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View Full Version : mixers that can give you some nice warm distortion when pushed into red



PONTUS.2
02-13-2012, 12:37 AM
i know some classic mixers have this capability to warm up sounds when you push them into the red zone.

was curious to hear about any known ones

mostapha
02-13-2012, 08:57 AM
You don't want to do that with a mixer or with a full track. It's an antequated, left over idea based on 60s and 70s production techniques that engineers spent hours minimizing the effects of because things like automation didn't exist and tapes were the best they had.

People who rave about that are just complaining because modern mixers tend to distort more ugly. They think the problem is the mixers instead of the fact that they have no idea how to run them.

Get yourself a vestax. The ones I've used have like, zero headroom. It teaches you to have a clue what you're doing.

Estacy
02-13-2012, 11:15 AM
mixers with tube amps in them might give what you want. but really, there are very little mixers that sound good when pushed into the red. All of them above 1500 euros. Urei 1620s, Formula Sounds, Freevox, and some Rodecs and thats about it. All analogue mixers, there are no digital mixers that sound good when pushed into the red

roy rohypnol
02-14-2012, 02:29 PM
Would a Rodec Scratchbox fit into that Estacy??

mostapha
02-14-2012, 02:52 PM
No mixers sound good when pushed into clipping with full tracks.

Tape machines do.
Certain preamps do.
Guitar amps obviously do.

Mixers just sound like crap when pushed that hot.

Estacy
02-15-2012, 01:33 AM
Would a Rodec Scratchbox fit into that Estacy??
No, in fact like Mostapha said, those red lights are not good. its just that some mixers handle it better than other, I'm saying that they sound good, but there's always gonna be a degredation of sound since you're doing something with the music that really is not very good for quality, you're adding sound.

mostapha
02-15-2012, 02:24 AM
If you want that sweet, compressed, warm sound, your best bet is to run any mixer (correctly) into a DI box and a nice, warm vintage (or vintage sounding) mic preamp. The DI box converts the line-level signal into a mic-level signal and messes with impedance in such a way that it hits preamps correctly. There's not a huge quality difference among DIs.

Some suggestions for preamps:

http://www.ams-neve.com/Sites/8/Files/Images/product-imagery/1073aa.jpg (http://www.google.com/products?q=neve%201073&sa=N&tab=pf)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NBPPks1GJhI/Tclq6TsSNuI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/57K7MtfaNoE/s1600/1.jpg (https://www.google.com/search?q=slate+pro+audio+fox&tbm=shop&aq=f)

And if you really want that classic sound, one of these wouldn't hurt…

http://www.soundsliveshop.com/Handlers/ProductDetail/Main/ProductDetailImage.ashx?Path=/Resources/Images/main/XLogic%20G%20Series%20Compressor.jpg (http://www.google.com/products?q=ssl+xlogic+g+series+compressor&spell=1&oi=spell)

All that work for the last half a percent that you don't need…and that's going to get screwed up when it goes to the PA system anyway.