Jump to content

16 track analogue mixer


Mick

Recommended Posts

I remember liking Allen & Heath's 1604-sized mixers. And I regularly work on their digital Qu-16 and Qu-24 mixers and like them. So perhaps there current small analog Zed line is worth checking out. Looks like a couple of 16 and 18-channel versions are rack-mountable. 

https://www.allen-heath.com/key-series/zed-series/

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Frankly I'm surprised Sound Devices didn't release their CL-16 as a standalone 8 series mixer/recorder.  Hell, they could have even doubled down on digital inputs and made it only have Dante / AES so that they wouldn't have to incorporate analog pre's.  It would be pretty nice to just have a mixing desk that is 12v, has timecode and can record ISO's and mixes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Philip Perkins said:

Isn't CL12 just a control surface for the recorder?  IE no pres or mixing of it's own?

Yes the Cl12 and CL16 are both just control surfaces.  I was saying that it would be nice if they built one that was an actual mixer/recorder built in the same form factor so that you could simply have your mixer/recorder on your mixer slide out shelf and then have your wireless receivers / IFB transmitters on your cart shelves rather than having to have both a recorder + control surface + all the accoutrements.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to clarify, you are suggesting that you would like to see a Sound Devices mixing console that had inputs and the recorder is built in? This has been done a few times in the past and  it has not seemed to be something that most people want. There is still a desire amongst some to have the mixer (panel) be standalone DC powered mixer that has all the physical inputs and outputs you would expect and ids actually performing the mixing function. This sort of mixer can, of course, be used with any recorder.  What seems to be preferred these days by most is a fully featured mixer/recorder that handles  all the inputs and outputs and mixing, with comprehensive routing, EQ and FX  --  all of this under control from either the mixer/recorder itself or a hardware control surface.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Jeff Wexler said:

Just to clarify, you are suggesting that you would like to see a Sound Devices mixing console that had inputs and the recorder is built in? This has been done a few times in the past and  it has not seemed to be something that most people want. There is still a desire amongst some to have the mixer (panel) be standalone DC powered mixer that has all the physical inputs and outputs you would expect and ids actually performing the mixing function. This sort of mixer can, of course, be used with any recorder.  What seems to be preferred these days by most is a fully featured mixer/recorder that handles  all the inputs and outputs and mixing, with comprehensive routing, EQ and FX  --  all of this under control from either the mixer/recorder itself or a hardware control surface.

I know Sonosax had(has?) the SX-ST which has built in recording capabilities to the board and a lot of even prosumer / pro mixing boards aimed at the music and live sound market (Midas M32R for instance), but none can handle timecode nor can you really use it for film uses such as naming takes as they are more geared towards linear recording of an entire show.  The new CL16 seems to be a really nice new piece of kit and it would be fantastic to have something in that size with recording capabilities geared towards film.  Maybe Sound Devices could get away with having the CL16 exist still as a control surface only, and then have a little breakout box for I/O that could live on your cart?  Just a thought then again, I'm doing some armchair engineering over here!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bottom line, I’m trying to keep costs low as my next show is my last. Retirement looms large so as much as I’d like to go with dante and all the bells and whistles, it just doesn't make economical sense to indulge myself at this stage of my career. Thanks for all the input guys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/7/2020 at 9:49 PM, Jim Feeley said:

I remember liking Allen & Heath's 1604-sized mixers. And I regularly work on their digital Qu-16 and Qu-24 mixers and like them. So perhaps there current small analog Zed line is worth checking out. Looks like a couple of 16 and 18-channel versions are rack-mountable. 

https://www.allen-heath.com/key-series/zed-series/

 

Jim, do you know of a way to output all 16 channels to iso tracks on a SD 833?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are lots and lots of PA boards that do this with varying degrees of fidelity and clock stability.  My QSC TM16s can record all of their inputs as isos, plus mixes to a fast USB stick with an accuracy of about +/-1 frame an hour.  But no TC and no external clock port. But cheap, and small!  Soundcraft makes a few boards that can record themselves or act as an interface and have external clock ports, but no TC.  Yamaha ditto, but bigger and more expensive (and better sounding).  For the movie-centric world where TC, super-stable clocks, fast metadata entry and sound report making are dealbreakers the only game I know of at the moment are the portable "round knob" mixer-recorders made by Aaton, Zax, SD, Zoom and Tascam: essentially portable recorders that can use external fader surfaces (some proprietary some generic).  I wish something cheap and super portable like my QSCs could have external clock and TC, but apparently there are no economics for this at the moment. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/12/2020 at 1:54 PM, codyman said:

833 can only do 8 isolated channels max.  The bigger brother 888 can do a total of 16 if you utilize dante.

In a pinch the 833 can do 10 ISOs if you must (by recording ISOs 9&10 as a couple of the Buses, but of course you can't really include those in the mix with easy though). 

 

https://youtu.be/XbMgdz_a1fs

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...