Since we don’t have a dedicated thread and discussion about this happens a bit scattered around in other threads, it’s time to create one.
I am also motivated to open this topic, by the fact that I now have a k-mix myself, and some things are bit puzzling to me. @lijnenspel feel free to write that review you were talking about here: //// pictures ////
I’ve only had the k-mix for a short time, but I must say I’m more or less happy with it. It does have the shortcomings that I was already expecting (eg. touch-faders being weird and not very precise), but it does tick a lot of boxes for me anyway, most notably it’s very small, doubles as a multit-rack audio interface and have true stereo sends and lots of them. Admittedly, I would have preferred having 10 inputs and 6 outputs… but you can’t have everything.
Anyway… I’m still learning how to use the thing, so for now I’m mostly interested in knowing how those of you who own one use it, and more specifically, how you deal with the compressor and the gain staging especially in conjunction with the modular.
very curious about this too as i have my eye on one for mixing/interface purposes. especially interested to hear peoples experiences with fx/aux sending and effects processing broadly speaking
I’ve also got one, and for what I want it to do, I can’t find many better options at the price.
Using it with the modular I use channels 3-6 and they handle eurorack levels fine (make sure to set the gain trim to minimum on the channels). I’ve never used the compressor so couldn’t pass comment (the eq works fine for my needs).
Having the 3 aux outputs is great (though I think it would have been better with 2 aux out, and 2 more inputs for easier integration of FX sends)
I also find the faders a bit glitchy/jumpy.
Also probably just me being stupid… but I find setting up a headphone monitor mix a bit confusing when using it as an audio interface.
Overall though… I think it’s a great bit of kit for the price, and covers a lot of requirements (particularly for the eurorack/modular user).
The aux sends are one of its strong points, IMO. Need to understand the logic of setting them up, but very flexible. I emailed KMI support a couple times as I was figuring this out and they got back to me very quickly with precisely the answers I was looking for.
Check the docs - you can put the faders into momentary fine mode if you want more precision. I don’t find the normal behavior troubling.
You might be better off opening the Mix Editor for this. From there, you’ll be able to monitor anything and everything. Set it once and it saves those settings if you like them.
One additional thing I’ll note - the K-Mix works equally as well as a mixer for iOS devices. It will pass in.out all channels to something like AUM or Cubasis.
Yes, pre/post can be set in the editor and directly from the mixer itself. In fact, most things can be set/controlled via the mixer. There’s a series of function buttons, i.e.: shift, etc. that allow for settings to be made. I found I used the editor more when I first got it, but now I’m able to use the mixer itself more.
There’s a few things that you need to use the editor for, like setting channel gains.
It really is a well though out mixer/interface. I’ve used a few over the years and for me this has proven to be the most useful and flexible.
I don’t used the onboard effects, other than a bit of compression on the main out (I believe I left the default settings on). The onboard reverb is pretty bland if you;'re used to almost anything else. Don’t let the be the deciding factor though.
I know about that, but thanks for the heads up. Let me rephrase, because I think I wasn’t very precise with my wording, what I meant was more what @Ithacus mentioned above, about the faders being jumpy and glitchy sometimes. Though I find that once you get accustomed to how you need to press these – i.e. apply a good deal of force – then it gets better.
It should hence also work with linux. Need to test that…
I don’t have a k-mix, but have always wondered how people use the outputs as aux sends, since there are no returns. If you have all 8 inputs in use for instruments, then there’s nowhere to return an effect send even though there are 8 mono/4 stereo outputs.
Does anyone use theirs with external fx sends?
When I was considering the k-mix, I actually thought about getting two of them to use as 8-10 inputs and then a few channels for fx returns…
Yea so you’d have to use one of the inputs (or 2 if it’s stereo) for returns. If you wanted to use all the sends (3 in total), you’d have to take up 6 of the inputs for returns, leaving only 2 channels for actual input.
I usually only have my H9 on one aux buss so I never run into an issue with running out of inputs/outputs but I can definitely see this as a problem if you plan to have 3 aux busses and want to run more than 2 inputs for instruments.
Ive had one for a few years now and love it. My only complaint is the implementation of the midi mode as it is not possible to set each fader to a different midi channel and this prevented me from doing some fun stuff with my octatrack at the time. I do use it with external FX and I use up 2 inputs bring the verb back in.
Typically I just use a modular and one or two other instruments and it’s perfect for that. I love it’s tiny footprint, weight and toughness for traveling also
I have one as well. The sliders can be jumpy, but I tend to pass it signals that already have a mixer / attenuator / vca in front of the k-mix, so end up using those knobs for mixing live. If there was a physical slider version of the k-mix, I’d swap it in a heartbeat. The other features more than make up for the jumpiness though imho.
I end up using the outs more as routers to a couple of recording devices - a 4 track portastudio, a stereo tape deck, sometimes as effects out (using another channel as the return). Saving presets of different setups is also super useful. Right now I jump between two - one that’s set up for “live play”, when I just want to hear stuff come out of the monitors and one for recording (which turns all the faders to 0 and pretends like it’s a usb card…then I handle the mix in Live).
My studio is a big desk, so the small size and lots of versatility are super useful. Some of the bits and pieces are useless to me (I’ve never used the digital effects). I do really like the software configuration tool…it’s very well made. Doesn’t feel like a slapped on thing like lots of software config tools.
I get a bit confused with trying to route USB outs and physical outs / ins…so I mostly just keep it one or the other.
The K-Mix is definitely a useful device and I’m glad to have it. But I can’t really say that I enjoy using it. I don’t hate it either. It’s just a device full of compromises and there is not real alternative when you want all the things it can do.
I mainly use it as a portable mixer and sometimes as an audio interface. You can just throw it in a bag and don’t worry about it. It’s super light and nothing will break off. And once you have made some presets, it becomes pretty versatile.
For live, the sound is absolutely fine and sometimes I bring it with me just to have some extra eqs without even touching the faders.
The faders are definitely is biggest weakness when it come to usability. I find it almost impossible to smoothly fade things in and out. Also, the lights become hard to see in brighter surroundings. But at the same time, physical sliders would make it less portable.
I usually record straight to stereo and for that I prefer analog mixers, so this is not where I use my K-Mix. But for multitracking into the DAW it is a rather decent option and I actually prefer its sound over my now sold Motu 828x. Not sure if it is better on paper, but I just prefer it.
So all in all, I don’t see me changing it for something else in the near future. But I’m open to do so should a real alternative appear.
I did only briefly test it on a not-audio-optimized Ubuntu install. Jack sees all the channels and recording did work, albeit with some x-runs. But the latter is certainly solvable by using a more optimized setup and/or tweaking Jack’s parameters. Also I should mention that I used Qtractor, which hasn’t been the most reliable and bug-free piece of software in my experience.
Anyway the K-Mix is class compliant, so there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work. The only thing you really loose is the editor, which might or not might be an issue for recording, once you have things set up to work as you need it.
Little question to those of you who have used it for a bit longer: I do find it quite annoying that you can either see what (VU) level is going through the channels or what position your faders are set to. Is there some workaround? Or how do you handle this when adjusting levels?
