Full Size Line Mixer?

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:47 pm

I have gone and rented a studio space again. The one thing I do not have for setting up my studio (again) is a mixer. It seems kind of silly to buy a mixer with preamps when I have almost a dozen outboard pres.
Any good line input only full size mixers?
(of course when I say full size I mean small to medium format mixers like the Mackie 1604 Ramsa WRS series etc.)
I went 100% ITB about 5 years ago, and I kind of miss it.
Especially now that I have all kinds of analog synths!
I have to say I am thinking of going with a Ramsa again. I never was 100% happy with the sound of the Ramsa, but I really like the layout, metering and routing. Inserts on everything doesn't hurt!
What I dont want is one of those 2 rackspace knobby line mixers. The whole point to me of having a board is that I can grab a fader, while standing up wearing a guitar or bass.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:29 pm

There aren't many of them. Speck made a cool modular mixer without preamps, but if you're talking about something that's in a Mackie price point, you're not going to save any money by looking for something like that.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:49 pm

not so much a mackie price point, but I do admire the Mackie form factor.
The 1604 is a great size. The Mackie 8 buss mixers are even pretty decent for functionality
I guess I am looking at an A&H if I buy new. They have some reasonably priced 16 and 24 channel SR boards that have enough inserts and direct outs to be used for recording.
But I'll still feel like I am paying for 16 or 24 preamps I wont use.
Locally I keep seeing Mackie SR series and such on CL. Tempting, but I never really liked how things sounded through a mackie. Too hard and precise but also kind of obscured.

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:04 am

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I'm in the process of moving my home studio to a little studio space and it just seems like it would be a good idea to run my outboard pres through faders, especially for tracking into my four track.

The board i'm considering the most these days is the A&H zed r16 because as i understand it, it's and analog board with a fire wire out. It's also got 4 busses so i think it might be perfect for mixing down to tape.

There's also an old altec (tapco?) board on ebay right now that i keep wondering about...

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:38 am

I've already got a pretty decent firewire box. If I was going to get anything along those lines I would be loooking for thunderbolt or USB3.0. Firewire seems to be going the way of SCSI and AGP.
I am partial to the A&H boards. Out of all the budget boards I've used for live sound those and the Soundcraft boards sounded best and behaved best.

Though for A&H stuff I kind of skipped over the Zed stuff and am looking at the GL-2400. Though the Soundcraft LX7 looks cool. And the Focusrite with DAW control looks kinda nifty.
But once I get north of $3000 I am wondering should I just buy the SSL X desk? It cables up with standard Dsub cables. Which would fit nicely with the patchbay I am planning on getting. It's only 8 channels, but dual input, and there is a 24 channel expansion unit. So it's pricey, but it's small and does exactly what I need.

OTOH I may just have to swoop on one of these Midas, Crest or TAC mixers I keep seeing on CL.

Or maybe I should just give up and go back to model rockets. Much cheaper hobby.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:47 am

I LOVE MY ALLEN & HEATH GL2800-32.

It's the same electronics as the GL2400.

Cheers

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:50 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:I LOVE MY ALLEN & HEATH GL2800-32.

It's the same electronics as the GL2400.

Cheers

they differ only in the number of groups?

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:02 pm

I'll have to check out the A&H GL stuff. I don't really need the firewire either, but it might be nice to have an extra set of digital ins and outs, assuming i could run it with my ufx.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:34 pm

blungo2 wrote:I'll have to check out the A&H GL stuff. I don't really need the firewire either, but it might be nice to have an extra set of digital ins and outs, assuming i could run it with my ufx.

problem that a some folks run into when using multiple interfaces is that even when they are synced by wordclock they still will have differing latency. This is due to different chips, drivers etc.
So the extra inputs might be a bit out of phase with your primary interface.
Not a big deal unless you end up spreading stereo sources across both interfaces.
Also, not all host programs can play nice with multiple interfaces from different vendors.
My plan is to lightpipe my current interface into the optical inputs on whatever I end up buying as an upgrade.
With my current fascination with analog noise makers I foresee a time when I do not have enough ins and outs. Mostly ins.

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:56 pm

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with my interface for now. Maybe if i get something else, i could do the same, lightpipe into or out of my interface?

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:46 pm

calaverasgrandes wrote:
Nick Sevilla wrote:I LOVE MY ALLEN & HEATH GL2800-32.

It's the same electronics as the GL2400.

Cheers
they differ only in the number of groups?

Yes. That is all the differences.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:54 pm

and tehn I keep seeing Soundcraft Ghost mixers come up. Kinda bigger in size than I planned for, but they are cool. right?

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 1:57 pm

calaverasgrandes wrote:and tehn I keep seeing Soundcraft Ghost mixers come up. Kinda bigger in size than I planned for, but they are cool. right?

I've never used one, but a couple of people that I respect did recommend them when I was looking around. The problem is that it is a discontinued product, which will in the end make it harder to find parts for down the road.

The GL series are still in production, as of today at least. I've opened mine up a couple of times, and have all the manuals etc, and it seems to have easily available parts for repair, if you need them down the road.

I tell you, when I bought the A&H Gl2800, I had already spent almost a year listening to all the different things out there. This was in 2006, so any product after that year of course, I could not test. When the console arrived at home, my wife looked at me all with crazy eyes.... like I'd gone insane buying such a "large" item...

But then, I opened the box, turned it on, and had her listen first to her iPod with her headphones, and then plugged it into the console... again through the same headphones. She literally freaked out.

If it could do that... imagine what it can do to your musicians "amazing tones"...

Judas Jetski · Post by **Judas Jetski** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:50 pm

I'm sure I'm about half a year too late here, and I'm sure I've blathered on and on and on and on and on and on about it, but I utterly love my Ramsa WR-S.

It's got a distinctive sound to it, and the EQ section is... um... usable. Both of which could be good or bad, I suppose. I'm feeling limited by only having 12 channels, and the XLR input on one channel has gone bad. But you know, a guy could do a whole lot worse.

My 2?.

Actually, since it's been 6 months, I'll add interest and make it 3?.

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:29 pm

And just where have you been hiding, young man? Knee deep in Ramsa manuals and spec sheets?

GJ

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