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Chandler Limited
Mini Rack Mixer
by: Mike Caffrey (Tape Op #49 - Sept/Oct 2005)
A rack mixer wasn't initially on the Chandler design agenda, but
designer Wade Goeke (“Behind the Gear,” Tape Op #36) got so many calls
saying, “There are a lot of summing boxes out there, but I don't like
how they sound. I really like the way your gear sounds. Are you
going to make one?” So he designed a summing box and added some extra
versatility by laying it out as a mixer. As far as I know, this is
the only all-discrete summing box around. (Even the Manley rack mixer
that sells for around $10K uses chips for its inputs.) With its
all-discrete design and 22 transformers, the Chandler Mini Rack Mixer
gives you the sound you'd expect from a 15 ft wide, vintage Neve
console-but in a 19” rack box.
Specifically, it's a 5RU-height, modular, 16-channel mixer with a
comprehensive monitoring section. All of the mixer's sections are in
modules. Eight vertical pairs of mixer inputs each have volume and
pan controls. (It took me a few minutes to adjust to left and right
sides being on top of each other, but it would be no problem to
re-patch in the back if you want your pairs lined up horizontally.)
The buss/talkback module has a press-to-talk button and a _” jack for
the mic input. (You can use the included XLR to _” cable to convert
the mic of your choice for talkback functions.) The control room
module has three switches for mute, mono and dim. And the meter
section has the super-cool=looking meters you'll recognize from the
TG1 compressor, as well as volume knobs for control room and stereo
mix, with two pair of outputs for each section. It also has a speaker
selection switch and external input switch.
The external input has two functions. One is the obvious: monitoring
a stereo source like a CD player or your mixdown recorder. However,
when you activate the external input switch, it separates the control
room signal from the mixer section allowing for a mixdown insert. You
send the stereo out to your stereo compressor, return that to the
external input, and send the control room out to your mixdown deck.
Now you've got an insert for your stereo mix compressor.
Since all of the sections in the Mini Rack Mixer are modular, you've
got a few configuration options. If you know you only need eight
channels, you can short load it with four stereo modules and keep
costs down. You can also swap out modules for the new mic preamp and
compressor modules from Chandler and have a hybrid with up to eight
channels of line inputs and eight channels of preamps. This needs to
be specified in advance if you plan to start with a mixer and then add
preamps or compressors later.
Inside the rack mixer, there are 20 discrete, Class-A line amps (16
channel inputs, plus two each for control room and stereo outs). The
inputs of each mixer channel, as well as the external input and
control room and stereo outputs, are transformer-balanced-a total of
22 transformers! (Quick lesson in the sound of vintage gear: the big,
fat, and warm sound comes from transformers, not tubes!) While inputs
use the Class-A line amp associated with The Beatles and Pink Floyd
sounds, the summing is passive Neve style. The output controls are
detented to ensure the accuracy of the left/right balances, and they
use expensive gold switches with multiple layers, again like the big
old Neve consoles.
So how does it sound? When I mix, I mix through a console, not in the
box. I also use the Michael Brauer style multi-buss compression. So
to audition the mixer, I returned my compressors subgroups to the
mixer instead of my consoles. To facilitate A/B'ing, I added an extra
buss send for uncompressed signals and an extra buss send for my
effects returns, an equivalent configuration to summing these returns
through console. My first impression was that the difference that the
Mini Rack Mixer makes is bigger than the difference mastering makes.
A/B'ing the result was like comparing a CD to and MP3. The sound was
so much bigger, that even with an identical mix coming off each master
fader and showing identical meter levels, I had to turn the Mini rack
Mixer down a couple of dB for the volume levels to sound the same.
There was more punch in the bottom and more clarity, air, and detail
in the top. Overall, the sound was more expanded and open. When I
brought it to Mark Christensen's mastering room at The Engine Room, it
took him ten seconds to choose the Mini mixes over my console mixes.
While this device is called a mixer, I see it as a box with multiple
uses: a portable mixer; a great-sounding summing box for DAW (or for
mult'ing compressor during mastering for that matter); or a quick and
easy upgrade for your console's master section.
The Chandler Mini Rack Mixer will inevitably get compared to all the
new summing boxes, but because of its 100% discrete design, Class-A
line amps, transformed balanced I/O-and the resulting sound quality-it
has no real competition short of a vintage Neve console. At a street
price of around $6K, it's certainly a lot cheaper than a Neve.
($7550 MSRP; www.chandlerlimited.com)
-Mike Caffrey, www.monsterisland.com
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