Mixing Mics ITB/OTB experimental clips

[nightflameauto]

So, playing around with an outboard mixer. Gonna toss some clips your way and see if anybody hears a difference.

Two microphones on the cab. Recorded once through the outboard mixer then directed into a line-in that skips the preamp on the interface and goes straight to the AD converter. Recorded once by putting the mics right on the interface and each directed to its own track, mixed IN the DAW. For this experiment, the mixer was pushed right to the edge of clipping when the guitar is at full volume, then pulled back just enough that the clip light faded out. Tried my best to level balance the guitars in the DAW before spitting out the bounces. I'll tell ya which is which after some have listened and weighed in on which sounds "better" to their ears.

Version #1 just guitars:
https://app.box.com/s/3adrjnvw29gatft716i3z27o4plasxln

Version #2 just guitars:
https://app.box.com/s/b0inz7z6cyldzcrlllq9aq1kwcsy9azz

Version #1 full mix:
https://app.box.com/s/nztm5tvfbsuuyxz9pa2aat1nirv63klp

Version #2 full mix:
https://app.box.com/s/7cl7se4c4yeuevgs5dhue7q8pby275gw

I will say I can even hear the differences on my shitty work earbuds, so I expect everybody will hear something to differentiate between the methods. But on monitors it's a no-contest type thing which sounds better.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Version 1# over 2. Gonna guess 2 was your interface and 1 was through the mixer? What mixer was it?

 

[nightflameauto]

Version 1# over 2. Gonna guess 2 was your interface and 1 was through the mixer? What mixer was it?

I'll just say at the moment that it wasn't an expensive purchase. I'll detail it out later.

 

[Bad.Seed]

I also bought an inexpensive mixer for the same purpose recently, but haven't had a chance to shoot out between the interface and mixer. Curious to see what you have going on here

 

[nightflameauto]

Well, heck, guess I'll just reveal it.

#1 was interface, #2 is outboard mixer.

You get a slight sense of compression, and the mixer sorta lifts the low-end and adds a little top fuzz.

All for the lovely expense of . . . $35. It's an eight mic/line summing mixer. Eight in, one out, each input has its own gain and a tone control. Supposedly there's jumpers inside to switch the line-ins to line-outs if you want more than one output, but I have no need for that. It's an ART 400 series 418 rack unit.

Dis bische:
http://artproaudio.com/product/418-eigh ... rect-outs/ (scroll down, for some reason their top image is MASSIVE on that site.)

Thing looks brand new. I don't even think the screw holes have scratches so it was probably never mounted in a rack. Wanted it for when I feel like using more than two mics at a time. Like when using multiple amps and wanting to mic them all then pipe them together into the DAW. Not really disappointed with this first run, but I'm sure the quality will increase when I involve my little tube channel strip thingy once I get my patch cables found.

 

[Kordoba]

Like I posted on the other forum I wasn't sure on the iso tracks, but full mix #2 was a bit smoother sounding overall and the guitars seem to sit better in the mix, so I went with outboard mixer on full mix #2.