#345

Can you talk a bit about the 1/4” motivation? I ask because adapters and adapting cables are a thing, and this design adds a lot of bulk. But maybe that’s a good thing…

Would love it if something like this also handled modular/line level conversion.

#346

I won’t speak to @karst’s motivation, but for me any mixer that has 3.5mm jacks and modular level bias is “just another eurorack mixer” and that’s not what I’m in this for. I want something to sum and route the audio from all of my sound sources - euro being just one of them - so 1/4" jacks are the way to go.

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#347

for me, it all comes down to how you expect this thing to be used. both sizes are valid approaches, but suggest different priorities to me.

selfishly, I’m largely working with line-level gear with some mic, instrument, and euro levels mixed in. in that instance, the larger jack seems to cover the most bases.

if you’re wanting something that primarily works with eurorack levels, then doing a 3.5mm layout makes sense. if that’s the goal though, I’d also lean towards turning the thing into a full-on euro module with USB jacks brought up to the surface.

purely from an ergonomic perspective, when you have patching occurring on the face of the device, making something that prevents the heavy use of adapters is preferable to me (I feel the same way about TRS jacks and using stereo splitters). I’d rather make something bigger that has more pannable mono channels than use stereo jacks anywhere.

somewhere in lines there’s a convo around jacks where @tehn asks for input on this question and I think that directly informed norns having 1/4” jacks instead of other options (something I’m very pleased with). it might be early in the minimal mixer thread or somewhere else, but there’s good info in that chat as well.

edit - https://llllllll.co/t/1-4-vs-1-8-connections/3029

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#348

Makes sense, thanks!

If I were to use something like this, I’d likely be using a combo of 1/4” line level inputs and 3.5mm modular level inputs, so I find myself on the fence.

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#349

my vote is for 1/4" too. almost nothing I’m looking to mix in this mixer is 3.5mm. I admit I haven’t read every single recent comment/reply in the last day or two so I may be missing why 3.5mm would be preferred, other than as a space saver. the eurorack signals I’d maybe want to use would already be pre mixed in the modular and come out of XOH or RIP. Are we aiming to land on one product that satisfies most ppl’s needs or multiple products? thanks

#350

the last more standard mixer design I shared in this thread, the compact nearness one, had 3.5mm jacks along the top specifically because I wanted to encourage internal patching within the mixer and 3.5mm jacks felt to me like they encouraged that more. other than that, saving space seems to be the main benefit.

¯\(ツ)/¯

nothing yet has struck the mark perfectly, I think. something will need to hit some kind of critical mass to move forward, but I don’t think we know where that lies yet.

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