do i need a mixer?????

[fivestarpacheco]

do i need one? , im trying to get more serious with my music, i want to know what its like with a mixer. i have been using my sonar 8 mixing console, its good and easy to use i just feel my mixes will come out so much better with a real mixer or would they be the same???

and if a mixer i the way to go any suggestions on one my budget is up to 400

 

[bouldersoundguy]

There's a bit of a buzz around analog summing these days, but I doubt a $400 mixer will get you much of an improvement over mixing ITB.

At that level the best excuse for a mixer is to generate multiple zero-latency monitor mixes of multiple simultaneous inputs.

 

[skunktree]

do i need one? , im trying to get more serious with my music, i want to know what its like with a mixer. i have been using my sonar 8 mixing console, its good and easy to use i just feel my mixes will come out so much better with a real mixer or would they be the same???

and if a mixer i the way to go any suggestions on one my budget is up to 400

an external mixer will allow you more flexibility in recording/mixing outside source material into your daw...it could help you if you have limited inputs on your interface and need to record many instruments/sources...once in the box the external mixer will offer more limited use...

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

do i need one?

Do you have a need or an issue for which you need an answer? Describe it, and we'll tell you if a mixer is a reasonable answer. Otherwise, no one needs a mixer on general principle alone.

G.

 

[grimtraveller]

Do you have a need or an issue for which you need an answer? Describe it, and we'll tell you if a mixer is a reasonable answer. Otherwise, no one needs a mixer on general principle alone.

G.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Observe these words of wisdom carefully, my young padwan......


Sometimes, I use a mixer when I'm recording drums because my recorder has simultaneous recording on 6 channels (well, 8, but I'm not shelling out £250 on converters to be able to use the 2 optical tracks ! ) but as I'm usually tracking with a bass or guitar, that limits me to 5. So the mixer enables me to mic the toms and use one, two or three for the overheads which then get mixed to stereo and fed to two tracks on my DAW (snare, kick and sometimes hi-hat on their own tracks).
That's one specific use but on principal alone, I'd say 'pass'. Use something like a mixer when you need to. If it's to satisfy your curiosity then our input is valueless. You should just do it and if it isn't what you want, call it the price of an education and just sell it and don't tell anyone till 5 years later when it no longer matters and embarrasment isn't an issue ! The best self depracating stories are retrospective, aren't they ?

 

[moresound]

So true Grim,So true. I can remember not so long ago I........wait it hasn't been long enough. I'm still embarrassed. I'll come back in a few years or so to tell you about it.