SM pro audio summing mixer

[recall]

Anyone seen these?
Price seems quite reasonable although the channel count is quite low, Could still be useful to route 4 stereo stems through it though?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ist&sku=429126

[murilix]

I'd love to get some info on that as well. I was considering a Folcrom, but getting 2 SM Pro's for the same price looks like a better deal, as you can choose having the make up gain with the PM8, while the RMS16 is simply passive. I also dig the rotary pan pots.

[ToneRanger]

I don't have experience with the summing box but the quality of SM pro's products doesn't convince me too much if it's all like with the headphone amp we have in the studio of ours.. The power jack needs to be unplugged from time to time to get the unit running and on the back it says intput where it should say input...

[murilix]

The "intput" is cool... ..
BTW, better fix the "wannbe" in my signature before joking about typos again...
Yes, I do believe the Folcrom is way better built but since the main use would be a passive summing bus, I'd like to know if getting one would be such a bad idea. (I mean, you can't really screw up a passive box, can you?) Especially because you can get 8 channels once first and 8 channels aftewards.

[recall]

bump

[frontierfran]

I was going to make the same post!
I know there stuff is dirt cheap, but I had the same question: how can a passive summing amp go THAT wrong? wires and solder can only be SO low quality, right?
how bad can a pot be? ha...

doesnt look like a bad deal. woud love to hear a review...

[ulysses]

I figured it would be a matter of time before somebody tried to sell a cheaper version of the Folcrom, but I'd still say it hasn't happened yet. The volume and pan controls on each channel make this a completely different device in terms of functionality - no repeatability. To answer your question, "how bad can a pot be?" I'd have to tell you, a potentiometer can be very bad or very good. When you have to buy 18 of them for a box that sells at $400, you can guess which end of the spectrum you'll get. But I'd say that's irrelevant because even with a high quality pot, I think that pots and passive mixers are a poor combination. The passive mixer needs to see consistency in source and load impedances in order to work properly. Throw some variable resistors into the mix and you get just enough uncertainty to justify putting in some active buffering. There's nothing wrong with that, but now we're back to the question of whether or not you need a device that allows complete recall ability from the DAW. There's just no way you can reset a cheap rotary pot to exactly where you thought it was before. Even good long-throw linear faders are really tough to recall exactly. If you want a mixer, buy a mixer. If you want a summing device, you'll be disappointed if you buy a mixer instead.