I think this one’s gonna be enough for my setup but If you find any flaws in my logic please do tell.
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I ended up getting an Allen & Heath GS1 on eBay. Will post up some pictures when it arrives. Does anyone have any experience with these?
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If you bring the Octatrack’s CUE outs into the Mackie’s Tape In, you won’t have control over the volume (on the mixer), nor can you send them to the Mackie’s FX loops.
If you have 4 stereo inputs, why not use two of those for the Octatrack (one for MAIN, one for CUE), and the others for the AR and DN?
Not saying your way won’t work. Just that it might not be the most flexible options.
And the 1202 is great btw. I love mine!
Never heard of that one before. It looks awesome for the size. Please come with some experiences when you have had some time with it. 
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A bit tired right now and can’t really figure out how and why would I use a second channel for the cue outs. I put the headphones out to the tape in and I use it to hear whats going on on the cued OT tracks before I mix them in by unqueuing them.
Ah because many people use the cue out as an fx send