#165

@wheelersounds made an apt observation that most analog mixers would need more than the 5v supplied from USB for proper headroom. My desktop 6ch Mackie mixer uses a 12vac power adapter, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an analog mixer powered just with usb but I’m not an expert. I guess that would depend if the circuitry for mixing uses opamps, or a digital IC.

I think the idea of the mix section being analog amplifiers (why not some filters too?) under digital control is more compelling but I’m just day dreaming out loud here

2 Likes
#166

If it operated as analog stuff controlled by digital then maybe we can get away without too much ADDAC headache as well.

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#167

Another recent reference of similar size would be the Vixen mixer
I got one via their Kickstarter - its handy but mostly ‘set & forget’ due to tiny knobs
it is line level, 6 mono 2 stereo inputs, 2 auxes plus power out for volcas + pedals


US$219 (kit was US$199)
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#168

Fairly easy to boost +5v into +/-12 if required, ie usb powered eurorack

#169

The pics were there at some point yesterday…

One possible difference with touch plates is that joysticks stay in the place you leave them, but touch plates always require pressure, at least I think they do.

#170

thanks for this Tom, I think this is immensely helpful constraint. my head was kinda trending already in the direction of an 0-coast size form factor and affordances and this falls right in-line with that. using the hammond enclosure footprint makes sense (although using one won’t be very low profile).

I have some ideas based on the survey results so far that I’d love to share, but I’d love to get more responses. so far we’ve seen nearly half the people who’ve posted in this thread give answers, but it would be great to get perspective from more of the community…

minimal mixer survey

edit - gonna close this down tomorrow morning (CEST, so after tonight in the states) and share the results.

5 Likes
#171

yeah I brought this up in the original thread and was going to in this one!

the vixen is a great form factor and look how much extra space you have no needed a bunch of 9v DC output

I have one but haven’t used it that much as by the time I actually received it I had kind of moved onto video synthesis but I’ll get back to audio at some point

#172

To give a sense of scale for super small format mixer possibilities (The fader thing is a midi controller, usb powered)

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#173

https://koma-elektronik.com/?product=field-kit-fx-modular-multi-effects-processor

In addition to bastl’s dude another open source mixer project that can be used as a model is the KOMA field kit line

1 Like
#174

I was thinking about making a preamp to use before sending audio for multitracking, project is in hold as i did not manage to achieve what i wanted and its big!

Making it a mixer from it is doable too…

Cue buttons, pre-post sends would be great too, there are lots of great ideas on this post :slight_smile:

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#175

This is how my brain is thinking too. Kinda like a non modular version of intellijel mixup (or rebel tech mix) where they could snap together like lego.

#176

Something I’d miss very much if it wasn’t there, regardless of the other features : insert / direct out connections.
I don’t think this idea has been mentioned often in this thread.

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#177

This may be too late in the thread but a while ago I had an idea for an Ansible sized mixer module with 8 inputs and 2 outputs. USB and I2C provides control via Grids, 16n, Arc or anything via I2C. Basically, a series of high quality VCAs addressable via script. Tons of possibilities.

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#178

@brianleu mentioned an idea very similar to this to me one time. I don’t remember all the technical details but I think the gist was it’d be pretty easy?

#179

Someone was going back and forth with me on this here… maybe it was him. I think it’s very straightforward but the primary concern was the number of VCAs and DACs that have to be crammed in such a tight space. I think the number was like 18-20 VCAs and at least half as many DAC chips (duplex). Probably $100-150 in chips alone maybe.

#180

I think this could be adressed electrically/electronically, no?

#181

I don’t believe that person was me. Maybe that individual will emerge here!

The idea I discussed with @jlmitch5 was a bit more basic - effectively a version of Veils reworked to be controlled over i2c rather than with knobs. I had this thought when discovering that digital potentiometers were a thing and thought it could be fun to design something with these that was directly ii-controlled. However it seemed that there exist digital potentiometers that operate at +/-12V OR have multiple circuits (4x or 6x) per package, but not both, so the idea never progressed any farther than this. (Also I don’t own anything that speaks ii :slight_smile: )

Of course there could be a lot more flexibility if one were to slap a Teensy/other uC between and make something more in the vein of TXo/TXi.

#182

It seems the market for minimal mixers is small due to everyone in fact wanting a feature creep monster :slight_smile:

I still have no clue what minimal would be. I would love something with 6 stereo channels, 1 send, tilt eq and two outputs.

11 Likes
#183

ok ok how about first 4 channels all normalized to go to a send and the send has a joystick which determines the balance of the channels going in that it spits out. I guess like a quad panner in reverse. Obvious uses might be mixing oscillators going to a filter or delay, but could also work with cv going to whatever. Possibly with various rhythmic patterns gating an envelope or clock (might need some sort of external comparator or offset to allow greater or fewer gates when moving in between).

#184

For sure!
Someone said in this discussion that mixing is personal and I’m really aligning with that thought.

My perfect mixer would be eight or sixteen channels of fader + parametric eq, post eq+fader direct outs per channel, with the ability to mix each channel into a couple stereo buses.

But just because you can fit a mixer definition into a sentence doesn’t mean it’s everyone’s functionality tea.

2 Likes