Hey all! I've been narrowing down my hunt for a mixer and keep coming back to the Soundcraft 200b. I've used a few mixers with similar circuit topography and chips and I like the territory much better than say the NJ45XX op amp territory.

I recently discovered that Hill Audio has a mixer with a very similar design that also has sockets for all its opamps. This is like a dream for me.

Does anyone know of a mixer similar to either the Soundcraft 200 series or Hill Audio Multimix that also has socketed opamps? Also, has anyone compared those two I mentioned? Judging by people's comments they seem to be in the same league.

I'll be using it for summing as needed, live-streaming, and just as general extra preamps. I currently have a Crest X8 taking up like half the space behind me in my control room and I'd rather have something much smaller.

Thanks!

Bumping because I ended up acquiring a Hill Audio Multi-Mix for 52$ and am looking to test it against other mixers I have around, as well as roll op amps in the channel and master sections.

Over on TOMB there is some love for these boards and it's suggested to throw in OPA2604's on at least the EQ channels in lieu of the 5532's. Any other drop-in suggestions?

I know it’s been a couple months, but I just came across this post. I have very limited experience with the soundcraft as I have recorded in a place that had one but we never powered it on... However, I do have three Hill’s an 85 and an 86 Multimix as well as a full sized modular recording console. The concept 4400.
How are you liking the hill? Any progress on the ic’s?

Hey Redear! I ended up changing out the master bus, 4 preamp, and 4 EQ channel chips for OPA 2134's, and 4 more channels of EQ to OPA 2604's. The biggest difference is changing the EQ chip by far. The preamps sound pretty warm/clear either way, but the EQ's with the 5532's are a little sharper sounding which could be helpful for broad strokes. The 2134 has a warm yet defined sound and the 2604's have a kind of breathiness to the mids that could be cool for guitars. I like the highs on the OPA's a little better than the 5532's but I think stock this board is a real sleeper.

Its layout internally is pretty simple and according to my tech friend, they used very solid parts when it came to the faders and caps for EQ. It's also really great for sending signals all over the place--one input can go to 2 sends, a direct out, 4 busses, and L/R which is quite a bit for a mixer of its size, and the sends all use seemingly similar circuitry (minus the fader) and the outputs are strong, unlike some boards where the sends are weaker and noisy.

Used it on a session where I tracked to an old yamaha 8 track cassette instead of my usual digital and got a great drum sound by using the first 5 or 6 channels to submix the kit to bus 1+2, guitar 3, vocals 4, and sent a rough headphone mix to a few spots. Next move is tracking it with my digital rig next to my neve, capi, universal audio stuff, sytek, etc. After that I want to try using it as a summing mixer.

Even without digging too deep, I really like it; it's kind of what a mackie should've sounded like... like a 16 channel Sytek-ish but with EQ!

How do you like the larger format console? I just got rid of a huge crest I couldn't warrant having around but my initial impressions of the multimix has me wanting to find a big boi at some point.

Honestly, it’s (the large format) just too big for what I need or use. It also needs a lot of work. I’m trying to offload the concept to someone who can give it the time and effort it deserves. I did start tearing into the two multimixes recently. Trying to build a nice little mixer. Sytecs with EQ sounds perfect to me and will save me a lot of money over buying a bunch of other press and eqs, as much as I would love a huge rack of EQP5s...

Also. Did you do any recapping or just the chip mod?

I only mod'd the chips and was considering doing the caps until my tech friend agreed that they are high quality parts. He said adding transformer balanced outs would be his first move.

I was thinking about direct outs too but between the 4 groups, the 2 aux, and L R bus, you can send a combo of the 16 channels 8 different places!

Yeah. One of my two boards actually has direct out already on each channel (unbalanced though) so that’s the one I am rebuilding. Thanks for all the info!