Mix Dream - ing
Its late late Sunday night, most people in America will begin waking up for work in an hour or two, I'm just winding down for the night. I tried to relax a bit this weekend, but you know, work always calls me like a fix for an addiction. I worked a bit this weekend on the Reggae Riddim that Ben Hud and I are collaborating on (Mostly Ben with me contributing), also put the final nails in the coffin for the Young Heff/ Joe Budden radio mix. They mastered it Friday night, but came back Saturday wanting a couple small changes so I did those.
The big news of the weekend is yet another studio upgrade. I just bought an SPL Mix Dream, which is an analog summing box for digital mixing systems. Without getting too technical, its kinda sorta like mixing a pro tools session through an analog console, but not really. However, it does (supposedly) bring an analog element back into digital mixing. I havent taken delivery of it yet, but when i do, I'll give ya'll the pro's and con's of the box from my point of view. The basic concept is that instead of having your computer do all the calculations necessary to sum several dozen separate 24 bit audio streams together, you instead do alot of your individual track processing with plugins, most of your effects with plugins, etc.... but then send mix stems out to your analog summing box (The SPL has 16 analog inputs so imagine maybe 6 mono inputs and 5 stereo inputs) coming from your digital outputs. allegedly this can add a touch more depth and dimension to your mix. I'll let you know. Then the Mix Dream will sum all of these stems together into an analog stereo mix buss which will then go thru a high quality stereo A/D convertor and be stored at 96K on my Masterlink and ready for mastering. Have i lost everyone yet? If your not a mix engineer, this is probably a bit hard to follow.
Anyway, I am a BIG fan of all digital mixing, but i figure since I'm going head to head with some of the biggest mixers in the world lately, anything that might give me an extra 1 or 2 percent is worth the astronomical investment in the long run. Oh, by the way, I'm also a BIG fan of analog mixing, as I've done countless mixes on SSL and NEVE consoles and many other types as well. Plus, with the Mix Dream, its a bit easier to use my outboard analog EQ's, compressors, my EMT 140 Plate, Lex 960, etc... I use all of this stuff now mixing digitally without the Mix Dream, its just gonna be a bit easier to interface once the Mix Dream is fully wired. I'm also most likely getting an Apogee DA16x for my digital outputs. I love the sound of the Digi 192, but again, if i can get an extra percent or two out of the Apogee, then hopefully it'll be worth the investment.
I'll be writing here about the Mix Dream and the Apogee from time to time I'm sure, and giving you the real scoop on whether its worth the price tag, and whats really cool and not cool about it. Stay tuned.
-Ken
The big news of the weekend is yet another studio upgrade. I just bought an SPL Mix Dream, which is an analog summing box for digital mixing systems. Without getting too technical, its kinda sorta like mixing a pro tools session through an analog console, but not really. However, it does (supposedly) bring an analog element back into digital mixing. I havent taken delivery of it yet, but when i do, I'll give ya'll the pro's and con's of the box from my point of view. The basic concept is that instead of having your computer do all the calculations necessary to sum several dozen separate 24 bit audio streams together, you instead do alot of your individual track processing with plugins, most of your effects with plugins, etc.... but then send mix stems out to your analog summing box (The SPL has 16 analog inputs so imagine maybe 6 mono inputs and 5 stereo inputs) coming from your digital outputs. allegedly this can add a touch more depth and dimension to your mix. I'll let you know. Then the Mix Dream will sum all of these stems together into an analog stereo mix buss which will then go thru a high quality stereo A/D convertor and be stored at 96K on my Masterlink and ready for mastering. Have i lost everyone yet? If your not a mix engineer, this is probably a bit hard to follow.
Anyway, I am a BIG fan of all digital mixing, but i figure since I'm going head to head with some of the biggest mixers in the world lately, anything that might give me an extra 1 or 2 percent is worth the astronomical investment in the long run. Oh, by the way, I'm also a BIG fan of analog mixing, as I've done countless mixes on SSL and NEVE consoles and many other types as well. Plus, with the Mix Dream, its a bit easier to use my outboard analog EQ's, compressors, my EMT 140 Plate, Lex 960, etc... I use all of this stuff now mixing digitally without the Mix Dream, its just gonna be a bit easier to interface once the Mix Dream is fully wired. I'm also most likely getting an Apogee DA16x for my digital outputs. I love the sound of the Digi 192, but again, if i can get an extra percent or two out of the Apogee, then hopefully it'll be worth the investment.
I'll be writing here about the Mix Dream and the Apogee from time to time I'm sure, and giving you the real scoop on whether its worth the price tag, and whats really cool and not cool about it. Stay tuned.
-Ken
posted by Protools Mixing at 5:01 AM
1 Comments:
Hello. I'm a reader of your blog from Tokyo JP! Great stuff all the time, and congrats on your nomination!!
Summing amps seem to be causing a lot of buzz over here too. Have you heard that AMS-Neve is going to come out with one too? (http://www.ams-neve.com/media/NEVE8816_High
.mp4)
By the way, I love my apogee, and definetly think it will retire your 192. :)
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