Summing Boxes- which one impressed you/?

[baskervils]

Tried summing box, prefer mixing board.

[Trakworx]

I settled on the Inward Connections Mix690, at least for the time being. It sounded best to me in the Vintage King "Hear the Gear" samples, and definitely beats the D2BLT and Folcrom I used to own. The Tonelux OTB16 and Rascal Tonebuss are the two remaining contenders that I'd like to shoot out at my place someday. There's a thread somewhere on GS where people posted summed mixes using various mixer/converter combos. Here it is: ANALOG SUMMING COMPARISON (this time its different)

[kromagnon]

the chandler sounds pretty good!

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Gearslutz.com

[Kid_Fiction]

Originally Posted by zak7

I tried many, Dangerous, Nicerizer 16, Equinox.......SPL Mixdream, Neve 8816..

I liked the Dangerous, Nicerizer 16, Equinox...but not the Mixdream and 8816.

What did you like about the Dangerous, Nicerizer and Equinox, and what did you not like bout the other two?

[NeoHippy]

you said you tried the 8816...why dont you like it?

i think its marvelous. i really like it!

[Slikjmuzik]

I had the dangerous LT for a while. I liked it. It was different, but could get pretty close without, so the time spent creating the routing wasn't worth it. Just a pair of pres that have line in capability on the 2buss and my buss compressor. For rock that's what I do. Pop stuff stays 100% itb.

[Kid_Fiction]

Originally Posted by NeoHippy

you said you tried the 8816...why dont you like it?

i think its marvelous. i really like it!

Thats the only one on the list I have actually tried. It's a pretty amazing box, but my guess is that it could sound a little bit gooey on some material. It's not really the box for everything.

[zak7]

Equinox is WAY cleaner of what people believe it is....the thing is that most of Equinox users use the Equinox monitor section, that tame the top end, but is actually there, I checked that with a different monitor section and al the top end came back. cool box overall.

Dangerous is clean 100% reliable .

Nicerizer 16 cool sound and color but not so reliable the panning knobs and the knobs overall are not very reliable and recall can be a huge pain in the ass...but really nice sound.

8816, prefer the ITB sound!

[zak7]

Originally Posted by Slikjmuzik

so the time spent creating the routing wasn't worth it.

Use templates take seconds!

[YOHAMI]

Rascal Tonebus and Inward Connections mix690. Ended up buying the 690 after hearing Trakworx´s test (yeah, Im that kind of gslut)

Intrigued about the tonelux

[Trakworx]

Originally Posted by YOHAMI

Ended up buying the 690 after hearing Trakworx´s test

How are you liking it?

[YOHAMI]

I love it, gluey and very punchy, and transparent-ish otherwise.

[zak7]

Originally Posted by YOHAMI

Rascal Tonebus and Inward Connections mix690. Ended up buying the 690 after hearing Trakworx´s test (yeah, Im that kind of gslut)

Intrigued about the tonelux

in which way did u prefer the IC 690 over the Tonebus??

[TonyD]

Love the Fat Bustard - a studio I work at occasionally has one as a sidecar to the Neve console and often I prefer to just use the FB for smaller mixes.

Have heard great things about the Chandler too.

I had a Neve 8816 with the fader pack on loan for a few months... I thought it sucked big-time. Half the time I preferred the ITB sound and if you're shelling out £4k for a summing box, it should be an improvement 100% of the time.

[zak7]

Originally Posted by TonyD

Love the Fat Bustard - a studio I work at occasionally has one as a sidecar to the Neve console and often I prefer to just use the FB for smaller mixes.

Have heard great things about the Chandler too.

I had a Neve 8816 with the fader pack on loan for a few months... I thought it sucked big-time. Half the time I preferred the ITB sound and if you're shelling out £4k for a summing box, it should be an improvement 100% of the time.

I am with you! the 8816 sucked big time for me too!

[YOHAMI]

Originally Posted by zak7

in which way did u prefer the IC 690 over the Tonebus??

Bear on mind that I didnt test the units myself, but listened to anything I could find instead (Im in Argentina, no way for me to test without buying / having the unit shipped overseas)

The Rascal seemed to have a stronger imprint, more metallic, more pointy. Also ate more transients.

In comparison the mix690 seemed to be more transparent and more pumpy, in an API sort of pumpy way, but without the strong imprint. They use op amps instead of transformers (I believe). I listened to a couple of mixes passed through the mix690 and it made the stereo and dynamics more interesting to my ear.

So. Im doing group mixdowns and then I mixdown the groups -> two passes through. Without the chance to try before I buy, I picked the more transparent unit.

The other options, line mixers and dangerous... the consensus is that they are too transparent. I had to really focus on the mixes I heard to notice a difference. The nicericer mixes I heard were too colored for my taste. A friend of mine has a mixdream so that took her out of the equation (hey I can go there and use it!). So there you go.

So far Im happy. Wish I could have listened to the Tonelux too.

[Trakworx]

Originally Posted by YOHAMI

In comparison the mix690 seemed to be more transparent and more pumpy, in an API sort of pumpy way, but without the strong imprint. They use op amps instead of transformers (I believe).

Mix690 has 20 SPA690 op amps and 2 Cinemag output transformers.

Originally Posted by YOHAMI

The other options, line mixers and dangerous... the consensus is that they are too transparent. I had to really focus on the mixes I heard to notice a difference.

Same here. My old D2BLT was clean but lacked "mojo".

[dhiltonlittle]

I tried out a lot when I got mine.

It came down to the Chandler and the Fat Bustard.

Ended up getting the FB and love it!

[RKrizman]

I'm not convinced anything is going to do a better job than this, coupled with your preamp of choice.



PASSIVE SUMMING Network for ProTools HD 192 | eBay

-R

[YOHAMI]

Originally Posted by RKrizman

I'm not convinced anything is going to do a better job than this, coupled with your preamp of choice.

I guess that one is the same as a folcrom.

But. Some summing mixers have op amps per channel, transformer per channels, or have some stuff inside that heavily colors the sound . So it's not just the electrical summing but the sound of the individual components.

I guess that summer sounds like a few inches of cable. I wonder if that does anything to the stereo imaging and glue. It would be interesting to compare it against the rest of the family

[Trakworx]

All I can say is that I shot my Folcrom (paired with a variety of high end pres) against the Mix690 and D2BLT, and believe me I wouldn't have dropped the cash for the Mix690 if I thought I could get as good a sound without it. As always YMMV.

[zak7]

Originally Posted by Trakworx

I settled on the Inward Connections Mix690, at least for the time being. It sounded best to me in the Vintage King "Hear the Gear" samples,[/url]

Yeah I also thought that in the VK shoot out the M690 sounded the best.
But I think those mixes are SOOOO Terrible that I can not trust at all that.

But anyway having in consideration the IC is a great company and that the shoot out may have some value is not a bad choice at all!

[Kid_Fiction]

Originally Posted by YOHAMI

A friend of mine has a mixdream so that took her out of the equation (hey I can go there and use it!). So there you go.

I'm curious to know what you think about the mixdream as it's one of the cheaper options.

I'm generally agreeing with what has been said here about the Neve and the Inward Connections boxes. I found the Neve (the only summing box I have actually had hands on experience with) a little woolly sounding for the music I generally work on (electronic/beats). I really dug the sound of the Inward Connections on the Vintage King shootout though, it has a little mojo but a great open top end where a lot of the other boxes seem to do funny things the top.

[Nu-tra]

I like the Folcrom with the JCF LEVR

[frenzy]

Originally Posted by zak7

Yeah I also thought that in the VK shoot out the M690 sounded the best.

I came to the same conclusion and eventually got my dirty hands on an Inward Connections Mix690. What a beautiful sounding summing box!

I've used Dangerous 2Bus, Vintagedesign SU1, X-Desk, a bunch of analogue mixing consoles and the Mix690 creates the most vibrant mixes by just running a bunch of audio channels through it. It's a cliche but it sort of makes it sound "like a record". :D

Like someone before me pointed out it's punchy, gluey and with great depth. I love the dynamics of the low-end and the fact that boosting the main output volume makes the mix break up a little bit in a great way. No appropriate for all kind of material, but cool on some, and if I want the mix to sound more "polite" I just back off a couple of dB's on the main output.

The pan pots makes it possible to mono mix channels which I use a lot and to make half-panned channels - in my ears half-panning sounds better in the analogue domain and better retains its integrity in a busy mix compared to ITB mixing.

And I love the fact that the Mix690 doesn't munch any transients, the transient response is fantastic compared to an analogue mixing console but still adds some character.

All in all a lovely summing box.

Don't try it if you can't afford it!!!


Cheers
Fred

My Studio

[Doc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by Nu-tra

I like the Folcrom with the JCF LEVR

Really Dig My JCF LEVR setup!!!

I'm rocking the output trafo's on mine! Even still, this setup is clear as a bell, tall and really wide sounding. Certainly a bit' o heft is there, but nothing that ever would get in the way. I find there is plenty of headroom on these modules, and I love the difference that stemming, say A/B/C/D stereo busses can make to a mix. You move a LOT different, and to better results. It helps me clear up all the masking in my tracks, and you can really scope in with your signal processors, when your stemming out to a rig like this.

[jordanvoth]

ToneBuss user. Really like it, I've been talking to Joel about some channel strips for mixing to go with it since he's just finished his new 500 series pre. Really great guy and I'd love to own more of his gear. One of the things that impresses me most about the Tonebuss is the way it rounds the edges off just so. Also enjoyed the Dangerous in a different way. I considered the Neve box but liked the idea of the Tonebuss and Xformers on the inputs and outputs.

[Dan Kennedy]

Seeing as how gear pimps are allowed, don't forget the MixMaster 20.

It's not clean, it has lot's of iron, and it has great preamps and control room
functions too.

[Sofa King]

Originally Posted by zak7

I tried many, Dangerous, Nicerizer 16, Equinox.......SPL Mixdream, Neve 8816..

I liked the Dangerous, Nicerizer 16, Equinox...but not the Mixdream and 8816.

I am intrigued about the Fat Bustard, the JCF Levr, Great River,Cranesong, Inwards Connection and the Tonebus.


What is your opinion about the Summing Boxes you used??

Ive had 2 of the 690s for a few years, I think they sounded closest it my old consoles. the additional AUX pairs offer cool options as well.
my only beef, is I wish center pan was detented.

dont think you could go wrong with the 690.

best,
Sean