“What mixer should I choose?”
“Why doesn’t this mixer sounds good?”
“How do I hook up my mixer?”
This article is all about helping with Mixers. Why should you get one? Do you really need one? Features to look for, and things to look out for when purchasing yours.
The truth is, not every home studio need a mixer. Some mixers are just more hassle’s than their worth at a users current level of work-flow. You can record great sounding audio’s with USB interfaces.
Reasons Why A Mixer Might Be A Good Choice For You:
- – If your recording multiple mics or instruments at once, and want to connect them all at once
- – Some mixers allow you to record directly into your computer via Firewire or USB cable
- – Mixers can give you more adjustability to match your perfect settings
- – More convenient to set ride levels with
Reasons Why A Mixer Might Be A Bad Choice:
- – Some of the lower end ones do not have direct outs, which will not allow you to record multiple tracks
- – Lower end ones can also have poor pre-amps that can add background noise
- – Routing options can be limiting and cause troubles on some models
What To Consider When Choosing A Mixer For Home Recording:
1) Inputs
How many sources are you planning on running into this mixer? How many of those need mic pre-amps? Some mixers will claim to have a large amount of inputs, but only a few are pre-amps.
2) Quality
Microphones pre-amps can seem simple from the surface, but do a lot in the recording space. Poor quality pre-amps can add extra noise such as background hiss to your recordings. Another negative factor of poor pre-amps is limiting the headroom (area between clean signal, and distortion) you have to work with. If you come across a 14 channel mixer for the same price as 2 channel mixer, chances are the quality of the 16 channel is much less than the 2 channel.
3) Routing To Your Computer
Here you need to decide how you will connect your mixer to the computer. An option is to plug the mixer into an interface, and then into your computer. You can also save some money by buying an interface without pre-amps, because the inputs being plugged into the interface are line level, and do not need to be pre-amped. Also to consider is you will need a mixer with direct outs on each channel if you are wanting to multi-track.
4) Routing In The Mixer
When you record, you’ll need to send your signals out of your mixer and into your computer. But your also going to need to route any existing tracks out of your computer through your mixer into a pair of headphones for you, or for your entire band. A good way to do this is with an “Pre Fade Aux.” You’ll need a separate pre fade aux for each monitor mix you want.
Also consider your monitor speakers. A high quality mixer will have separate monitor outs with a dedicated controls so you can turn them down or off when recording, and then back up or on when listening to your recordings.
5) Use As A Control Surface
Some high-end mixers (and/or digital) can send and receive MIDI commands. This allows the mixer to act as a controller for your DAW. (Digital Audio Workstation) What’s cool about this is these mixers include “user buttons” that can operate transport controls like Play, Stop, Ect. on your DAW. Also the faders can be used to control “virtual” faders on the software mixer in your DAW. The only downside of this is the price range for these specific models. Just make sure before purchasing one of these models, that your DAW is compatible for these features.
Summary
When deciding on a mixer to purchase for your home studio, make sure to make a list of the features you need for your rig. Including number of inputs, pre-amps, features, price range, user friendliness, and quality you can trust. Do you research and ask around for suggestions on units other musicians are using as well as help at your local music shop.
