Re: Alesis Multimix 8 Line. 1u mixer for looping. Mod.

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

L.Angulo wrote:
>id love to use a rack mixer to save setup time but unfortunately they all 
>miss those features Andy is mentioning...
> 

I had a good look inside the Alesis Multimix Line 8 yesterday.

By breaking just a couple of connections on the circuit board I could have 
the following.

Plug mic and guitar(via pre-amp/fx) into mixer,
and route them to the fx send but *not* the main mix.

fx send goes to Vortex (or any fx unit).

Vortex goes to stereo ch return, and is also Y-cabled to
a number of loop devices, which all have 100% wet setting.

Loop devices each come in on a channel, so can be panned
if necessary.

With a bit of twiddling, it's then possible to re-sample any loop
device to any other.

If needed, I could plug one of the alternative outputs of the 
mixer into a reverb, and bring that in on the fx return.


The hardware mod looks ultra easy to make, but would be fiddly to
reverse.
I'm thinking about fitting a switch for it, looks like
there's just enough room for an ultra-miniature switch,
tho' it needs a bit of metalwork.



other mods I considered are not so practical.
1) making fx send pre-fader is a no go
2) a direct out for the mic pre would need an additional circuit added,
   it would be just as easy, and not expensive, to put in a replacement 
pre-amp. 

and the rather far fetched:-
It would be easy enough to install to install 5 nine volt batteries
(or perhaps some combination) and supply phantom power to the
microphone.



I also checked out some of the chips that the signal runs through. 
These are surface mount 4558. 
(i.e. the cheapest available).
As it happens, those chips aren't required to do a lot of gain increase,
so they aren't a big problem, but it's not as if Alesis charge Behringer
style prices for their mixers. It wouldn't have hurt them to spend a few
pence more per unit on better chips and make something usable in the 
studio.
If they weren't surface mount I'd consider replacing them with something 
better,
as when using my own pa I could probably notice the difference.


andy butler