Mixer Help - Point me in the right direction

PaPa

PaPa

Major Contributor
Hey all,

I am interested in purchasing a mixer to go with my canon XH A1. I have been using them a lot in school now and understand their necessity.

I would love to have a sound guru's advice on what i should be looking for. Basically, it will be for narrative filmmaking, and possibly other..

My questions are:

1) What can i get for close to 500 dollars?

2) What separates the 500 dollar ones, from the thousand dollar ones? Is it performance? Quality of sound? What distinguishes the high end from mid level mixers?

3) What models would you recommend? Preferably something i can plug two microphones, or even three to mix live. I.e. two wireless lavs, and maybe one boom ( would be my maximum setup ) Otherwise two inputs is fine.

Thank you so much!

-Jon
 
There is this neat search function for things that have been discussed over and over...
Summary:
Lower cost: PSC Promix3, ENG-44, MixPre/Shure FP24, Wendt X2
...and then everybody will try to steer you towards the Sound Devices 302, which people here love and I´m sure that is for a very good reason...
 
Last edited:
Jon,

First, always have a bit of patience when asking a question here. A great thing to do to kill time while you're waiting is to read the stickies and the archives.

Recommendations on which mixer to get depend on a lot of things. I own 4 different mixers that get used in various situations.

Are you always going to have access to power and someone else to run the mixer? If so, then look at the board-type mixers such as the Alesis FW or Mackie Onyx. If you need a battery powered ENG style mixer, than Sound Devices is the way to go.

Stay away from the Behringer mixers at all cost (unless you want to buy my old one...which I'll sell you for cheap. :-)

Phil
 
Last edited:
battery power would definitely be on the list of specifications needed. Especially if you're out in the middle of no where.

What would you say to either of these?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/428641-REG/Rolls__MX422_Basic_Field_Mixer.html

and

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/428643-REG/PSC__DV_PROMIX_3_.html

Not worth it? Why? Both of these products are within my price range.
I'm afraid that the SD302 is far over my price range, for the time being. Perhaps in the future when more money is coming in, but for now i need something that will do a great job for the money that i have to spend on a mixer.

Mcgee, as someone who has not spent as much time that is required to truly understand each fact and feature of mixers, would you be able to summarize what i would be losing by not purchasing the sound device mixer? I would just like to see what i do not get by spending only 600 dollars on a field mixer as opposed to 13 hundred. Then i can decide if it is worth it to me or not. Currently i am going directly into camera, so if you can understand, any mixer is already a step up, i just need something that fits within budget and that will raise the quality of audio that i get.

Basically, from what i've seen in the field, getting tone is really important for setting levels on the camera levels. Then you need limiters, i am not so sure that there are compressors, nor do i think i want to do any filtering prior to recording, rather in post. Other than that, just the ability to mix 3 microphone sources into either all one channel, or multi channel and phantom power.
 
Last edited:
2 things - i dont know this rolls model but the privies was one of the worst i ever used or have contact with ;
the psc is also womething that i will never consider , nade for idiots with 0 knowleg in mind ( output limitters alwais on ) not really something that ever consider
look for used wendt 4 , wendt 3 shure 33 ( avoid 32 or 32a)
or audio development 260 .
these defenetly would sound and act better then 2 above .

abot 302 , if you live in high humidity think something else if you live in the desert or where is o to much rain thats the best 3 channel if you talking sound and menu options , for high humidity wendt 3 is m uch much better

my 2 shekels
 
Thanks for your response Oleg, could you please expand on why this limiter business with the Promix 3?

From what i've experienced, one wants to use limiters. What exactly is the downside to this? The reviews seem very decent for it's price range. Thanks!
 
no one want to use a limmiter if he doesnt have 2 , you use limiters only for unexpected loud pick which you cant controll or dont know when they would happend .for normal film work you dont use them as you able normaly ride the gain during the shot .
if your limiter kick to much you get sqoshed sound .with digital domain you usially have about 14-16 db of free dinamics in normal situations where you can almost avoid using these .
then leveling your sound and compress a bit for loudness in final mixing stage .
 
I value your opinion, but i guess my question is more in the state that limiters only "squish" the sound when the volume gets too high. So why would this then be a bad thing? It is kind of like a compressor but only for the things that get overly loud.
 
its hard limiter , not compressor ,you Dont want to use if you dont have to .
ask around peopel who work on films , not news and get some unswers
the limiters on psc made for people who dont care or dont know how to use proper gear, this is price point product that have nothing with qouality or proper working flow .
these limiters made for use with procumer cameras which not have enouth ability get very hot signal and the wall thing came to get person who invest 2 grand on camera good feeling he is ot paing twice or 3 times more (sqn)only
for a mixer . so if it makes you good this is the product for you , defenetly not for me who make living from sondman profession .
 
thanks again for the information. But as i said, anything right now, i believe, is better than plugging directly into the camera. So the question is for the price, am i getting something that will improve my sound quality and allow me to create more complex microphone setups. All this will be a great addition to my sound gear and will stay within my budget, until one day, when i can afford the real deal.
 
PaPa,

I would follow Oleg's advice and look for used equipment, especially if you're just starting to accumulate your equipment. About half of my equipment came to me pre-owned, and this has enabled me to build a much larger kit much faster than I could have afforded otherwise. For example, I got my 302 used from B&H (of all places) for $800. You just have to watch out for the good deals. They are there to be had. (BTW, I really don't recommend B&H for used equipment - said 302 arrived DOA. Fortunately, it was still under warranty so SD fixed it for free. I did check, and the cost of the fixes they made, had it not been under warranty would have been about $50 + shipping, so still a good deal, though a bit of a pain.)

Phil
 
i completely understand and appreciate the need to get good equipment, instead of spending a good amount on something that will one day be replaced, but what i need is an alternative to spending a thousand dollars on a mixer.

I, unfortunately, do not know hwere to look to find good, used, mixers. I looked on ebay and say only old models. I have not seen the 302 online used for a decent price. Do you know of a good place to keep an eye out for?
 
alright so, let's restart this with the following question:

which one of the following should i purchase and why? ( knowing that i cannot wait for something to come on sale nor do i have thousands to spend )

1) Azden FMX-32

2) PSC DV Promix 3

3) ATI MX-100C

4) Rolls MX 422 ( has limiters, tone, phantom, and an extra input in case of additional sources )

if there is a reason to spend this little extra, i may be able to pull it, but is it worth the difference?

5) Azden FMX-42

and finally

6) Shure M367 ( 6 inputs? good mixer? )
 
Last edited:
PaPa said:
alright so, let's restart this with the following question:

which one of the following should i purchase and why? ( knowing that i cannot wait for something to come on sale nor do i have thousands to spend )

1) Azden FMX-32

2) PSC DV Promix 3

3) ATI MX-100C

4) Rolls MX 422 ( has limiters, tone, phantom, and an extra input in case of additional sources )

if there is a reason to spend this little extra, i may be able to pull it, but is it worth the difference?

5) Azden FMX-42

and finally

6) Shure M367 ( 6 inputs? good mixer? )
Click to expand...


Don't buy any of those period.

You could always go with a SD Mix Pre if you don't want to go used and you still want quality pre amps. They hold their value well, so when you are ready to step up to a 302, you are in good shape probably get 80-90% back when you sell it.

Oleg reccommended a used Wendt IN THIS THREAD (used wendt 4 , wendt 3, shure 33 ( avoid 32 or 32a)
or audio development 260).

Do a search and also check out trewaudio.com used gear.
 
what i am not getting are reasons why not to get this, simply saying don't get it is not strong enough to shift my opinion.

Perhaps you can explain what i am not getting and why it is not worth it as opposed to just saying dont get it.
 
well I suppose it's kind of like buying a car. If you want a good, reliable car that get you from place to place and never leaves you stranded. A car that you can sell at the end an it is still worth something, you don't buy a daewoo.

A good mixer is going to last and have good preamps, limiters, potentiometers and other components. The azden is going to be worth nothing when you finally realize that you shouldn't have wasted your money and you are going to be stuck with it and be screwed. GOOD audio gear depreciates very slowly compared to computer/camera equipment, so good gear holds it's value. Do what I did... just charge the SD302 and pay it off with the money you make doing PROFESSIONAL work.

I wasn't trying to spend a ton of time explaining things, I just answered the question. I went through the exact same dilemma and there are no easy answers.

If you want more info, do a search.
 
Last edited:
alright, thank you.

I guess the one thing i wanted to hear was more or less about the quality of audio of the other mixers, and not necessarily the quality of the build.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top