Point me towards a mixing console that has polarity switches!!!

R

rtzstudios

New member
I'm looking for a console in the home studio price range (we'll say under $5000) that has polarity switches. I don't understand why these aren't implemented on all consoles??? It should be an easy thing to do right? Any guidance is appreciated!
 
I have not looked at the most recent offerings, but as a rule I remember as of a year ago both Allen & Heath mixers as well as Studiomaster consoles had polarity switches on every channel. Why more don't have them I don't know why. There may be more Brands than that, and I imagine most if not all digital mixers will have them as a menu item.
tmix
 
Do you need the polarity switched in mixing or at tracking? If it's for tracking reasons, make yourself a reverse a cable.
 
Soundtracs Topaz!

Soundtracs Topaz Project 8 baby! I just bought one used for around $900 with shipping, and you can easily get them for the low 1000's on eBay. Nice sounding boards with 24 or 32 channels, inline monitoring, musical eq, and polarity, phase, and phantom power switchable on each channel. Right now I don't think there is a better deal out there for a fairly modern 24x8x2 channel board.

Though if your limit is 5k, you might be able to get something really nice, like a Ghost... And you can definitely get one of the 24 channel A&H boards for that much. But for the low 1k's, I think the Soundtracs is a steal.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I think charger might have me hooked!!! :) Could you tell me a little more about it (what DON'T you like about it.) Also, do you use it for tracking, mixing, or both? Thanks!!!
 
Well, I just got it a few days ago. I've tried all the channels and the pres and channels sound great. I just ran an 8-track mix off my hard disk and experimented with the busses and "mixing by hand" which I haven't done in years... I was pretty impressed with the sound and flexibility. What I like the most is that it's pretty damn clean sounding, but not sterile, it's extremely flexible, and the eq sounds awesome. It's very British, sort of that warm but not overpoweringly warm, clean but not clinical sound. I also got the meterbridge, so I'm really happy with the metering too.

Honestly, the biggest thing I don't like about it is the size. It's fairly big and heavy. With the meterbridge, it's 39" wide x 29" deep x 11 1/2 " high, and it weighs around 70 pounds. If my "studio" was more than a garage, this wouldn't be an issue. And in comparison, the Mackie 24/8 is within a couple inches of any of these measurements. 24x8 mixers are just big!

I also have minor issues with the manual. I like the fact that they publish every single schematic for the entire mixer in the manual (very helpful for any electronic repairs you might want to do), but I think it's a little bit short on usable content. However, I'm often picky about stuff like that since I write manuals for a living. I may end up writing up a little online user guide for it...

There are a couple of other Soundtracs Topaz users here (SpongeBob, Downside Studio, MISTERQCUE, richthirst, Folkcafe) who have used it for more projects, and can probably give you their ideas of what they like/dislike.
 
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