Mixer opinions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RICK FITZPATRICK
  • Start date Start date
I would say that is true in most cases, but if you don't have direct out's or inserts, you're pretty well screwed with the number of busses you have.

Unless you start using sends and every other out on the board until your mixer looks like a heart patient on life support.
 
good point! I wasnt aware they made mixers without inserts or direct outs of some kind.

How are you supposed to learn signal flow and gain staging techniques without this? All the cheap mackies I have seen have some sort of direct outs or inserts...or are there even cheaper models?

even if a mackie didnt have a direct out, he usually puts in the manual a solder mod for changing the placement of the aux sends...you could easily tap into that to make a direct out
 
I've known some who have pressed a PA board into studio use in a pinch. Some don't have inserts and not all vintage PA consoles have direct outs on each channel.

They used to make a lot of strange stuff.
 
a pa board without inserts would be suicide. Where would you put compressors, gates and anti feedback devices?

I gotta say I am a big time ignoramus on this stuff
 
Ok wow! this is great. Ask and thou shall receive! In abundance too! Ok, this deserves a story. Yea, I know you got things to do but thats too bad.:D
When I first started playing music in town with our bandl, there WERE no pa's. That was what got me into this shit in the first place. I had to find something to use, and fast. We were getting too big for our britches. There happened to be a music store that had just started renting equipment. Basicly, the first Fender single Showman amps. They were fucking great! We plugged 2 EV 556(I think) hi z mics into an Echoplex, ran that to the first input on the amp, and drove 2 boxs with one amp. 100w kicks ass in a big hall. Those 15" JBL's were wonderfull. Inserts, direct outs, who the hell needed em!!
Anyway gents, thanks so much. I've learned so much here so fast I'm still trying to reread a lot of threads over and over to bang it into my head, I'm on overload. Especially after last night. I got invited over to RECORDING ENGINEERS studio. TOO MUCH FUN. His band was rehearsing. They were fantastic, but his acoustics BLEW ME AWAY:eek: :eek: Its one thing to talk about it, but hearing it and seeing how it was done is another animal altogeather. I learned a shitload. My god, this stuff works!!
Ok, actually, I think at the moment my REAL needs are different now than my wants. :D I'm going to hold off on buying a new mixer untill after I move and get all my decks and patchbays in place in the my new place. IF THAT HAPPENS SOON!! I'm still in "Selling your house-refinance limboland got a house waiting to buy, as soon as I get word" shit. Geeeeeeeezzzzeus Got an offer on the coolest place I can ever imagine though. We'll see. But now that I've been enlightened, I'm going to try this stuff this weekend. My bays are still kind of wierd. This gives me a reason to check em out. Cool. Well thanks again everybody.
Now lets see, oh yea, question #40169 comin up....boy, you guys are wipin em out fast!:D :D
fitz:eek:
 
"Basicly, the first Fender single Showman amps. They were fucking great! We plugged 2 EV 556(I think) hi z mics into an Echoplex"

oh this has to hurt...if you had kept all that stuff youd be sitting on a big fat pile of moolah right now :) SHAME on anyone over 40 who didnt buy lots of tube mics when they were young!!! shame shame shame

and DOUBLE shame for everyone who DIDNT buy a 1970 Plymouth Superbird when they were brand new and had a chance!
 
Wish I still had all the things I used! I'd be rich!!

Didn't get the Plymouth, but I had a brand new 64 Vette'.:cool: My amps wouldn't fit tho so I sold it. Bought a new Dual Showman instead, and a 62 Ford Delivery like a station wagon with out windows. Bright orange mags and slicks.:D I was dangerous:rolleyes: Played a 1000 gigs with that. We would go out to Folsom lake for campouts, prop the Dual Showman bottom up on the tailgait and plug a 8 trk in to it.(not a multitrack-the predescesser to the cassette.)
Talk about the first boom box!
fitz:D
 
pipelineaudio said:
good point! I wasnt aware they made mixers without inserts or direct outs of some kind.

How are you supposed to learn signal flow and gain staging techniques without this? All the cheap mackies I have seen have some sort of direct outs or inserts...or are there even cheaper models?

even if a mackie didnt have a direct out, he usually puts in the manual a solder mod for changing the placement of the aux sends...you could easily tap into that to make a direct out
Click to expand...

I used to use direct outs for recording, however more and more I don't.

I use the direct outs for other things, like feeding a sub-mixer for foldback, effect sends, yada yada yada.

Plus, not all boards have direct outs.
 
pipelineaudio said:
a pa board without inserts would be suicide. Where would you put compressors, gates and anti feedback devices?

I gotta say I am a big time ignoramus on this stuff
Click to expand...


You're not an ignoramus.

You're just used to doing it a specific way, and there is nothing wrong with that.

When I used to offer rentable PA services, I used a large 4-buss peavey of some sort and sent all inputs to all busses, then compress all four busses before I fed the crossovers/amps.

Why all four busses you ask?

Well, my PA work (15 years ago) was mono, but using all four busses, feeding four different crossovers, allowed me to remotely tune the level of bass, low, mid and highs. Buss 1 fed the bass crossover, buss 2 fed low, etc. Was a lot easier than standing on the stage adjusting individual crossovers then running back (I was a one man PA guy, with an assistant that didn't seem to understand that only Marshall amps are set at "11").
 
and DOUBLE shame for everyone who DIDNT buy a 1970 Plymouth Superbird when they were brand new and had a chance! [/B]
Click to expand...

I was three years old at the time an unable to acquire car insurance, so I had to pass on the superbird.

While I've always liked vintage steel (60/70's muscle cars), I've come to like modern "sleepers" of which I have a few. The most radical being a 1992 twin-turbo RWD Ford Taurus.
 
I still cant stomach throwing audio thru all those extra gain stages that a buss would require. Even on an SSL you can scope a tap at every point and watch how bad stuff gets mangled by the time it leaves a summing buss

and yeah....sleepers RULE! Dodge dart being the ultimate sleeper in my book :)
 
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