Best affordable gear for mixing synths + adding warmth

[RD9]

So I've been looking for a piece of equipment that would improve my mixes and perhaps add some warmth to cold VAs, so I started out looking for an EQ (graphic or parametric). But the more research I did, the more it expanded to other gear like compressors, preamps, and channel strips. Then I read this article on warming synths on Sound on Sound and now I'm starting to get overwhelmed.

If my primary need is to improve my mixes overall and warm up digital synths at the same time, what is the best, most affordable thing to get? (under $500? under $1000?) Can it be used in a live performance as well?

I need some help simplifying the decisions a little since there are too many things to choose from. Of course the real answer to this is "you need everything", but if there was one thing that can do the most for mixes and warmth, what would it be? A channel strip?

Any opinions appreciated...

[tallowwaters]

Well, a channel strip is often a preamp/compressor/equalizer rolled into one piece of gear.

[Dubersive]

Allen & Heath ZED mixers are supposed to give a pretty warm sound. You might be able to find one used for under $500 - $1000.

[pflosi]

I'd be interested in a good channel strip to record synths too. Any experience with those in the 1000k$ range and maybe slightly above?

[Stab Frenzy]

So I've been looking for a piece of equipment that would improve my mixes

Top three things to improve your mix:

1. Decent monitors
2. Good room acoustics
3. Practice

and perhaps add some warmth to cold VAs

'Warmth' usually equates to a little bit of harmonic distortion, a bit more low end and rolled off highs. Also if something is completely dry it'll sound unrealistic, so running it into an amp and micing works well, as does reverb and delay in small doses. Recording stereo playback in a room works well (as long as the room sounds good) but my favourite trick is running through a BBD set to 100% wet with no feedback and then bouncing tracks through that. You end up having to align the track to make it in time with everything else but it sounds cool. Try it.

[shaft9000]

I'd be interested in a good channel strip to record synths too. Any experience with those in the 1000k$ range and maybe slightly above?

'good' is pretty common nowadays. you didn't say high-end, so $1000 is take your pick
high end 2 ch. is going to run over $2k.

for mono signals, a used UA LA-610 (non-mk2) if you can find anyone willing to let go of one

OP: ART VLApro. I have 1st gen and it's smooth, wide, and forgiving.

practicepracticepracticepracticepractice

[pflosi]

yeah I've pretty much given up on the idea of a stereo channel strip and "high end" stuff which tends to go in the 5k range for single modules, not complete channel strips...

funny thing that you mention the UA LA 610 shaft, there's one locally for sale (signature edition, only 500 made...) here that I've been looking at for some time. I wasn't really sure though how it would work with synths and drum machines, since I think it's mainly built as mic preamp...? Also not sure how the opto comp (which I think is mainly built for vocals?) would work in drum machine / synth situations...? have you got one?

[aeon]

So I've been looking for a piece of equipment that would improve my mixes

Top three things to improve your mix:

1. Decent monitors
2. Good room acoustics
3. Practice

You beat me to it!

Seriously, this is the best advice you will get in this thread as it concerns improving your mixes, bar none.


cheers,
Ian

[RD9]

Hey thanks for the feedback guys. I should mention this was mainly driven by the desire to compensate for the VA (Radias mainly, but possibly also Supernova and MicroKorg) that could use some warmth or distortion or thickness whatever you call it. Then I thought maybe I could run everything through this one new box so that I can tweak the mix as a whole.

This of course means that I already covered the fundamental stuff like Stab and aeon mentioned. This issue however is more about tweaking a particular instrument so that it sits better in the mix, but also possibly tweaking the others in the process. It's fine-tuning and making it sound awesome instead of just good.

Initially I thought a better EQ would suffice (something better than my little Mackie's 3-band), but then when I read that article about warming up digital synths, I thought maybe it's possible to kill two birds with one stone and get one thing that can do both -- tweak frequencies and add warmth at the same time.

So far it seems everything is too expensive, like the TL Audio 5052, TL EQ-2, Millennia NSEQ-2, or even the UA LA-610. Shaft is right. But someone suggested I try one of the EHX tube pedals. Maybe either the LPB2ube or the Tube Eq and apply it directly to the problem synth instead of looking for something to run all the synths through. I thought that was probably the cheapest solution.

Someone also recommended an A&H like Dubersive mentioned. That sounds like a possibility too, although I'm not sure if they meant vintage or brand new (I don't know anything about A&H mixers). Another person also mentioned the Art Pro VLAs but those don't seem to have EQ. Not a bad suggestion pricewise though.

Someone also mentioned this NIIO Track Thickener ($1,095 USD).

And finally someone said just get an analog synth and cut to the chase which made me laugh, but made sense. If I did that, all I would need was a simple EQ.

[nathanscribe]

Interesting. I'm in a similar boat at the moment - got loads of good sound sources, an average mixer (Mackie 1604VLZ Pro) and not much non-fx processing, and want something to help shape the sound of some things in certain ways in the recording path. As a cheap experiment I bought an ART Tube MP Studio V3 (the blue preamp with the presets) and an ART Z-Direct passive DI. Synth->DI->Preamp = different result. Bingo, kind of. The ART DI cuts the lows and fuddles the highs, which may be what you want if you want the sound of a cheap transformer, and the Pre has some useful settings, but can get pretty noisy also. The result of this cheapfest was that I bought a Radial JDI, which sounds a h**l of a lot better than the ART. I now want a better pre-amp to add higher quality colour, but the good stuff's pricey, and I'm not sure how different/better anything would actually sound.

I'm thinking of the Focusrite Liquid 56 as an interface at the moment, with its models of various classic pres. It'd be a fair improvement on my current interface, and allow me to try the Liquid sounds for size. I've also been eyeing up the ISA One, Joemeek, and TL Audio stuff. I fully intend to audition some kit at my local retailer, rather than chuck money at stuff that may not be right.

For what it's worth, I have an old Boss KM-60 mixer that is noisy but has nice EQ. And some Digitech RDS1900 delays, that are old 8-bit units and happily rough up anything you put through. I've found the EHX White Finger to be useful for a touch of interest too.

Making pristine units sound more organic can be done in different ways, but I think shoving them through old fx is definitely one of the more flexible and fun routes.

[tallowwaters]

Sounds to me like parallel running through a cheap distortion/overdrive pedal will get you most of what you want. Seriously, pick up a few used kickers on local classifieds and try that before you invest in the snake oil.

If you are just invested in getting a channel strip, the JoeMeek MQ3 series is a good deal, though the compression can be noisy, it is crushy as all h**l.

[Stab Frenzy]

You don't need to spend lots of money on outboard EQs and stuff, if you're recording to a DAW just get some good plugins and learn how to use them. Most things are decent these days, I started recording my last EP in Pro Tools using the McDSP plugins which I really like the sound of but did the last few tracks all in Ableton Live using the plugs it comes with. It sounds great.

[piRoN]

I saw a good article in AudioTechnology a while back where one of the producer/engineer type chappies referred to fancy outboard as "that extra few percent", the point being that until the rest of your mix is 98% there then you're probably not going to get any great advantage out of it.

I find that's a good way to fight GAS - until my mixes are f**k great to begin with, then there's no point spending money on something that's only going to make it that little bit better.

[Ashe37]

I've been using the Nomad Factory Analog Trackbox VST that was on sale for $20 a few months ago to warm up my synths.

[meatballfulton]

Before I would spend hundreds of dollars on outboard gear to "add warmth" I would look at every piece of my signal chain and exhaust all possibilities there.

Your Radias has two band sweepable EQ on every patch, onboard distortion, waveshapers, compressor, etc.

If you are using a DAW you probably have useful plugins already.

The free Camel Crusher is a nice compression/distortion plug that can thicken things up nicely.

Buying more gear is almost never the answer if you already have decent gear to work with.