From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Sat Feb 25 10:05:42 2006
Subject:Re: Mixer vs mini-mixer

Hi Walter,

>Does anyone make a mixer with an internal power supply that might still
>qualify as a mini-mixer? Mackie's smallest is something like 5" high by
>11" x 14." I have the little Alesis MultiMix but the plug-in, then
>screw-on, cable to power transformer is worse than any wall-wart. Help?

The Behringer RX1602 that I use has a regular (IEC-style) power cord. It's not a "true" mixer, however, because it doesn't have EQ controls -- just Volume, EFX/Monitor Send, Balance (Pan) and Mute. It's quite rugged, and uses 1U of rack space.

>As long as I'm in this deep, I'll ask a reaally stupid one I got
>hammered for a few years back: Your two or three mono inputs are in the
>mixer all in L/mono inputs and you're connecting to a mono amp/pa cab -
>should you pan your mono inputs all the way to the Left or leave them
>centered at high noon? Why or why not?

In most cases, leave them at Noon, because some mixers add ~3dB to hard-panned signals to make up for the lack of two output channels.

>Any sound degradation from full panning?

Shouldn't be.

>Naturally you would use the Left line out, correct?

Yes.

>Believe it or not, I called Mackie about this way back then, and the Mackie "tech"
>guy who answered the phone said to use a 'Y' adapter as the mixer
>output. Mono-a-mono summing? Hmm.. maybe a "dummy" plug in the Right
>Line Out?

You shouldn't have to do anything about the hanging output, other than maybe to turn it down to zero or mute it, if that's even possible. (Some mixers allow this; others don't.) Y-adapter summing of outputs often works, but it's asking for trouble, IMHO. Some cheaper mixers don't like this at all.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™ http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]