Tips on buying a mixer for home recording

In this post, you will learn the tips on how buy a mixer for home recording. Bear in mind that an audio mixer is most versatile audio equipment you can use. Therefore you can use a mixer in any part of your recording and mixing process. Let me give you an example on how I use a mixer before and what criteria I use to buy one.

An example on how I use the mixer before for home recording

Previously, I am recording without a mixer at home and it is just awful. It is because it does not have enough amplification of signals. The signals that were directly recorded into Adobe audition is very weak and noisy.

The problem that I am always facing is the difficulty of the recording process. To change instruments, I have to go at the back of the computer and unplug my cable (because my sound card before is onboard, how poor am I :)). It is just to risky sometimes I get electrocuted.

For year 2008, I have a New Year resolution to buy a simple mixer at home. I surf the net and I found Behringer 502 5-Input Mixer. I say it is the best mixer for home at the lowest budget while achieving the best quality of sound recording.

So if you asked me why did I choose Behringer Xenyx 502 in the first place and not other mixers which are big and more expensive?

1.) First, I am only looking forward to take advantage of the mixer built-in preamps. The soundcard on the computer (I am not using USB/Firewire audio interface before) cannot provide adequate amplification of recorded microphone and instrument level signals. It is an onboard soundcard for Christ sake!

If I connect all my musical instruments (guitars, piano, microphone, etc) directly to the mixer first before recording it; then I can amplify the recorded signals to line level before it reaches the soundcard for recording. Then the signal is stronger than using without a mixer.

2.) I only need to record one at a time. This implies that I would only be using one or two-channels at a time when doing the recording. So a mixer like Behringer Xenyx 502 should fit the bill because it only have 5 channels I think.

If I am going to buy big mixers, then the other inputs would not be used and I would just be wasting some money on it.

Finally, I am so contented of my purchase, that I made these tips for those that are looking forward to buy a mixer for home studio use.

Some simple tips or guide on buying a mixer for home recording/mixing

1. If you using a mixer before recording (such as providing pre-amplification of signals) and you are recording tracks one at time; you can buy the smallest mixer based on your budget but check for reviews on that mixer. When we go to local store we see a lot of mixers, cheap ones but not good. The sound quality is awful.

The good news is that today you would not be needing a mixer anymore to do recording and perform pre-amplifcation of audio recorded signals.

All you have to do is to purchase an external audio interface such as Firewire/USB type. This audio interface can work like an audio mixer and can provide good sounding preamps.

Another benefit is that you can simultaneously record several tracks at once (such as those recording that requires several microphone inputs like drums).

IF you are a beginner and now using a mixer you can upgrade to using an professional audio interface just like me. Before I have an external audio interface I would connect all recordings just like this (bear in mind that I am limited to recording tracks only one at a time, I cannot do multi-channel recording out of this setup like recording drums).

Musical instruments === > Audio mixer (Behringer Xenyx 502) === > Two-channel main output of the mixer === > Soundcard line input

So simple isn’t it? Bu I have a lot of problems with that setup that includes noise.

After I upgraded my entire recording setup to use an audio interface, I now record it as follows:

Musical Instruments === > External audio interface (Saffire Pro 40) === > Firewire output === > Computer to receive multi-channel recording output from the audio interface

However, audio mixers are very important for implementing pre-EQ, compression and other signal processing before recording. This is commonly used in big recording studios and for home recording studios with big budget. In this case, I would recommend buying a very large mixing console with direct outputs.

This is how it works, see the signal flow below:

As you have observed, all musical instruments are connected first to a mixer, that would perform the following pre-recording signal processing tasks:

a.) EQ on the instruments
b.) Compression
c.) Reverb
d.) other effects that are important
e.) Pre-amplification

Then each channel of the mixer of has a direct outputs. These direct outputs are then connected to each of the audio interface inputs. The audio interface would simply convert analog to digital for recording to the hard drive in the DAW.

If you are going to use a mixer to accomplish the above setup, then you are going to buy a very large mixer (with a high number of inputs suitable for your recording needs). And make sure the mixer include a direct outputs for each of the channels. For example like the mixer shown below:

2.) Some home studio engineers might be using a mixing console to mix “out of the box”. This means the audio mixing won’t be performed with a DAW software (such as Reaper) but would be done directly with the use of an analog mixing console. See how its done below:

The digital audio data inside your computer would be converted first to analog by the audio interface then it would be playback to your audio mixing console. The audio mixing engineer can then mix the analog audio signals using the console and apply important analog effects such as EQ, compression and reverb.

Finally the final mix would either be bounced back to hard drive or in a DAT.

If you are using a mixer to do out of the box mixing, make sure it has adequate input channels and the mixing console has a good sound for audio mixing. OF course, this is not a small mixer. You need a large mixing console to do this (some could be very expensive like the Neve consoles).

3.) Buy in the city’s best recording shop for gears. You can also shop and buy in eBay, sweet water and other reputable stores.

4.) Quality is more important the price itself but not too much. I mean if you can afford and you get the quality you want, then go for it. Just do not exceed on buying the most expensive ones but the quality level is just the same.

5.) Check for the number of inputs, Xenyx 502 got 5 inputs (mono), and it is enough for me. The higher the number of inputs the better, but buy only something you need. If you buy many inputs but you use only one most your time. It is wasted.

Mixing out of the box or tracking with a mixing console definitely requires a high number of inputs (16-channels or even more).

6.) Check for warranty.Make sure your product is protected by warranty in case of early damage.

7.) Check for wide applicability and versatility. This means, at the same I can use my mixer to:
a. Record sound
b. Record sound while I can monitor using a lot of headphones.
c. Can shift to headphone or to the loud monitor (there is a switch)
d. Has clipped detector
e. Has trim function ( gain, very important in recording if you are not using a direct box)
f. Stereo main output

This implies that if you are planning to use your mixer for a wide variety of applications, it make sense to buy a fully featured or big mixing console.

8. You should fully understand the manual first before buying anything, to measure its applicability.

Illustration: Best Mixer/Firewire for Adobe Audition- Yamaha 01X or Mackie Onyx 1620

Someone ask me this question:

Hi,
As a fan of your website, I learn a lot from reading; I want to buy a mixer with firewire to use with Adobe Audition.
My choice is to these two: Yamaha’s 01X and Mackie Onyx 1620.
Can you advise me what I do best to use…Thanks in advance,

My Reply:

First, I am not a user of either of the two nor have any experiences working with them. So use this information at your own risk. The only way I can help you is to supply the facts regarding what would be the best mixer with Firewire interface for Adobe Audition based on the two above choices. OK let’s assess based on the following factors:

1.) Known compatibility with Adobe Audition
2.) Price
3.) Citations from Audio Professional Websites

Yamaha 01x:

Image Credits: Yamaha USA

Mackie Onyx 1620:

Image credits: Sound on Sound

First Factor: Known Compatibility with Adobe Audition

Data with sources

Yamaha’s 01X: bit.ly/hZ0aMh
Mackie Onyx 1620: bit.ly/dWKFlU

Results: Browsing through the results, there are only a few users that successfully confirmed Yamaha 01x working well with Adobe Audition. One particular result such as this reported as having successfully integrate Yamaha 01x with Adobe Audition 3 with no real problems. Although the user pointed out that Adobe Audition recognizes that mixer as “Mackie”. However, you can see a lot of successful users of Mackie Onyx 1620 using along with Adobe Audition.

This link also shows another user that successfully integrates the Mackie Mixer with Adobe Audition.

Conclusion: With so many users reporting successful integration of Mackie Onyx 1620 mixer with Adobe Audition- Mackie Onyx 1620 mixer wins the compatibility factor.

Second Factor: Price

The average price of Yamaha’s 01X is around $1000 as I’ve seen on this search result. But on this search result, it looks like this product has already been discontinued. These are also confirmed in these pages as well:

Yamaha 01X mLAN music production studio
FireWire Mixers

And even the official Yamaha page. This makes it hard to purchase this product. I cannot even see it in Amazon and eBay as well as in the Musician friend search page for Yamaha. However for Mackie Onyx 1620i Firewire recording mixer, you can buy it at $821.66 for new and around $550 dollars for used product.

Conclusion: Mackie Onyx 1620i wins in terms of price and availability.

Third Factor: Citations from Audio Professional Websites

Yamaha 01X

Data are estimates, values can change in time.

Sound on Sound = 3360 results
Home Recording = 137 results
GearSlutz = 246 results
Recording org = 34 results

Total: 3777

Mackie Onyx 1620

Sound on Sound = 2,380 results
Home Recording = 430 results
Gearslutz = 1750 results
Recording org = 82 results

Total: 4642

Conclusion: Mackie Onyx 1620 does have a lot of citations which means it has a lot of users in the audio recording community compared to Yamaha 01X. This makes it possible for you to easily find a support whether it will be in the forum or any audio forum websites.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION: Based on the above examination of available data, I can recommend that Mackie Onyx 1620 is a much suitable mixer with firewire support for Adobe Audition. You can buy Mackie Onyx 1620 at Amazon

Note before you buy: You need to read the specs and manual thoroughly and carefully, as it offers useful information whether the number of channels are right for you, or if those softwares included and outputs are compatible with your operating system. It also gives you a glimpse whether the mixer is actually the right one for your recording environment aside from those 3 factors evaluated previously. You can read the specs of Mackie Onyx 1620 here.

Content last updated on October 12, 2012