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Adding an analog mixer to the sound path?
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| Stephen Wiley |
So I've been snooping around on eBay, and it appears you can find analog mixers for a very cheap price. Probably costs more to ship them than the actual mixer itself in some cases. Obviously these things can't be very good, but on to my question :)
There are many who run tracks through outboard gear for various reasons. What about running sounds through an analog mixer to try and recreate an analog sound? You see so many people and so many companies talking about how "analog sounding" their products are. Well if hardly costs anything, why not just run the damn thing through a true analog unit to create the feel? It's not like it's expensive or anything.
So has anybody experimented with this? Are there any recommended analog mixers to get and any stay away from? Is a cheap analog mixer fine, or are there specific (more expensive) analog mixers that will do a better job of creating an "analog" sound. I know all of this is subjective, which is why I'm asking for opinions.
So......? |
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| Existo22 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stephen Wiley
So I've been snooping around on eBay, and it appears you can find analog mixers for a very cheap price. Probably costs more to ship them than the actual mixer itself in some cases. Obviously these things can't be very good, but on to my question :)
There are many who run tracks through outboard gear for various reasons. What about running sounds through an analog mixer to try and recreate an analog sound? You see so many people and so many companies talking about how "analog sounding" their products are. Well if hardly costs anything, why not just run the damn thing through a true analog unit to create the feel? It's not like it's expensive or anything.
So has anybody experimented with this? Are there any recommended analog mixers to get and any stay away from? Is a cheap analog mixer fine, or are there specific (more expensive) analog mixers that will do a better job of creating an "analog" sound. I know all of this is subjective, which is why I'm asking for opinions.
So......? |
Check your pms for suggestions.
BTW I just saw you PM and will reply to you about this :) |
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| Stephen Wiley |
| Thanks a ton for the suggestions. I'm still wondering though if doing something like this is worth while. |
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| Existo22 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stephen Wiley
Thanks a ton for the suggestions. I'm still wondering though if doing something like this is worth while. |
Well it depends on what you are after.
Do you plan to add hardware to your studio anytime in the future?
Do you plan on adding outboard processors to you set-up?
For example outboard analog compressors.
If so a mixer would be the way to go.
What is cool about analog mixers and processors in general is that you can overdrive the signal and not get any nasty digital artifacts.
I mean you will still get distortion if you really push things but that just works woders on some sources. Listen to all those 90's trance records with overdriven 909 kicks ;)
The summing algorithms have ways to go and that is just my opinion I don't mean to start an analog vs digital debate.
The moment I pluged in my mixer from ebay and ran my drums through it with the logic faders at zero it became apparent what I had been missing.
Keep in mind you will need decent converters with stand alone converter chips to bring some of the sounds out and a high quality ad converter or a good two track recorder like a alesis masterlink to record the final mix.
You can also mix some channels on the mixer and submix some other sounds in the DAW and bring out a stereo stem on two channels with the panning set Left and right
So experiment. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stephen Wiley
Well if hardly costs anything, why not just run the damn thing through a true analog unit to create the feel? It's not like it's expensive or anything. |
I would caution against this attitude ("it's cheap and easy"), going on what I've read from Bob Katz:
| quote: | | Doing analog audio in the sixties and seventies was hell. Most of us would like to throw our bias oscillators in the garbage. Analog requires constant vigilance to sound good. In addition, you can't copy an analog tape. The second generation just falls apart; it's a pale replica of the first. If analog's so bad, what's the problem with digital recordings? Can't we give them the warmth of analog if we use vintage tube mikes and analog processors? There must be something to that argument, or the whole industry wouldn't be doing the retro-tube trip. But I wonder if we're all doing it for the wrong reasons. Please remember that there's good tube equipment out there, and a lot of bad....Only the best-designed tube equipment has quiet, clear sound, tight (defined bass), is transparent and dimensional, yet still warm without being artificial or muddy. |
http://www.digido.com/back-to-analog.html |
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| derail |
Much like MrJiveBoJingles said, there is good analog and bad analog, the same way there is good digital and bad digital.
There is some good analog gear which still costs many thousands of dollars. And there's a reason for that.
Some old analog hardware is practically unusable, unless you're going for a particular lo-fi/noise effect. Research before you buy! |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| Stephen said in another thread that he likes "pristine" sounds, so I doubt that he would like the sound of old or cheap analog gear. Personally, I've thought of getting some cheap analog processors precisely for those times when I want to make stuff dirty and noisy, but I would use those for "effects," not run whole mixes through them. |
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| kitphillips |
I think the ideal setup involves a really huge soundcard with enough channels to plug every one into the channels of a nice analogue mixer, and then record the output back into the soundcard. So basically using the computer just as a tape deck and do all the mixing through the desk. But as soon as you do this, you lose the expandability of a fully computer based studio, so you'd want to make sure you had enough channels ready to last you for a long time.
Personally I really don't see the point of stuffing around with all that stuff any more, its just too much space and time to set up, and I work faster with just ableton. Even if I was recording lots of tracks, I'd still eschew the desk I think.... |
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