I rarely buy gear , so rare that nowadays i write the companies like Studiomaster ,Xvive ,and whoever before i buy something .So the people at Studiomaster after answering my query said that i can review this piece of gear . I bought it myself and here's what i think about it .
I am not audio engineer so i really can not speak all in dB and Hertz but i can give honest view and ear on the machine , i did go to SAE for a few months but i never graduated so i know nothing ...
One thing that led me to this mixer for start is that Mic and Line inputs were separate for each channel, that was very important for me ,and something i prefer .and two aux channels unlike all the mixers in that price range that usually offer just one.
There are compressors on all 6 channels and I would like to test the compressors with premixed inputs and various sources ,they really are a attractive feature and at first glance they sounded more like sound leveler than true compression until i pushed them all the way and there it was, a nice interaction .
I know the mixer is sort of a utility box for many ,and it will be set and forget but i like to treat it like an instrument and it's very good for that . One fantastic feature this mixer has is not only the great effects and the dedicated fader for the DSP but also the ability to turn off and on the Effects ,like an Effects mute .
When it comes to the EQ's they are sort of very vanilla , they are just 3 band EQ's without sweep and gain controls separate which i loved with my old Fostex DMT8 , so for the price you can't ask for more . External EQ is needed if you want real thump or squeak but they do the job nicely for commoners .
I still like the mixer .Actually it's layout is just what i would like or imagine !
It has mute on each channel which is important for live sessions , and the submix* is more than welcome for no input mixing as a 3rd aux channel , yes there are 2 x aux channels which is important if you wanna use external effects and stuff and more important if you wanna record some no input mixing experimental mambo jumbo . The onboard effects have dedicated pot per channel next to the aux 1 and aux 2 and sound beautiful ,i will only say that and it's nice that there is a proper effects processor included for the price , i can imagine it being very useful feature in Live Events situations , like amateur Theater or Poetry reading.
With the compressors and the additional gain preamps on the top of the mixer this thing has a lot of gain at least for me using synthesizer levels i never touch the preamps at all .
Sadly there is no separate return channels for the 2 auxiliary outputs but a single stereo return and whatever that is is not talking well with my Polymoog Resonators which tells me i might need to adapt a cable for normal use . (There really is a User Manual:)
Lastly there is an mp3 player there , i wish it was just some picture of Phil Collins, i could live with that , you can just ignore the whole mp3 module , unless you are at a live event like a gallery or some book publishing event or everywhere else where you'd need music before and after some strange lady reads her semi erotic poem with a big white hat with purple ribbon
You have Group 1+2 as a linked stereo bus (Group 1 = L, Group 2 = R)
Each channel has a routing switch that sends signal to both groups at once
Then you get fader control over Group 1/2 output level ,So functionally, it’s less like:
“true independent subgroup routing” and more like: “alternate stereo mix bus with per-channel assign”
But i can imagine those two outputs being properly abused in no mixing input session .You can also have alternate mix going thru a processor and then feeding it back to another channel or recorder , and then you can give to two people two variants of the recording..
There is proper RCA record output and i am yet to test it with a portable recorder ,i thought the Record output has it's own proper Attenuator or Gain potentiometer and that would be useful when feeding these cheap portables like H1n or XV1R ,or anything semi professional really but no , there is however Control Room gain potentiometer that might do the same job . I would hate to use additional attenuator with the Portable Recorder ..but budget dictates compromises .
Conclusion. Yes, for me it is worth every penny. Companies keep cutting corners and features at this price point, yet this thing still manages to pack quite a lot inside. you get a lot of features that some might find useful , some less , but it's really worth as base for a small budget studio .
I hope to update this article in the future with few no-input mixing recordings .
https://studiomaster.com
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
