Mixer board for pc

F

Friedricetv

Guest
hi,

I got a focusrite saffire pro 24 and now want a mixing board with faders etc perhaps usb to connect to the various daws I use..... I would like a a large board for my desk... any suggestions?
 
Unfortunately there aren't many options for this without getting very expensive. There are a few... but not many.

It essentially depends on what functions you want out of the mixer board, and what you want to accomplish with it. Do you need motorized faders? Do you want to control plugins and automation? Do you want to simple just mix levels with motorized faders and pan pots? Do you want to control some of your DAW's functions? Also... What DAW are you using?

^For all of the above... it gets real expensive lol.

If you're looking for just a mixing solution with midi alone... the most cost friendly purchase is probably Behringer BCF2000 and BCR2000 ($200). BCF is motorized faders, BCR is rotaries. You can link them together and buy pre-made wooden panels to turn it into a nice mixing station. It doesn't have audio ins & outs. And the faders are NOT touch sensitive (which is a huge deal if you plan to write automation. I wouldn't recommend that... you'd be fighting the fader all day). You can set it up to control functions in your DAW also... depending on the DAW.

If you're looking to control automation.. I personally think the best solution is a Faderport ($99). It gives you full control over parameters & DAW, and you get one nice high quality fader for mixing. It's touch sensitive. I have one.. it changed my entire workflow and mixing strategy for the better. Mixing just makes more sense to me now. And I can work through a song much quicker than using just the mouse. This paired with something to control keycommands (Like maybe a Contour Designs Shuttle Pro-- i have one of those too) and it makes an awesome freakin setup. It's a poorman's dream of controls. Some people even use hyped-up NumPads for controlling keycommands. I like Shuttle Pro for it's jog wheel, and it's very ergonomic in my hand. Feels great.

What you're probably looking for based on the little information you gave is something like a Mackie Control Unit Pro, w/ extensions. Those look awesome to be honest... but the price tag starts at $900 or so for the main board. The extensions are usually $600 a piece. I'm sure it's great to have... but it's just midi and controls to be honest. if you have the budget.. great... go get it... but I personally couldn't justify that kind of purchase. That's a lot of money to just control midi. And there's a good chance you might not really need all of those faders. Most people only adjust one fader at a time anyway. Faderport is $99 bucks... so you'd be spending 10 times more just to have a controller where you don't have to switch back n forth between channels. It's up to you if that's worth it or not.

Above the MCU (Mackie), you have the old Eucon and the new Euphonix stuff. I hear those are GREAT to work with... but they run for around $1500.

Below the MCU... you have stuff like a Novation SL mkii Zero, which runs for around $250 or so. I have the keyboard version and they're awesome to work with. Buttons light up lol. Has a nice LCD screen and automap is pretty dope when you have it setup right. But, it's not a traditional looking mixing board for one, and the faders aren't motorized. Great for plugin control.. but might not be unbelievable to mix on... unless you really want to. (I mean honestly... you can do technically anything with anything nowadays).

Everything else is a mixing solution that includes an audio interface. You've got the Alesis Master Control, MAudio ProjectMix, Tascam FW 1082.... etc. Most of these look like great buys to be honest, since you get an all-in-one solution... but you have to be concerned with the quality of the preamps and AD/DA converters, since it would be more expensive to upgrade. And if you upgrade, you have to question why the hell you spent the money on these in first place... unless you find one for a really good deal. I think that's why almost all of these are becoming more and more discontinued lol.


If none of those suit your needs or taste... you can always drop $10k - $99k (yes.... $99,000) on the SSL mixing boards :)
 
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