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Sound Devices Mix Pre-3 and Mix Pre-6


afewmoreyears

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1 hour ago, dgirtsman said:

I'm wondering if a cable like this would work with a bds (using NP1's) to power one of the mix pres for bag work?

if your power distribution box has an output that supplies regulated 5V with at least 1.5A you should be fine. Remote Audio, Hawk Wooks, Kortwich etc make some that have an USB connector. Alternatively you can build an adapter that converts unregulated 14V to regulated 5V.

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On 6/3/2017 at 0:51 PM, Throwback said:

I don't see why this implies digital gain at all, but, rather, a combination of trim/gain and fader in one control: the advanced mode gain range is 6db-76db, so -14-96db is this plus or minus 20db of fader gain/attenuation.

SD posted a clarification video of the custom mode: looks like you were right and it's post fader (even though the exact gain staging is not addressed and it looks like you have limited control over the mix track this way):

 

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On 6/2/2017 at 5:26 AM, Paul Isaacs said:

Does your cell phone have 4 of the highest quality, discrete, class A analog preamps, analog limiters, and headphone amp money can buy? 

Again see all the available power options here: https://www.sounddevices.com/tech-notes/mixpre-3-mixpre-6-powering-options

NiMH, L-mounts, or Anker USB-C should give you pretty good run time in many portable situations.

Paul,

I don't really like the ergonomics of any of the portable power solutions offered by SD.  The L-Mount Sled has the 2 batteries  at right angles to the Mixpre 3 instead of inline with the recorder. I would rather have had 1 N950 L type battery that barely sticks out above or below the level of the MixPre like those used on the 7 series recorders.  Instead the L-Mount sled that holds 2 batteries at right angles  prevents the MixPre from lying flat in a bag or on a table causing the display and knobs to be angled down away from view.

Since this unit is marketed as a solution for the DSLR shooter to mount under the camera,  The L-Mount sled will not work because the most High amperage L mount batteries would interfere with the camera lens or Tripod mount.  Same for the 8 cell AA sled.  Notice neither of these alternate power solutions are shown mounted on the MixPre in any of the photos.

 

LMount.png

Second of all I am not thrilled with using the USB-C as the only source of External Power.   The heavy gauge USB-C cable provided with the machine which requires 2 USB-A connectors Y-ed out at the other end seems like it puts a lot of unnecessary torque on the tiny USB-C connector which could eventually cause the surface mount solder joints inside the mixer to break.  I have had this problem on a lot of equipment with HDMI connectors and Heavy High quality HDMI cables plugged in.  This is a problem in equipment designed for portable knock around use where you are plugging and unplugging cables all the time or shoving the thing into a bag.   I would have liked a smaller gauge cable and/or right angle 3 mm or 5.1 mm co-axial Power  connector that could take a Wall Wart or NP1 Battery cup as power supply.  This way you could provide constant power without having to worry about breaking your USB connector or running down your laptop batteries.  I would also like to see the USB-A connector on the side to support USB Microphones. Currently there is no way to plug in a USB Mic like the Audio Technica or Blue USB mics.  This is important for podcasters which may want to upgrade to this unit for their recording setup.  And by the way, high quality analog preamps and limiters with discrete components shouldn't pull a lot of power.   The Nagra was famous for its QPSE preamps that were very quiet and the whole machine only pulled 100 MA in Test Mode (All preamps and monitor amps and record amps powered up)

 

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The L-Mount sled will not work because the most High amperage L mount batteries would interfere with the camera lens or Tripod mount. 

You could instead get the Hawk-Woods dummy L-mount to Hirose adapter. The dummy battery is very flat, so shouldn't stick out much if at all. and you could connect your power supply of choice to it.
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1 hour ago, Constantin said:

You could instead get the Hawk-Woods dummy L-mount to Hirose adapter. The dummy battery is very flat, so shouldn't stick out much if at all. and you could connect your power supply of choice to it.

I would expect somebody (or several companies) will come with a flat dummy sled with hirose (and 14V to 8V converter) input pretty soon, so I'd wait for that (or build (or if in a hurry, you could build one yourself or ask one of the wizards to build one).

coming to think of it, a flat dummy sled with built in buffer battery and hirose connector would be pretty sweet. 

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12 hours ago, Tobo said:

Hello, I am wondering if anyone here can confirm that this is class compliant and can be used as a usb interface for an iPad to use for multi tracking?  Thanks

The MixPre-3 and  MixPre-6 are USB Audio Class compliant and work well with Core Audio.

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On 2017-4-22 at 2:39 AM, Paul Isaacs said:

All ISOs and mix tracks are recorded into one polyphonic file.

Hi to all, 

regarding the quote, is there a way to record each channel to separate mono audio file, rather than one multichannel audio file? So I could just copy all the separate audio tracks from the browser. 

Thanks

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There were a couple of posts on this threadabout the K-Tek KSTG70 bag fitting the MP6 well so I ordered one to try out. It does fit the MP6 like a glove... if you use the 4-AA battery pack. There is absolutely no way the MP6 will fit in that bag with the L-Mount battery holder attached. Its possible that a particularly skinny USB-C battery pack could fit in the bag with the MP6 but neither of the ones I tried would. I'll be returning this bag. 

I have to agree with @cmgoodin that I'm not really a fan of the ergonomics of any of the power solutions offered for the MixPre's. The L-Mount in particular is ungainly on a tabletop and nigh impossible in a bag, as using it with decent sized batteries makes the bottom of the unit almost three times wider than the top of the MixPre. Hopefully somebody (Remote Audio maybe?) will come up with a better solution. Ok I'm done harping on that...

I also tested the unit a couple of times by recording files and either removing the battery or letting it run all the way down until the unit automatically shuts off. It seems that the MixPre does close the files so that they are usable if power is pulled, but you can't take the card out of the unit right after it shuts down and expect the file to be readable in a computer. I took the card out without powering the unit back on first and neither Wave Agent nor Pro Tools could read the file. However, if you put the card back in the MixPre and power it back on, then the unit seems to do whatever it needs to do to close the file and after that it is readable by the computer. 

-Mike

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thanks for the hands on info.

yeah, bit strange decisions on the powering options, specially since the sleds are not cheap for a bit of plastic (80EUR for the 4AA and 125EUR for the 8AA and NP-F). Personally I would love to see a sled with single NP-F inline and small integrated buffer battery that can run the unit for 5minutes for swapping batteries. 

chris

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19 hours ago, chrismedr said:

To me Pauls quote seems pretty clear that multiple mono tracks are not supported - but you can always use wave agent or other tools to convert the poly into multiple mono.

Thanks! I was not certain, Wave Agent will do :)! 

Another question if I may. The guide state: "Audio Interface (USB-C) 8-in/4-out; 44.1 to 192 kHz;" but I'm not sure how to change the sample rate. I can not change it in Mixpre, not in Cubase (I can change the project sample rate, but the audio is slowdown) or in the audio ASIO Generic. Can we change it or should we just wait for the official driver? I have a green battery (two USB 3.0).


Edit--

Okay, so now I have a big problem :P. (custom mode - basic gain, rest to adv.) When the Rec L,R is set to off, the ISO track is almost unhearable, even with the highest gain. I can hear all good when recording but the signal is very, very low on the recorded material. I can see and hear the limiter during recording but I think there is no liming on the ISO (after checking it in the DAW). 

When the Rec L,R is on all is recorded good, including the ISO. But there is no reason for me to record 3 tracks for one MIC (ISO and the mix). 

I have reinstalled the firmware update, get back to default preset and all the same. Do you have any idea what is going on :D?

I think I just have to use advanced on the gain, and set it up from the menu. All is good then. It looks like this basic gain is 100% digital, or added after the ISO recorded material. And with the L&R the ISO is recorded post, or without the L&R the gain is ignored. If not then I do not know, all of it is just twisted and not working good for me:P. Love the sound though :D. For now I'll work with the full advanced mode and without using the knobs.

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On 2017-06-10 at 8:28 AM, Robert0 said:

When the Rec L,R is set to off, the ISO track is almost unhearable, even with the highest gain. I can hear all good when recording but the signal is very, very low on the recorded material. 

Have you changed the headphone settings? The default is mixLR, so if you're not recording them, you'll hear nothing. You must make a new headphone preset with the ISO channels as source.

Also, make sure you have increased the gain on the ISO channels to a good level. Push in the fader knob and press GAIN on the menu to adjust.

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12 hours ago, Phillip said:

Have you changed the headphone settings? The default is mixLR, so if you're not recording them, you'll hear nothing. You must make a new headphone preset with the ISO channels as source.

Also, make sure you have increased the gain on the ISO channels to a good level. Push in the fader knob and press GAIN on the menu to adjust.

Hi Phillip, 

thank you for the info but it's something different (what you said is correct for the advanced mode, not the custom with basic gain - to use the knobs). And yes I have adjusted the headphones for ISO tracks and I checked the files in the DAW. Overall nice options :D, for now I'm working with advanced mode and not using the knobs at all. 

5 hours ago, audiofp said:

MixPre-3 seems like a boom op alternative to an MM-1 with backup timecode recorder for $50 more.  Just received one and these things are tiny!  Impressive little gadget!

MixPre-6 is tiny as well :D, so I can only imagine the MixPre-3 :D. It sounds great both on mic and headphone pre-amps, plus it have very impressive options, I think all the baby problems (or just "user wants") will be corrected with the soft. 

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5 hours ago, Robert0 said:

Hi Phillip, 

thank you for the info but it's something different (what you said is correct for the advanced mode, not the custom with basic gain - to use the knobs). And yes I have adjusted the headphones for ISO tracks and I checked the files in the DAW. Overall nice options :D, for now I'm working with advanced mode and not using the knobs at all.

I ended up staying in advanced mode. With my usage, I generally just set a level and leave it, so I don't really need the knobs (although it will be nice when SD gets this sorted out). Plus you can have presets for different setups and set the gain separately for each one.

I think there actually is no "trim" pot on these recorders. You can only affect the gain of the preamp output.

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not sure if SD is still following this, but just had a nice idea:

how about an "ISO mode" (next to basic and advanced mode) where the front knobs become trim gains of the ISO tracks and the LR mix recording is disabled?

that's how I would use it most of the time (and I suspect a lot of other people too), and would be easier to understand and set up then a custom mode with strange basic/advanced combinations

chris

 

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30 minutes ago, chrismedr said:

not sure if SD is still following this, but just had a nice idea:

how about an "ISO mode" (next to basic and advanced mode) where the front knobs become trim gains of the ISO tracks and the LR mix recording is disabled?

that's how I would use it most of the time (and I suspect a lot of other people too), and would be easier to understand and set up then a custom mode with strange basic/advanced combinations

chris

 

I thought the same way! :D Including ISO output for headphones. 

 

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10 hours ago, chrismedr said:

not sure if SD is still following this, but just had a nice idea:

how about an "ISO mode" (next to basic and advanced mode) where the front knobs become trim gains of the ISO tracks and the LR mix recording is disabled?

that's how I would use it most of the time (and I suspect a lot of other people too), and would be easier to understand and set up then a custom mode with strange basic/advanced combinations

chris

 

I must admit I haven't followed recent software updates or the like - tho' I would agree that a 'simple' mode if it doesn't exist already where the knobs simply control the gain for recording (with no mixing going on anywhere) would be what half the users (half of the time) would want? With complete ganging control (and eventually ganging with offset) obviously ...

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5 hours ago, The Immoral Mr Teas said:

I must admit I haven't followed recent software updates or the like - tho' I would agree that a 'simple' mode if it doesn't exist already where the knobs simply control the gain for recording (with no mixing going on anywhere) would be what half the users (half of the time) would want? With complete ganging control (and eventually ganging with offset) obviously ...

Give or take the current bug (which prevents turning off the LR mix while using custom mode to have the channel knobs control gain on ISOs), obviously we have this already, so creating a new mode perhaps called 'Basic - ISO' as opposed to the current 'Basic [- Mix]' wouldn't add functionality, but just save that initial custom setup. That sounds harmless enough, and there is indeed room for a fourth mode button on the mode selection page of the system menu, but just I wonder if people would then say they want various different options under this mode (i.e. basic or advanced for channel, headphone, record, metadata and outputs) and not those given to them: which takes us back to the very useful custom mode (not so 'strange' really). The fact that you say you would want this 'simple' mode, plus 'with complete ganging control (and eventually ganging with offset', and that Robert, above, wants the simple mode with 'ISO output for headphones' says it all: you want channel knobs controlling the ISO gain but with custom set ups!

A few bugs apart (I'm especially keen for the MS/stereo-linking Mixpre-3 pan bug to be fixed...), I think SD have got the functionality spot on. That said, expansion of the manual to cover all options (and to explain more about the gain staging - with a block diagram - etc.) would make things more understandable for users.

Cheers,

Roland

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On 2017-6-12 at 2:31 AM, audiofp said:

MixPre-3 seems like a boom op alternative to an MM-1 with backup timecode recorder for $50 more.  Just received one and these things are tiny!  Impressive little gadget!

Unbalanced O/P ok I guess if your B.O is using a TX.

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