Mixers

Yamaha pack most of an 02R96 into a unit little bigger than the 01V96. Could this be the ideal console for the quality home studio?

I was told by a sound engineer that, when mixing, it is not a good practice to have all the channel volume faders way up and to have the master fader down, and that this applies both to analogue and digital consoles. Is this true?

This affordable mini-mixer from Mackie brings their Tapco brand bang up to date.

Different mixing consoles and multitrackers have different kinds of faders — long- and short-throw, motorised, touch-sensitive, conductive plastic, and so on. Clearly, not all faders are created equal, but what are the essential differences?

When Jimmy Page decided to mine a massive archive of decaying Led Zeppelin live footage for a DVD and double CD, the epic task of restoring, editing and mixing the audio went to rock specialist Kevin Shirley — who has gone on to help veteran metallers Iron Maiden return to the upper reaches of the charts.

Another affordable mixer from Yamaha offers 16-channel, four-bus architecture, with a surprisingly good built-in effects section.

Please can you explain the difference between 'soloing' a channel and using the other buttons marked 'PFL' and 'AFL' to listen...

Yamaha's entry-level digital mixer gets an 02R96-style makeover, providing increased digital audio resolution, improved channel and effects processing, and surround functionality.

Blur's latest album has taken the band 18 months to make, commuting between London, Devon and Morocco. Somehow, producer Ben Hillier also found the time to produce new records by Elbow and Tom McRae...

We test this entry-level mixer for simple recording and monitoring tasks.

A unique problem-solver from Roland combines line mixing, sample rate conversion and a USB audio interface in a single rack space.

With the recent announcement of Yamaha's keenly priced 01X Music Production Studio, it looks as though mLAN, the Firewire-based protocol for multi-channel digital audio and MIDI, might be about to come of age. We take an early look at the new system.

If you don't think the sampler can be a musical instrument, then you haven't been listening to the music of Amon Tobin!

The newest Spirit mixers offer a straightforward feature set and long-throw faders at a seriously...

The flagship of Behringer's newest line of mixers is a four-buss design with 26 inputs, four aux sends and an internal effects processor.

The SOS team visit the sleepy Herefordshire town of Bromyard to help violinist Mike Burnham with his folk recordings.

This compact mixer could be a godsend if you've got more sound modules and effects units than soundcard inputs.

Can I use my drum pads to trigger drum machine sounds? • Are red indicators in audio software significant? • What is 'zero level'? • Can you advise me on vocal recording and microphones? • Why have my faders stopped working? • Does normalising have any adverse effect on audio? • Can I obtain better orchestral sounds on a budget?

FireWire audio and MIDI interfaces are gaining in popularity, as are fader surfaces designed for hands-on control of computer recording packages. Now Digidesign have combined the two.

Using the same improved technology seen within the 02R96, Yamaha's DM2000 provides an upgrade path for those who need more channels, even more hands-on control, and the purest in mic preamplification.

After seven years, one of the most successful digital consoles has been completely overhauled, improving the sound quality and ergonomics, and catering for new high-resolution and surround-sound formats.