I am renovating my current setup a bit, because I finally come to the point, where I have to reduce space .
Right now, I am putting all my gear (DT, A4, Microfreak, DB-01) through my DJM850, because this one was just there from my old DJ times, when I needed one. Unfortunately I donāt have the space anymore, to have this big mofo on my desk.
In return, I am getting some rack space, which brought me to the idea to buy a rack mixer.
Now I need your help to find the right one. Got myself a quick overview, but am totally clueless, which ones usually sound good, what else to look out for and so on, since I only bought DJ mixers so far.
So any recommendation receives a warm welcome.
Requirements are, that there should be enough channels for my current gear with a little bit of expandability (may be at least 6 channels?) and, since I really like FX stuff, a send/return would also be awesome.
And are there rack mixers, which have the sockets on the front? I imagine, it is a bit complicated to have to change plugs in the back?
There are plenty of mixers on the market that will do what you want and more in terms of channel count and auxes and busses. It all depends on what you want to spend. There are Behringer mixers thatāll rackmount from prob under Ā£100 and you go from there upwards in terms of price. If youāre happy with second hand then thatās a whole other marketplace too. For instance I was looking at used rack mixers and you can pick up a used Allen & Heath Mix Wizard for silly money in terms of bang for buck.
Allen & Heath ZED and Tascam Model ranges seem like popular small rackmountable desks at the moment. Again it depends what you want to do with the desk too. Some offer multitrack recording/playback over USB while others just offer stereo. If youāre happy without an interface then cool.
Do you mean a mixer with ālong formā channel strips that you can also rack mount, or a 1-5/6u device specifically designed for rack mounting? I was recently looking for the latter and didnāt find an āidealā one. They seem to have gone out of fashion. (I also wasnāt looking very hard because I wasnāt 100% sure I wanted to expand my set-up that way).
The Tascam Models (if you are happy with the long strip format) look really good, thoā.
Samson SM10 and a patch bay. you wonāt have EQ but you will have routing flexibility from both the patch bay and the mixer. and itās more channels than you need now, so you can expand.
I have one and itās great. well worth the price.
Thank you guys for all the answers.
Sorry, I am new to the rack game.
The thing that Bunker mentions (multitrack output via usb) is definitely a thing which should be included. So used to use it of the DJM that I totally forgot, that it is also a feature requirement.
@Octagonist thatās definitely what I mean. And I probably have space for 3u
So with the USB requirements, am I looking for a mixer with built in audio interface? Or is it even possible that such thing doesnāt exist at all. Having a hard time to find a built in USB
@chiasticon the Samson SM10 would be perfect, if it would had USB
Spent this past month getting acquainted with RMEās Totalmix FX, and I couldnāt be more enamored. Digital gain-staging of course is less forgiving than analog, but damn is it ever worth the hassle in my case.
I have the feeling, the rme stuff might be too expensive.
I have the feeling the focusrite scarlett could do, what I need it to, but why has this thing soooooo many outs?
The more I look into this topic the more confused I amā¦
With only 3u available, I donāt think youāre gonna find an analog mixer that does what you want.
Seconding RMEās as an option: (preās, converters and drivers are excellent), if youāre happy mixing and routing in the computer. Once set up, they will also run w/out the computer, and most have a knob or two for parameter setting.
In my case, I was looking for a rack, analog front-end for my RME. That meant direct inserts for passing to the RME, as well as knobs or sliders for levels and, ideally, eq. I wanted to spend less time with software, because I code all day. And this was before Covid lockdown & working from home. I couldnāt find a device that suited all my needs and pocket. There may be such a thing out there. I may even have rejected it for some arbitrary reason. In the end I went totally the other way: sold my RME with some other gear, and got an OT and ARmkii. The OT is my mixer, the AR my interface, as well as their roles as noise makers. Iām really enjoying this, but itās not for everyone.
Have you thought about just having an interface and no dedicated mixer? You could get a
Focusrire or similar with front panel level controls. I used to use a Liquid56 for thar purpose but there are others out there. That way you get the multitracking albeit with a reduced set of front panel mixer controls. Maybe enough for your needs tho? The L56 was pretty flexible in terms of routing, itās all set up in their mix control software
Something else, re: RME ā you can internally loopback sub-mixes to an unused input for either recording or VST processing. If the latter, you can then pull the output of that processing chain back into Totalmix via the software playback inputs (same number as hardware inputs) to then mix to outputs and do all over again ad nauseum.
Also, you donāt need to have a connected ADAT or MADI expansion to take advantage of those inputs as loopback sources in Totalmix.
All of ^this is midi and osc controllable. This means one could pair it with Max MSP and set up pattrstorage preset interpolation with nodes to morph through mix states.
@Bunker with my research just now, I am thinking more and more that the Focusrite Scarlett would do the job.
Few newbie-questions on that:
I would be able to use it also without my computer switched on, so I just have the audio either on my monitors or my headphones, right?
Regarding my instruments with stereo-out, I just use them on two line ins (L&R) and they still sound stereo?
Why has this thing so many outs? What would they be used for?
Yeah I think with the bigger focusrites you can set them up as standalone. Never tried with my L56. Iād check out a couple of reviews just to make sure itāll do what you want. As I say, itās not something I ever set mine up t do so I canāt guarantee itāll do what you want.
The number of outputs is so you can bring 8 individual streams of audio out for f the interface and back into a desk at mixdown or for other routing purposes. The focusrite are pretty flexible in that regard. For your stereo pair inputs any pair of inputs will do the job, just pan one hard left and the other hard right on the focusrite. That will preserve your stereo image.
@chiasticon yeah sorry, since the DJM850 just has it by default, I did not think about that other micers cannot connect via USB and give out various channels.
Right now, I think I will go for the Focusrite18i20.
As far as I see it, it can also be operated without a USB connection to the PC and just give out the aufio on the headphones and monitors. (In case I am wrong and this is not possible, please save me from doing a mistake ). That is a big must have because I love on my setup that there is no must for turning on the PC.
Thanks to all of you for your help! It definitely steered me in the right direction!
Ps.: @chiasticon I like how you deal with that and AR and OT are definitely on the list, but they are just a little big to expensive at the moment to solve my issue
As I said, do a bit of research on YouTube/web and make sure you can work fully standalone. Iāve not got the 18i20 and never did it with my L56. You donāt want to spend that money if it wonāt do it.
If you want to be able to have the USB recording AND being able to play without the computer sometimes (and if you donāt need that much outs), go for a Zoom Livetrak.
Youāll have the sends you want, usb rec, front plugs, itās a real mixer and itās 19" rack mountable. Itās pretty much a mixer and an audio interface at the same time. Had one, loved it.
The Focusrite is just great tho, had a small one as well before my hardware setup went nuts.
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