Turtlerock Forum

hey guys anyone got a summing mixer they are not using?

or.. has anyone used a 3124+ for summing before? I think I may need 8 channels though.

Hey Angus, who is building it for you?

Bugger that!
get an an Aussie to build you one - and support the locals
Rob built this for me, and can do any design you need

Oh yeah - and it has:
a 2 speaker switch for different monitor selection -
a high quality headphone amp with volume control.
a volume control for control room level
a 2 track return /playback switch
a 2nd 2 track return for CD/ ipod etc
a mono switch
a stereo mix bus insert
proper metering with +10/+4 switch
a control room mute
All in one box!!

Can you make your picture bigger. I think I need glasses for my glasses to see it.

I had Ross Giles' prototype 'Black Box' valve summing unit here for a while... he was still tweaking it, but man it sounded good. In the end i decided i needed the features of a console but otherwise i would've bought it for sure. I haven't been in touch with him much since he moved to the country (hi Ross if you're still reading the forum!) so I don't know where he is with it. but i always thought it was a seriously good unit and was keen to see it go into production (although of course ross is pretty much all custom order).

worth looking into.

I hope this works......

Thats the one - fully passive -
I use a custom Andrew Kay stereo valve mic pre for make-up gain
the other great thing about Robs box is it replaces so may bits and pieces in the studio and puts them in one contained 2RU space -

for those of you interested in more info about the SSL 5000 mix buss, have a look here.

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=43999.0

There's no great secret to virtual earth mixing though, and I've made a few active summing boxes with a JLM99V as the summing opamp - the big thing is to use a +/-24V power supply to get as much headroom as you can and remember to decouple the output. I am absolutely sure that Rob or any of the other gurus here could build you one if you wanted it.

But as I have said in other posts, be sure that its what you want - cabling the thing can be a bitch and a bad cable easily wipes out any benefit of summing OTB.

Hey Chris T, How are you doing aux sends, parallel buss' ? Or are effects ITB? Or if it's a trade secret that's cool.

Hey Barney - I'm doing a few (twisted) things to get some sends..
Ive got one cue send on my 10 Channel Electrodyne for parallel drum comp - or reverb sends.
Vocal reverb and delay sends are multed on patchbay post vintage eq and comps.
I use mults on my patchbay for others sends too and I have also some splitter leads if needs be.
Some sends can come direct from Pootools outs - but 95% of the time I want to send post external EQ's and comps.

Its a bit of a PITA to do all this - but beats having a huge console - I prefer lots of modules from different consoles and the passive mixer/mic pre as a mix bus adds the glue and pulls the sound all together at the end stage.

I'm just about to rack up some Q8 coronado strips - but I will keep the 4 Auxes on the strip for more sends.
I will never chop modules down again and get rid of the auxes - I need em too much

Is it easy enough to do a recall mix for whatever reason Chris? or is that a stupid question...

The Tasmanian wrote:Hey Barney - I'm doing a few (twisted) things to get some sends..
Ive got one cue send on my 10 Channel Electrodyne for parallel drum comp - or reverb sends.
Vocal reverb and delay sends are multed on patchbay post vintage eq and comps.
I use mults on my patchbay for others sends too and I have also some splitter leads if needs be.
Some sends can come direct from Pootools outs - but 95% of the time I want to send post external EQ's and comps.

Its a bit of a PITA to do all this - but beats having a huge console - I prefer lots of modules from different consoles and the passive mixer/mic pre as a mix bus adds the glue and pulls the sound all together at the end stage.

I'm just about to rack up some Q8 coronado strips - but I will keep the 4 Auxes on the strip for more sends.
I will never chop modules down again and get rid of the auxes - I need em too much

Wow I literally spend 5 hours listening to shootouts and reading about passive summing.

I think I like the idea of the chandler mini mixer. Way to much money though. Almost makes sense to do what you're doing Chris T and have a bunch of channel strips. Maybe what I really want is a small rackmounted mixer.

The search continues.

Last time we had this discussion I ordered Rob's Passive Summing Mixer and I've been very happy with it.

Ben I can do a recall mix reasonably easy/ write down the FX-external comp settings (as one would have to anyway - even on a fully automated console)
Most of my EQ's are click type - easy, write down fader levels/ or take photo's of gear.
But I never really get asked to do recalls thankfully.
Chris I'm glad you got one of robs passives.
I looked into the Chandler for a while - but did not want all of my mixes to have the same sound - the advantage of a passive mixer is it has no sound - its just point to point big clean signal path, the flavor comes from the gear - not the mix bus, and I can change the gear around to suit the sound of each project
...and the makeup gain can be valve or Neve or SSL - or whatever one wants.

And Chris - if you want to go down the rackmount - you should consider the SSL X desk - If I could afford one I would get it - very clean signal path and a real good mix bus. I was wanting one to use as a inline way to send to 4 auxes (post vintage EQ) - and use the mix bus as a stereo drum parallel - all re combining back into the passive mix bus.
The SSL X desk will eat any rackmount mixer sonically IMO

Yeah, when I got the Proharmonic Summing Mixer I ran the same Logic mix through it several times with various mic/pre make up gain (Api, Q8) and mix compressor (Q8, SSL) combinations and the differences in final stereo mix were quite marked, from a tight sounding mix to a big and ballsy mix.
One of the real pluses of the passive style mixer IMO = choose your own final mix colour.

I too am interested in getting an SSL XDesk + XPanda with all its features to use alongside a variety of flavoured gear on inserts & the mix buss. However in the meantime I'll be using the proharmonic box with a pair of pres, thinking JLM BA500s...
Also the Rascal Audio Tonebuss has had some great reviews although it's a pretty basic box...

After much umming and ahhing.
I am getting a little active (transistor) mixer made up, with some options for passive inserts.
Best of both worlds, I will report once it is built.

Just got her this week. Will give her a spin.



http://ekadek.com/?p=1191

Got my summing mixer this week too !
13 stereo channels (and 2 mic pres)
[attachment=0]my neve.JPG[/attachment]

NYMo wrote:Got my summing mixer this week too !
13 stereo channels (and 2 mic pres)

my neve.JPG

Good one. Let us know some details onse you have done a few mixes

chribble wrote:Just got her this week. Will give her a spin.



http://ekadek.com/?p=1191

one pretty new mother from ekadek. Now that would be an interesting bit of kit. I b ought a few things from him when he was in Melbourne. Interesting man who makes very nice gear. Has your summing mixer got any neve cards in it?

Chris H wrote:

chribble wrote:Just got her this week. Will give her a spin.



http://ekadek.com/?p=1191

one pretty new mother from ekadek. Now that would be an interesting bit of kit. I b ought a few things from him when he was in Melbourne. Interesting man who makes very nice gear. Has your summing mixer got any neve cards in it?

Yeah, she's active with the 538 cards on every channel. They are his recreation not new old stock.
I have a buss interrupter (chan 1-6) with a passive makeup option on it so I can make up with any pres I want, before master buss - and blend back in.

Alternatively I can just send to master fader which is active, also with insert points.

What ek stuff do you have? don't know why I haven't heard more about him.

Hey Nymo
Awesome - whats she made of? Never seen one before

Hi Chris
It's just a bog standard Neve 54 series broadcast console !
They usually are a smaller format than this one.
Just two mic pres with direct outs into PT and 13 stereo line inputs for summing.
A couple of aux. built in the early 80's.
There's a nice one on eBay oz at the moment....starting @$12k !
(12 34128 mic channels)