What Mixer Do I Need?

ExAsperis99

Finally pulling my home setup together. For the most part, it's been sandboxed dabbling: the Digitakt tracks stay in the Digitakt; the OPZ songs stay in the OPZ; the iPad stuff commingles only with itself.

But I need to bring it all together. At the moment, AUM will be the core, though the laptop has Ableton and Logic.

Right now, I've got an ICA4+ as an interface with the iPad. The interface has 4 ins, which is fine for the DT in stereo and a bass or guitar in the other inputs. But I'd rather not swap cables all the time when I want to sub in the OPZ or the Volca and so on. It would be nice to just adjust the channels in AUM depending on what instrument was sending audio.

But I was looking at budget mixers, and the Behringer Xenyx USB models suddenly got me thinking: Could I have the audio sent on discrete tracks into AUM through the iConnect4+?

I have so many questions, but I guess the first is: Can I run a USB mixer through the iConnect interface? If not, then I just need a mixer that can accept all my inputs, right?

rs2000

The disadvantage of most mixers with USB connectivity is that they only contain a stereo audio interface so you'll usually end up with a multichannel audio interface and do all the mixing on the iPad.

ExAsperis99

That I don't mind at all. At the moment, the iPad is the core, and the other inputs are — let's consider them overdubs. At some point, I might work in Ableton or Logic. Here's a poorly drawn representative of the "studio" such as it is.

mjcouche

@ExAsperis99 said:
That I don't mind at all. At the moment, the iPad is the core, and the other inputs are — let's consider them overdubs. At some point, I might work in Ableton or Logic. Here's a poorly drawn representative of the "studio" such as it is.

Wow what kind of bass is that 🤩

ExAsperis99

@mjcouche said:

@ExAsperis99 said:
That I don't mind at all. At the moment, the iPad is the core, and the other inputs are — let's consider them overdubs. At some point, I might work in Ableton or Logic. Here's a poorly drawn representative of the "studio" such as it is.

Wow what kind of bass is that 🤩

Good eye. That’s a 1975 Fender Precision.

ExAsperis99

@rs2000 said:
The disadvantage of most mixers with USB connectivity is that they only contain a stereo audio interface so you'll usually end up with a multichannel audio interface and do all the mixing on the iPad.

Oh, I think I misunderstood what you wrote. You are saying that even the USB connection of a USB mixer will sum all its inputs into a stereo pair?

rs2000

@ExAsperis99 said:

@rs2000 said:
The disadvantage of most mixers with USB connectivity is that they only contain a stereo audio interface so you'll usually end up with a multichannel audio interface and do all the mixing on the iPad.

Oh, I think I misunderstood what you wrote. You are saying that even the USB connection of a USB mixer will sum all its inputs into a stereo pair?

Yep, that was my point and I guess you'd prefer to have all input channels available separately on iOS?

ExAsperis99

If possible, yes.

0tolerance4silence

Unfortunately you can’t extend your channel count by plugging audio interface into your iCA, that’s midi only socket.
You’ll need an audio interface with high enough channel count (optionally with ADAT i/o for future expansion available).

ExAsperis99

Yeah, I kind of expected that, even though the iConnect4+ has three USB ports.
Well, it looks at least like I can get a cheaper mixer.

id_23

I have a xenyx q802 usb...
I connect iPad or iPhone directly to it along with a variety of other inputs (stereo)
I also use the fx return as an extra input.
USB connected to Mac for recording sessions in audacity.
I have considered an extra passive mixer to add more flexibility, or a Bastl dude for the microgranny and kastles.
Not sure if that’s much help...
It’s handy for what I need, I guess more inputs is always good to have...

auxmux

I'd recommend another audio interface instead like a Focusrite 18i20 or Presonus equivalent. While ICA4 is great. It's not extendable. An audio interface with more inputs would be far more flexible and expandable. Plus they don't take up any desk room.

Will

If you know you won’t need to record more than 4 separate channels at once, you could use any old mixer (non-usb) to submix “everything else” into inputs 3 and 4 on the iconnect. This is basically how I work now.

ExAsperis99

I think the sunk cost in the ica4+ (and the fact that I’ll be playing all these instruments one at a time) means i’ll just grab a cheapish mixer and run it’s outs into two of the interface inputs.

Any recommendations? Anything to avoid?

Will

@ExAsperis99 said:

Any recommendations? Anything to avoid?

The B word.

mrufino1

The soundcraft signature 12mtk and signature 22mtk do multitrack usb, and if you want to go digital then the behringer x18/ Midas m18 both will do that, so will the x32 (but 24 I/o on iOS, not 32 I/o)

branis

Behringer Flow 8 looks like it would fit your setup nicely. It’s a small digital mixer that will show 10 inputs in AUM. It can also work standalone. Check it out

joaehun

@branis said:
Behringer Flow 8 looks like it would fit your setup nicely. It’s a small digital mixer that will show 10 inputs in AUM. It can also work standalone. Check it out

do you know how many outputs it will show?