Post audio mixer / control surface

[Bus No. 8]

Hey, I need a cheap and cheerful 4-8 channel, firewire or USB mixer for post audio in Final Cut / Sountrack, for around $200.00 or less.

What would you suggest?

A friend suggested the Alesis MasterControl - interface Control Surface, which looks sweet, but is way more channels than I need, and much more expensive than I want to spend. I just need to be able to control my audio with faders, and not a mouse.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Robert

 

[Steve House]

Hey, I need a cheap and cheerful 4-8 channel, firewire or USB mixer for post audio in Final Cut / Sountrack, for around $200.00 or less.

What would you suggest?

A friend suggested the Alesis MasterControl - interface Control Surface, which looks sweet, but is way more channels than I need, and much more expensive than I want to spend. I just need to be able to control my audio with faders, and not a mouse.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Robert

I think a mixer would be redundent unless you also needed an interface for recording. Take a look at Behringer's control surface - http://behringer.com/BCF2000/index.cfm?lang=ENG

 

[Bus No. 8]

Thanks, I'm looking at the Behringer. I'm not sure why this would be rendundent, though. I want to be able to control the audio levels in my FCP projects without using the virtual mixer built into FCP, and I want to be able to control more than one track at a time.

 

[Steve House]

Thanks, I'm looking at the Behringer. I'm not sure why this would be rendundent, though. I want to be able to control the audio levels in my FCP projects without using the virtual mixer built into FCP, and I want to be able to control more than one track at a time.

Ahhh - that's different. I read "not using the mouse" as still mixing in the box but using real faders instead of the mouse to control it. The Behringer is a poor man's version of the Mackie control surface, with similar motorized faders so it can remember the moves during the run-throughs and replay them for the final mix.

 

[Guy_Cochran]

Probably out of budget, but just wanted to throw it out there for anyone else that may be interested. I've tested the Mackie Control Universal with FCP 6 and it works perfectly. You just gotta hit the "Record Audio Keyframes" button in the audio mixer in fcp. Also there is a little menu in FCP under "Tools>Control Surfaces" to set it up.

http://www.mackie.com/products/mcupro/index.html

We do sell these too

 

[Noiz2]

Me thinks your misunderstanding the situation. You asked about a control surface. A control surface controls that "virtual mixer", a "mixer" controls levels outside the computer. If you want to use automation the "mixer won't help. Well it could but then your talking a few grand minimum. For an analog mixer you have lots of choices in the price range your talking. For a control surface, not really. There are non-motorized non touch fader boxes but they are pretty useless for "mixing". They are great for setting MIDI parameters but there is a slew of issues using them for mixing. They are however generally an improvement over just a mouse. Motorized non-touch control surfaces are also not as good as one would think. There is a whole dance you have to do or the fader will fight you all the time, and like the non motorized faders if you don't move them for a while (usually a fraction of a second) you release control and have to go grab it again.
In the touch and motorized category there are a bunch to choose from starting around $1,000 used and heading to the stratosphere. Mackie makes a good one in the 1-2K range as does CM automation and Digidesign, though I think it will only work with Digi software. Tascam makes one I believe that is pretty affordable and then you start the steep climb into pro consoles running in the 10's of thousands and way way up.

Also FYI there are mixers that also work as control surfaces, BUT as far as I know it's an either or situation, you can't do both at the same time.

Thanks, I'm looking at the Behringer. I'm not sure why this would be rendundent, though. I want to be able to control the audio levels in my FCP projects without using the virtual mixer built into FCP, and I want to be able to control more than one track at a time.