I’m lucky enough that most of the boxes I’ve owned have been able to interact with other devices without having a mixer involved (CT, PT, 707)
I’m getting into a couple of boxes where that isn’t an option (Cycles, Drumbrute Impact) and so I need to hook things together, but I don’t have the space or need for a big mixing desk and it seems pointless to be buying something with mic preamps and the like.
The options seem to be very budget passive mixers like you can find on Amazon, or MyVolts.
Moving on from there the options seem to be:
Volca Mixer - Not too pricey but better for Volcas
1010 Bluebox - Seems perfect, but reasonably expensive
TE Mixer - Stupidly small, stupidly expensive
Anything else I should be aware of?
Bonus points for compressors and reverb, but not a fixed requirement
Same situation. Was about to open the same thread
Guess bluebox might be the best solution. Not sure if I need the recording features etc a simple mixer this size might do it
The TE Mixer looks great to me regarding size and the fact that it works as audio interface. But I‘m not willing to spend the prize
Just to add a slightly left-of-centre suggestion to the convo as I’ve been considering similar but maybe a matrix mixer? Have been considering the Erica Synths one as well as Herbs & Stones Pathways. Relatively niche I know.
if it doesn’t need to be have stereo output look at the link I posted in the guitar thread like an hour ago for the micromix. powered, 4 to 1, super budget price. really the only downside is that it sums to mono but most of the time that works alright too, just not to plug headphones directly in, you need a cable that splits mono to dual mono for that.
by budget I mean 12 or 13 bucks. I bought 2 of them when they were $10 each. I have like 2 big mixers but I use these a lot because I can carry them from room to room or wherever I’m messing around and for example, run a line in from my phone mp3 player to one channel, a guitar into looper into another, digi into another, and whatever else and run it all out to a zoom recorder.
yeah and mono stereo option looks nice but I would note that the one you linked has a 5v power source with a micro usb looking port, the one I mentioned has a 12v barrel tip supply so it may have an impact on the output and overall noise.
very similar looking product though. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn most of the internal components are the same.
The Bluebox is cool for sure, but seems like a lot under the hood youd be paying for but don’t need? Loads of small desk mixers out there that are all basically the same quality. I use a MackieMix8
Six input analogue mixer, I use it for the Digitakt+Digitone mainly,
it’s not got all the bells and whistles, but it has everything you
need and is relatively compact.
It’s in a decent budget range as it’s about €140/$170
I see it on a deal for about 30 dollars off quite frequently.
I really like it.
There is also an usb output version called the ZEDi8, but I have never used one and cannot vouch for it!..
for whatever reason those usb connections seem to invite ground loop noise even when you power them from a wall wart so I don’t know, I don’t want to discourage you but I’m guessing 40 pound is about 55-60 USD and I’m happy enough with this one that is the equivalent of 8-9 pound when converted to usd. like I said, I bought 2. they’re pretty handy. I don’t know how walmart handles international shipping but I assume it’s possible.
actually I just looked at your link again, i thought shipping was 5 but it’s 10 so thats actually 45. it’s reasonable, but not cheap. amazon has easy return policies though, thats one advantage.
Some simple small options to consider are the BX line of Boss mixers. They range in size and features, there’s the relatively small BX-60/BX-600 which has an aux send, or the cute lil BX-4 that can run on batteries.
Haven’t tried the VMIX 10 myself, but I it seems pretty hard to beat for it’s size and price with 6 mono and 2 stereo channels, two sends, both with stereo returns!
using Zoom LiveTrak L-8.
not the most compact device out there, but:
– inexpensive
– battery/USB powered
– allows OTB multitrack recording (pre-fader!)
– does not have noise/hum issues (Bluebox is known to have them under certain conditions)
– has builtin per-channel compressor – which is fairly mild, but handy
– just works
PS. tried a couple of passive mixers and did not like them at all.
even if you need something utterly small & basic – consider this:
I’m really enjoying the Bluebox too, but primarily because it is also a recorder. It’s basically everything I was using an interface+computer for in a small portable box and I love that about it. Very easy to hook up a small setup quickly and get right to recording, which has streamlined a lot of the process for me.
