Can anyone please recommend a mixer which has stereo aux send and returns, plus a few stereo channels. I have my Elektron boxes, and a polysynth - all of which run stereo. Seems a shame to sum them to mono before sending out to external effects that can also take a stereo input.
Why do so few mixers have stereo sends?
I personally Ideally I need 4 or so stereo channels, plus about 16 mono channels for directs outs from the Elektrons another mono synths.
Thanks, Henry
Yeah, this bothers me as well. Often you can use stereo aux channel sends if they’re available and bring the fx back in on another stereo channel, but obviously that uses up inputs.
The Roland MX-1 has a stereo fx send/return (on phono sockets for some reason, but it works fine), but wouldn’t have enough inputs for your needs.
Unfortunately for us, people working outside the box, these tools are missing more and more. I have a mackie vlz with 24 channels and even it doesn’t have returns except for two sends, the rest of four sends I have to bring them back on normal inputs. The maket is missing real studio mixers. Myself I am looking at an A&H Zed of 36 inputs, but at 1800€ still doesn’t have any returns… so, these are the times 
Maybe the hear technologies mixback could be something your looking for. It has some features not present in most mixers for its size afaik and the eqs are 
The mix back seems to have the stereo send returns (in there amongst all those knobs… somewhere!) but doesn’t seem to have any stereo channels.
As far as I can gather, you basically have to have a DJ mixer like the Model 1 or Xone 96 (92, 62 etc) for stereo send / return. But then you don’t have any mono ins, so I guess you’d also need a summing mixer for them and some wacky routing to use the send/returns. All rather messy
The Tascam Model 24 looks nice, but only has mono send
Xone mixers are nice, and very useable for having a quick jam - Xone 96 is top of my list at the moment. BUT you’ve not got many channels to play with - you soon run out
Many (perhaps most?) FX units sum to mono internally even if they output stereo. Might be worth checking on this before getting too hung up on stereo FX sends. (I was, I did, and I recovered.)
Yeah, I have the OTO machines boxes, and they’re all stereo I believe. Alternatively would like to use the Eventide H9, and that’s stereo also. If I have a synth that’s already stereo coming in I don’t want to lose that width.
Cheers
it’s common to bring back FX on input channels. Mix engineers do this because then the channels can be automated as well as EQ’d etc. and also you can add FX to your FX. a big mixer in a studio has lot’s of sends and if they run out of sends they just use the busses as sends and bring those back on input channels. i guess when a console has 8 sends 50+ channels, 24 busses etc then there’s plenty of ways to send tracks to outboard FX. in the years i worked at a commercial recording studio i never saw one engineer use the aux returns to bring FX back into the console when mixing.
my mackie has 6 sends and it also has 4 busses. if i need more sends i use the busses and either bring back the returns to othe rinput channels or i monitor through the computer and bring those FX outputs back to AD channels in my interface along w/all the other channels i’m recording.
i mix in the box though… and use the mackie for tracking.
oh, also, typically sends are mono on mono channels… if you are sending a mono track to stereo FX processor you just use 2 sends.
I can recommend the tascam model 24. It has 5 stereo inputs and 12 mono inputs. I use it with several stereo and mono sound sources and additional fx. It also has a built-in SD-Recorder and works as a 24/22 audio interface. Works perfect for my setup.
I use the sub out as stereo send.
Oh, and the Zoom Livetrak has 5 (L-12) and 6(L-20) Stereo aux sends, but only 2 stereo inputs.
I have a Mackie 1642vlz4 and use the 2 stereo busses as sends. I m also frustrated by not having more of them available.
Besides, i expect some people to come on here and propose the A&H Qu Pac as digital alternative that doens t have such limitations, but of course there s other trade offs.
Does the Tascam have aux in channels, or do you use the main channel strips?
Would like an analogue really, rather than the A&H digital - some good suggestions tho
No, their are no aux returns. You have to use the 22 main channels for returning the signal. The 2 aux mono sends are meant as monitor outs for the musicians while recording. That’s why theirs no dedicated return of this signals. It’s mainly meant to be a recording mixer for bands. But that really doesn’t hold me back from using it to record and mix my jams with it.
Of course, it could have had more of everything. More channels, more routing possibilities, But, thinking more “Live playing” the last time, I noticed, I really can’t handle to much sound sources and possibilities at once. So I have connected my 4 main toys (AR, A4, OT, DN) directly to the tascam and other things I don’t use that often are connected to my old mixer, which also occupies a channel on the tascam (or more if I want). And theirs still space on the tascam to make some fx returns.
Radial Key Largo does, but not enough channels.
Oh, maybe important to know, the onbord effect section, hm… hard to describe, don’t expect magic.
Montego? 
Ooh, I wanna mix down in Kokomo
We’ll EQ fast and then we’ll mix it slow…