To Mix Or Not To Mix? That Is The Question...

Long-time readers will note that I used to often put up pictures of people with sprawling rigs of high-end instruments, and then point out that they were mixing all this gear a cheap-ass Behringer or Mackie mixer, with a certain note of derision. Almost every time I’d put up one of these sorts of entries, I’d get a couple e-mails that said “well, okay, what should I use, then?”

To answer that, we have to put it in context. My snide comments are the result of a particular combination of really expensive (and theoretically quality) instruments and really shitty mixers. This bothers me to no end. I could (and have) put up many examples of people with keyboard rigs that run in to the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars, who are mixing it all with a $199 mixer. To say that this defies logic is to understate the matter entirely. Why would you spend $3000 a piece on a Prophet 5, Jupiter 8, MemoryMoog, whatever, for their “vintage warmth” and “better sound,” then mix them through the absolute lowest quality op-amps, shittiest available mic pres, and EQ that isn’t even worth the name? It really beggars understanding.

So, I’m not saying you need to go grab a Speck line mixer for your Alesis Ion and circuit bent Speak ‘n’ Spell. Your EuroRack will suffice. If that’s what you can afford, it’ll do the job, and for live purposes, if you’re anything less than a theatre-sized band, it’s fine. If you’re playing theaters, you’ve obviously got your shit together, and you’re probably not asking me for my opinions, as your own have credence.

Personally, I just have stereo inputs on my rig, and I record everything individually. I’m in no particular hurry, and I usually have a vision of what the song is gonna be before I even start recording. If you have the kind of cash that results in some of these monster rigs, you have the kind of cash that can result in an Apogee AD16x or an Aurora 16, and you’ve got eight stereo inputs to your DAW. (Or 16 mono ones, if that’s how you roll.) I personally prefer to use mic pre/DIs on my keyboards, but that’s how I roll.

The instrument Gods gave us patch bays for a reason, you know.

If you absolutely must mix with a hardware mixer, there are many options that aren’t Behringer. A simple rule-of-thumb applies here: if the word “Pro” appears in the literature or name of the product, it is To Be Avoided. Stuff that actually is pro doesn’t need the label, because it is obvious. Chandler, Aurora Audio, Speck, API, Midas, Allen & Heath, Crane Song, Manley, Neve, SPL, Toft, and several other companies all make line mixers in the $2500 to $8000 range (roughly the same as any given MemoryMoog) that don’t suck, to put it mildly. Each one has a particular feature set, and I have no doubt whatsoever that there is one that fits your purposes exact.

This will bring up the inevitable “yeah, but Record X by Indy Rock Artist Y was mixed on a Eurotrash 9000 with the ClusterFuck Mk2 meter bridge! Good enough for them, good enough for me!!!” Sure, it was. It was also mastered by Bernie Grundman, because the label knew it had a hit song, and was willing to spend the money to fix it. Bernie spent several days at a thousand dollars an hour fighting through the haze to make that shit listenable. On top of that, garage rock is the single most resilient form of music, when it comes to recording. If you make that, you’re reading the wrong site anyhow.

So, once again, I’ll reiterate the obvious: there really aren’t any good mixers that are under a thousand (or even two thousand) dollars. Mixers are, by their very nature, expensive, because there are a lot of controls. The better quality the controls, or the more features you want, the more it’s gonna cost. There is no Magic $300 Solution that will suddenly make everything all better. My advice is to save your pennies for a Rosetta 800 or Aurora 8, at the very least, and mix in the box. This is the cheapest possible solution; until then, you’re pretty much stuck with bullshit, plain and simple.

But then again, I am a total snob when it comes to this sort of thing. If you have to buy cheap mass-produced shit, buy Yamaha. Always a safe bet.