Urei 1601s mini review

[rec]

Just wanted to give my opinion on the Urei 1601s 2-channel mixer. I have only had it for a short time. The mixer in my opinion is laid out well and is easy to use. I guess the sampler is the feature that stands out the most to me. I can create on the fly remixes that dont sound like a beginner made them. The only tricky thing to remember is the BPM engine syncs to what ever is on CUE (what you hear thru the head phones). This means that if you have taken a sweet sample at 130 BPM and it is playing on the master out, then you cue up a record in your phones that is 120 BPM the sample will then change to 120 BPM. You can disable the BPM engine according to Urei. I have not tried this yet. So far I can definitly recommend this mixer. I will post back once I have used it some more.
Let me know if you have any questions
Peace
R

 

[Johnpuga1982]

I think it sounds well on a system. I walked into my local pub and noticed a sound difference. They were using the UREI 1601. Various mixer have gone through that space. They range from Rane Empaths, Denon Mixers, Beringer mixers, and Pioneers. The Urei sounds the best to me.

 

[rec]

I would agree on the sound. Very rich full sound from this mixer. The person that I bought it from said the same thing and he had used many mixers including rane and thought the Urei sounded the best.

 

[SUPERBANANABOMB]

Hey guys, I just joined this forum and since I own a Urei, I thought I'd drop my 2 pennies...

I've owned many mixers over the last 8 years or so and the Urei 1601S is *the* best purchase I've ever made. They discontinued the 1601S (sampler) model to push the 1601 (base) and the 1601E (effects) models.

They had these mixers on blowout at Guitar Center for $300, and the original price was more like $700. About the same as a Rane TTM-56.

I got the players' discount since my buddy works there and I ended up paying like $260 after tax. CHEAP.

I got it home and was immediately in love. It's built well, the EQ knobs are big and knobby... easy to grip. All the faders are buttery smooth. Smoother than any mixer out there, IMO. Even better than a Rane!

It has a 2-bank, 24-bit sampler... each bank is capable of recording like 20 seconds of audio, and you can loop it, reverse it and even stutter it with some finger mashing.

It has an effects send/return loop, which is great since I use a Kaoss Pad.

The sound quality is FANTASTIC. Warm, uncolored, phat, and VERY low noise. Hands-down better than anything Vestax has ever made. I think that the TTM-56 sounds "flat" in comparison. I use it for sampling and scratches when I make beats.

I could go on and on... the sexy LED level meters, the blue lights, etc. It's a hot mixer.

Negatives -

1. There is no on/off switch anywhere! You plug it in and it stays on until you unplug it. What the @$#!

2. The fader is so smooth that it bounces off the extreme edges. I had to put rubber stoppers on the fader track just to keep it from rebounding so much.

3. It you are the type that's a gung-ho scratch samurai, you will find it kinda cluttered. Personally it works well for me, I'm not trying to be Mixmaster Mike.

These were discontined and you should be able to find them extremely cheap.

IMO, one of the top 3 best scratch mixers ever made.

THE BEST FOR THE MONEY, ever.