We are the music makers - producers?

I was very close to buying a b stock digitakt today, hesitated cause its my wifes birthday. Just realised it was mentioned here that thomann is a no-no because brexit? Site says free shipping to UK tho. Andertons will price match?

I do still wonder if I'll be able to get all my kicks out of a M:S

I ordered a synth from Thomann months ago, which I was considering cancelling post-brexit but forgot. Just had an email to say it’s on its way, so I’ll let you know how that pans out!

You can buy just fine from Thomann but you will pay VAT on its entry to the UK. Their advertised prices no longer include VAT.

It’s also a bit of a grey area regarding consumer rights and so on. Returns may be a lot more difficult than they were in the EU member state days of yore.

I would go with Andertons or another reputable UK place nowadays unless it’s something that Thomann have exclusively.

Total overkill on channel quality but massively under what you can easily end up needing in channel count. Are you absolutely against digital because there are a few digital options that would fit your needs and future needs. Are you planning on recording to tape?

I've got a few simple analog mixers that have some good sonics if you just want one to get started on and see where it takes you. Drum machines can quickly use up channel counts so 16 channels seems like a bare minimum to me.

Thanks guys and gals. Yeah definitely not looking for digital. Even @Regal ‘s suggestion of a plug-in makes me anxious. This is knob-twiddling therapy for me, I highly doubt I’ll ever properly produce a track. If I do, and I forgot to mention, I already have three Allen and Heath Xone:K2’s which will give me at least a 12 track digital mix down option.

Cheers all x

You got me looking at summing mixers again. They are gods way of telling you that you have too much money! A mate had the Neve summing mixer which was the darling of the time and had a breakout fader pack for even more money. I honestly couldn't tell at all what it was bringing to the sonics. For a lot of people it's a chance to own a big name item but these guys made their names building brilliant 'money no object' mixers in a different era. Nowadays it's quite a bit of marketing hype and clever circuitry.

My thoughts were similar to Airhead but the SiX looks the most fun with the channel and bus comps, although it's limited in terms of EQ and routing and like you say, I'm not sure you'll get the benefits of a super-hi-fi mixer with the sources you have - especially not if you're just mixing 'live'.
My choice in this case would be a larger old-school analog live desk with a decent reputation and enough channels/busses to make everything hands-on and then get an outboard SSL bus comp clone for the master channel. More complicated and physically larger though.
By digital I thought @Regal was referring to a standalone digital mixer rather than mixing in the box (which your controllers would facilitate).

Yeah, never quite understood the point when mixing from/to digital, which a lot of them were marketed for. All it's doing is adding more complexity to the system and points of noise/failure.

APB prorack house H1020 is pretty good bang for the buck

Dredging this a little but just in case it’s useful for anybody readi this thread: I picked up a Fethead, and it’s pretty great.

I’ve only been using it for an hour or so, but it really just seems to do what it claims. The signal out of my SM7 is way more usable now and there’s no increase in noise. I’m still running a software compressor in the box, but the preamp is set to 40% rather than 80%

the SiX looks the most fun with the channel and bus comps

I know, right!

a larger old-school analog live desk with a decent reputation and enough channels/busses to make everything hands-on

Ta. Definitely hands on is what I’m after. There’s a case for owning both a performance mixer and a decent, full featured one for post.

By digital I thought @Regal was referring to a standalone digital mixer

This is why I asked for advice, I had no idea these existed 😀

Right, no, I just meant if the SSL G buss comp was the main attraction, it can be done really well right at the end in software for very little money (and actually with more control as the one in the SiX is a cut down version).

I think for @freddo’s use case the modular mixer route is actually quite appealing. You basically have to give up faders though.

I'd almost think that your choice of send FX could swing it - in modular, or desktop/rack. You don’t necessarily want the hassle of converting signal levels back and forth.

It’s pretty outrageous how cheap decent live analog mixers are now all the FOH guys have moved to digital. The missing part in terms of recording is being able to switch your fader between inputs (ie the sound to be recorded vs the recorded sound). For performance though, they’re great.

Oh yeah sorry I mixed up my comments there, it was airhead talking about digital mixers. I use the Waves G comp loads!
A nice little 500 series lunchbox would be my choice with spare money.

A passive line mixer is a decent option with a lot of synths. Problem is you're getting into tons of cables anyway and needs change over time so either get something that can be sold easily or repurposed because storing mixers is a pain. I have 3 flightcased.

The digital mixer option has been perfect for me. I'm fine with the slightly lower fidelity because I'm not making widely distributed music. In any case a lot of decent stuff gets made on a laptop. After 20 years of analog mixers I'm not missing them.

I should temper that slightly. I do miss having a channel strip per channel on the desk. On my mixer there are channel strip controls for the current focussed channel but I miss looking down the desk and seeing the eq/effects sends etc.

Bought a blackbox, much exciting.

1 Attachment

Yay! Wicked bit of kit. Any questions please ask

Nice one dude, will do.

The thing is cool, I have this mad idea I'll be able to run mutli audio outs into a mixing desk and send to effects units to do some live dub mixing.

Started with slicing amen breaks and recording from vinyl and it seems very powerful, the manual is pretty easy to follow also.

@EB should I bother with the stock samples and preset or will I just end up with 10k kicks that I'll never use. Have you got any suggestions on a good case for transporting it?

@Airhead you mentioned above you have some simple anologue mixers, any chance you are in the market to sell one.

Also if anyone has a pair of headphones kicking around to sell, preferable hd25s so I can use the blackbox on the sly at work.

Be well interested in being schooled on making this idea work in a eurorack environment although I realise this might be an much more expensive route.

If anyone has an delay units like Strymon El Capistan, Benidub Digital Echo, Eventide H9 Max,
Electro Hamonix Deluxe Stereo Memory Man, DMB Lunar Echo, Source Audio Nemesis, Line 6 DL4 I'm all ears.

If you've got a decent size SD card I personally don't mind having tons of sample packs

I got this case and it works really well

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VUO0VTA?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Have you played around with the granular mode yet?

granular mode

Whoa just had a play avec baby in hand, not even touched the granular bit yet. Seems like you can create some digital dub like effects with it in the box. Should probably get my head around what the blackbox can do before I scheme on buying more kit.

Yes, I've got 2 I'd easily consider offloading for some small monetary return :) The third one is kind of a backup for my PA but I never take it with me!

I've got a 16 channel in a rack box which is a great way to add some outboard. It was my singing band practice rig. PM me if you want to talk about them.

I’m selling all my stuff to fund other things... anyone here interested in the following before I go and list in the usual places? Majority of it is in vgc and boxed.

Synths:

Vermona performer Mk2 cv/gate
Vermona DRM1 mk3 cv/gate
Oberheim Matrix 1000 (no box, needs a new voice chip and firmware update which I have the parts for)
DSI Tempest
Moog Minitaur

FX/processing:

VOCU VTE-1600 tape delay
Korg DL8000R delays x2 (no box)
Tascam RS-30 reverb
Roland MS-1 Sampler
Tascam porta 1 (no box, transport broken but can used the grungy mixer)

Other:

Samson s-patch (new)
Motu 16A
Ableton Push 2
Pair Eve Audio SC207 (pair, no boxes)

VOCU VTE-1600 tape delay

How much please?