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| Earlier this
summer Vintage King client, Dave Trumfio (Wilco, Grandaddy, William
Reid, Built to Spill) and I underwent a
very comprehensive summing mixer shoot out to determine which mixer
system would be installed in his new mix studio, Château Trumfio.
In the end, he ended up buying a Trident 80c with discrete modifications
by Inward Connections, but our efforts were not in vain.
A few years back I had sold him an Inward 16 x 2 which he used in conjunction with a custom built Neve 1084 rack which we built to sum 8 channels into stereo via original 1272 amplifiers. Dave is an advocate of “mixing outside the box” and was a panelist at the most recent Tape op convention on this subject. Knowing he was going to be speaking at the convention we produced our shoot out to be as fair as possible, so that we could display the results for the other convention goers. Now these results are available for download on the Vintage King website. The mixers involved are; the API 8200, Chandler TG Mixer, Inward Connections 16 x 2, Neve 8816, SPL Mix Dream, Tonelux and a Protools “bounce to disk” for comparison. The outbound conversion was through Digidesign 192’s and the inbound stereo track was printed through the UA 2196. We did our best to ensure the levels were matched every step of the way. Although most of these mixers offer 16 input channels, we only had one API 8200, which has 8 inputs. To keep an even playing field we only used 8 inputs on every other mixer. There is a definite performance improvement when more channels are stemmed out of a DAW but this demonstration still shows the qualities and tone each of the mixers impart. We did a series of mixes with an electronic track by the group Baldwin Brothers (TVT) as well as a rock track by Acute (Help).The stereo mixes were printed back into protools and then I converted the files to MP3 directly from Protools using Digidesigns MP3 encoder. For best comparison import the files into a session and A/B away. Please feel free to call or write me for more information or arrange a shootout of your own.
-Jeff Ehrenberg
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| Neve 8816 | SPL Mix Dream | |
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| Tonelux TL-MX2x16 | Chandler Ltd. TG Mixer | |
The Tonelux 16 features 16 MX2 Stereo Line Mixer Input Modules, 4 FX2+ Stereo Returns/Send Master, an SM2 Stereo Master, a CR2 Control Room Monitor, 2 Tonelux VRacks and a Power Supply, providing the user with 16 mix modules with sends and 8 effects/aux input returns all for a total of 24 inputs to stereo.
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The Chandler Limited TG Mixer is the of Chandlers experience working with many types of vintage, discrete circuits. The Mini Rack Mixer traces its lineage back to several types of these amplifiers developed in the 60's and 70's that have been Chandlerized for modern usage. Each Channel of the 16x2 Mixer is transformer balanced and driven by the New Chandler Line Amp, which borrows from Chandlers other products but has been redesigned for use in this mixer. The Mini Mixer is jam packed with discrete amps and classic sound, 20 discrete amplifiers and 22 custom wound transformers in the unit, and delivering all the punch and tone you need for todays digital environment. In addition to the mixer section, the unit has a full featured Control Room section including Talkback, Speaker switching, Mute, Mono, Dim, External input (also used as an insert point), and separate Control Room and Stereo Buss outs. Rock MP3 | Electronic MP3 (Right-click to save) |
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| API 8200 | Inward Connections 16x2 | |
The API 8200 8 Channel Line Mixer allows you to mix with genuine API circuitry. It works with the 7600 and 7800 to form a custom sized, easily expandable console configuration. The 8200 provides 8 inputs in one rack space and features a level control, a Panner and 2 Aux sends per channel. Each channel has a balanced input and conveniently switchable insert, Mute and Solo switches, making this the perfect mixer for any line level application. Rock MP3 | Electronic MP3 (Right-click to save) |
Rock MP3 | Electronic MP3 (Right-click to save) |
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| ProTools Bounce to Disk | ||
Rock
MP3 | Electronic
MP3 (Right-click to save) |
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