Hi guys,

Ive been contemplating if I should get a little ~8 Track Mixer to sum my Drums before going into my main Mixer/Interface (Big Six).

Atm my standard routing into the Big Six is as follows:
1 Kick
2 Bass
3 Octatrack Output 1
4 Octatrack Output 2
5/6 Drums
7/8 Octatrack Outputs 3/4
9/10 FX Return 1
11/12 FX Return 2

Everything can be rerouted via Patchbay.

Sometimes Ill plug only one Drum Machine into 5/6. Sometimes I sacrifice one of the other channels to also connect another Drum Machine.

Why a submixer?
- I wouldnt have to sacrifice a channel if I want more then one Drum Machine
- I would have more control over individual Drum Voices as I would have "Sub-EQs" and also "Sub-FX-Sends" - so some nice little extra sound design possibilities

As I have seen people using submixers before but never did it myself:
How do you use them? Whats your workflow?

Id love to get some inspiration on how to set this up.

Also feel free to share if you find any mixer particularly useful.

Cheers

Get something with some EQs and peramps on each channel and you can get that old school dirty drums mix. Find one that has a pleasing sound when you overdrive the channels.

This is my little submixer that I use to mix my drum machines and modules!






Behringer Eurodesk SX3242FX Mixer with Effects

1 SDS9 Bass
2 Snare
3 Rim
4 Hi Tom
5 Med Tom
6 Low Tom
7 ADX1 Metal
8 Hi-Hat
9 Snare
10 Synth
11 Bass
12 JoMoX KD 606/78 BD BD
13 MB SN SN
14 HH Closed TOMS BONG/CONG
15 HH Open CYM COW/CLAVE
16 Clap HH HH
17 Rim RIM MARACAS
18 Crash CLAP GUIRO/TAMB
19 Ride
20 Left
21 Right
22 Edge Out OUT OUT
23 SR18 Aux1
24 Aux2
25/26 SR18 Left/Right
27/28 Cycles Left/Right

Noisy for sure, but I love it with the RD-9 and SH-101.

If you get the SSL SiX, you won't be stepping down in quality from the Big SiX. I would make the priority keeping the quality high rather than making decisions on how many bands of eq there is, etc. You can always patch in external eqs, etc. SSL sells the Ultraviolet stereo eq at a very reasonable price. The eq circuity is of the same electronics type (but with far more parameter depth) as the equalizers in the SiX and Big SiX. So you can stay within the same equalization family and get a consistent sound across the entire platform.

A lot of times, sidecar mixers have a bus compressor on them. The idea is that the entire sound in the submixer is a sonic concept that gets compressed as one sound going into the main mixer. The SiX has the legendary SSL Bus Compressor circuit (with limited controls). So you get that feature.


I would see if there is a Black Friday sale and then get the SiX. It's the perfect accessory mixer for the Big SiX.

The original Mackie 1202 will do what you want to do and give you a little color/dirt if you want it.

I'm picking up what you're putting down!

My living room station...

Dude if thats your "little" submixer, what does your main mixer look like? :D

the bus compressor definitely is a huge plus. seems to be something only very few mixers have.

I dont mind lower quality sound tho as a cheap mixer can give some nice dirt, which I often want. Like the Boss BX line someone suggested.

The Six (+ extra EQs) is super expensive and Id say its overkill for my use case