Every great bit of tunes came from a jam butty at home : )
Amazing to read. Im on the fence of buying the Xone for my synths. Or the BiG SiX. Maybe the Xcelon SL, all is the same price
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I think the Xelcon is great for its portability - the XONE 96 is great because of the buildin sound cards, it makes recording stuff a lot easier, Also you can integrate it directly with DJ software.
For me it comes down to: will you gig with it, get the Xelcon, Studio use: Xone. Depends if you have people help moving your stuff around, or if you travel solo to your gig.
Amen brother!
Im not gig, only studio use and sounddesign in studio. I will not move it.
I’m deciding between Big six and Xone, i think i’m leaning against the B6 but i don’t know, xone feels more performative. I’m a bit worried though with the sound cards that it will be outdated in couple of years and unsupported firmware
In mac it uses the standard driver, in windows there is a specific asio driver. I also had to throw away an audio interface once because windows driver change - generally A&H seems to be supporting over a long period of time.
someone did some custom drivers for some A&H models, which were propiertary
Amazing post. Very helpful. Has me thinking about the QU for sure. Also was looking at some old Yamaha 02rs since I like the 90s gear at the budget prices but I also realize that can come with its own headaches. The fact that you had pretty much the the exact same setup as me with the RME and some expansions and replaced it all with the Qu is very compelling.
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for me a mixer is mostly for routing, sends to FX, and monitoring when putting things together. i multi track everything usually and then once it’s in the box it stays in the box. so, having a good sounding mixer or one that is transparent and has a decent EQ or some filters is useful. i get the sounds as right as possible at the source and then when mixing in the box can clean up anything that bothers me or do further processing etc.
it’s rare that i mix on my mixer unless i’m jamming w/a friend and we’re committing to the performance. so, i still have a mackie onyx 1640i that i only use as an analog thing… never used the FW stuff in it because i have good converters already and FW obviously is long dead… it’s fine for my purposes and is mostly out of the way sonically but having something better would be cool… it’s not keeping me up at night though 
i wish i still had my calrec minimixer but had to sell it when things were tight… everything sounded amazing through that little mixer. curse me for selling it. it was right in the middle between clean and colored. had lundahl transformers which sit just right for me
if you ever see one… buy it if you can.
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This is very relatable to my own mixer journey.
I’ve never found one mixer to do everything that I want. (Well, not in the last 10 years, at least… I had large-format mixers from 1998 till 2018 that were the centrepiece of my studio and did fine.)
So, for my latest setup, I have (only…) 4 mixers;
1010 Bluebox - (receives my 6 synths and outputs to 2 stereo channels on the MixWizard)
A&H MixWizard 20:8:2 - (receives the Bluebox and my other ‘sources’, mics, guitar amp (via UA Ox), and has Aux FX set up for delay/reverb… I also have Send 2 of the Xone 96 coming in so I can process and resample)
A&H Xone 96 - (my main mixer hub receives the MW, Maschine Plus, SP404, RC505, Tascam 424mk2, turntable, RME UFX II… and I can send anything to anything else, SP404 to Tascam, Tascam to Maschine Plus, etc).
RME UFX II/Totalmix - (end of chain mixer, can capture/send anything in and out of Ableton, plus I have my Neve 1073’s as ins and outs to it).
Also, I have a Ferrofish Pulse 16 underneath the MixWizard that receives the MW’s 4 stereo buss/grp sends and this goes direct to the RME’s ADAT I/O… so I can record any of the MW sources straight into Ableton at any point too.
It might seem excessive (…I don’t know, does it??), but I’ve configured set up this to be modular and let me focus on playing (both music and being playful/fun).
TLDR, personally, I like using multiple mixers/submixers, for specific tasks.
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From the linked SoS article:
“ Every instrument-level channel (Hi Gain and Unity inputs) on the device can be switched between Stereo and Mono + Thru modes. When using the latter, the second socket is used to pass the channel’s signal on to any external destination — an amp, outboard processor, front-of-house desk and so on.”
If you’re struggling to understand the workflow of the mixer, the website details a lot of the features.
Well I managed to get a 24 channel lx7ii for like $280. Having it shipped to where I’m headed to next so I’ll test it out in a week or so. Routing. Is about perfect for what i want to do with it.
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Doesn’t look like this has been posted here yet, but Korg 8XR spotted in the wild. I really want to get my hands on the 12XR.
Edit: you can’t really tell from the thumbnail but this is one of the two as of yet unreleased Korg mixers which have been posted about in this thread. They first popped up at Namm or Superbooth (can’t remember) in 2024. Looks like a smaller version of their current digital mixers, maybe closer to the Zero4/Zero8 hybrid DJ mixers from the mid 00s (with a three band isolator on the master it seems).
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Scary price-wise but I like it. A Four device setup with 1 stereo FX send, onboard FX in the mixer that sound nice in the demos and a master insert. 3 band eq per channel and 3 band master isolators. Rupert Neve transformers on the output and a fancy visual sound spectrum on the display. Neat size too.
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So I’m about to let my BiG SiX go and I could use some input from people who actually know mixers, because I don’t.
The reason is simple: I’ve run out of space on it. My setup is an AlphaBase (8 mono outs + 1 stereo) and a Virus (1 mono + 2 stereo), so that’s 15 channels wanting their own strip and their own EQ. The BiG SiX gives me 8. It does have the Mix B bus, which is genuinely useful, but it’s not the same as having proper subgroups with inserts.
The other thing is that I’m completely dawless. I record my tracks live, playing the faders as I go — bringing a hat in slowly, dropping a part out, riding levels. That’s the performance. So the USB interface on the BiG SiX, which is a big chunk of what you’re paying for, just sits there doing nothing.
Sound quality is what matters most to me. Before the SSL I had a Mackie 1642 and it ticked a lot of boxes on paper, but I really didn’t like how it sounded — that’s exactly the mistake I don’t want to repeat. The SSL was incredible in that department and I don’t want to drop a level.
Three things on my list so far.
The APB-DynaSonics ProRack House H1020 ticks literally every box — 16 channels, 6 auxes with a switchable stereo pair, 4 subgroups, 100mm faders, sweepable high-pass on every channel, and the EQ comes from their Spectra studio console. Everything plugs in without compromise. Downside is the price: I can get one for around 3500€, which is real money.
The Midas Venice 160 is the tempting one at around 1000€. Reputation is excellent, but it’s a 20 year old desk, only 8 mono channels, 60mm faders, and no stereo aux. I’d need a patchbay to make my setup fit properly. Is that reputation actually deserved or is it just nostalgia? And how would it stack up against the SSL sonically? That’s the part I genuinely can’t judge.
The A&H MixWizard WZ4 14:4:2 is the cheap option, but only 2 stereo channels really hurts with my gear, and I’ve read it sounds a bit thin next to a Venice.
So — anyone here running a Venice or an APB with a machine setup? And more importantly, are there desks I’m not even aware of that I should be looking at? Compact-ish (no room for a full studio console), analog, around 16 channels, good EQ, subgroups with inserts, and ideally a stereo aux since most of my sources are stereo.
Any real-world experience appreciated before I commit to something.
This is why I passed on the big 6. I have drum machines, Alphabase and Virus TI also being in my collection and they eat a lot of I/O plus I want the flexibility to be able to mute them on the fly with faders since performing on an alphabase can be tricky unless you practice a ton.
I was looking at a Venice, but they are older and can be pretty costly, so I managed to get a Soundcraft Lx7ii which is 24 inputs and has good routing flexibility. I like the sound of Soundcraft mixers. It’s another good option to look at. 24 ins is enough for me to dedicate 6 or so channels to sending busses out of the DAW and summing in the mixer if I want to.
The main thing is a patch bay makes life a lot easier with drum machines, You can mix and match different machines and do all kinds of stuff when you can patch in.
thx for your response ! thats kinds, but this soundcraft is wayyyyyy too big 
Do you typically use more than 8 channels at once? If not, than a patchbay might be the simplest and cheapest solution to your problem.
Yes, because my approach to music is really live-oriented. I often switch from one track to another to make my performance evolve. Repatching isn’t an option. That said, I’m not against compromises either.
Well the much discussed Xcelon SL (coming this fall) or a pair of Intellijel Jellymix’s might suit you well. See lots of discussion upthread…
yeah but the xcelon have only 8 channel no ? like the big six
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