spacelabstudio
Active member
I built a passive summing box. Based on the New York Dave design. 24 inputs. 4 mono channels and 10 stereo pairs. Hard wired, no switches. 10kR 1/2 watt resistors. 243R 1/4 watt output resistors.
I'm trying figure out what I think the results actually are and have concocted a blind listening test to see what people think without their prejudices getting in the way. What I've done is I took a track I mixed recently for some friends of mine and made several new mixes. I was particularly interested in isolating the effect of just running the tracks through an extra D->A and A->D conversion with a mic pre in between, versus actual analog summing, so I have one mix that is the ITB mix run through the passive summer and a Sytek preamp in addition to a mix that actually bust instruments out onto separate channels before running through the summer. I also, of course, compared the sounds of different preamps in my collection.
The mixes are:
- ITB, everything mixed in the computer
- Mixed ITB, run 2 channels through Sytek
- Mixed OTB, Sytek
- Mixed OTB, Sytek Burr Brown
- Mixed OTB, RNP
- Mixed OTB, Great River
- Mixed OTB, Hamptone Tube Pre
Since I had previously done this mix entirely ITB and happened to have a software compressor across the drums, I took the lazy route and brought the drums out as a two channel stem rather than mix individual drum mics in the passive box. So on the tracks mixed OTB, what you're really hearing is the drums, bass and guitar mixed as stems. There is a spring reverb on the guitar and a software reverb on the drums that each got their own channels on the summer as well.
I have then taken the first 30 seconds of each mix, shuffled randomly, and posted them here:
http://spacelabstudio.com/passive_summing_fixed/
Anyone who would like to play should just reply to this thread. I'm interested in hearing:
1) Which version to you think sounds the best.
2) Can you describe the differences that you hear between the versions?
3) Which wav files do you think are which mixes? Can you match them up?
It would be great if you didn't read other people's responses before taking the ITB vs OTB challenge.
Thanks all!
Chris
I'm trying figure out what I think the results actually are and have concocted a blind listening test to see what people think without their prejudices getting in the way. What I've done is I took a track I mixed recently for some friends of mine and made several new mixes. I was particularly interested in isolating the effect of just running the tracks through an extra D->A and A->D conversion with a mic pre in between, versus actual analog summing, so I have one mix that is the ITB mix run through the passive summer and a Sytek preamp in addition to a mix that actually bust instruments out onto separate channels before running through the summer. I also, of course, compared the sounds of different preamps in my collection.
The mixes are:
- ITB, everything mixed in the computer
- Mixed ITB, run 2 channels through Sytek
- Mixed OTB, Sytek
- Mixed OTB, Sytek Burr Brown
- Mixed OTB, RNP
- Mixed OTB, Great River
- Mixed OTB, Hamptone Tube Pre
Since I had previously done this mix entirely ITB and happened to have a software compressor across the drums, I took the lazy route and brought the drums out as a two channel stem rather than mix individual drum mics in the passive box. So on the tracks mixed OTB, what you're really hearing is the drums, bass and guitar mixed as stems. There is a spring reverb on the guitar and a software reverb on the drums that each got their own channels on the summer as well.
I have then taken the first 30 seconds of each mix, shuffled randomly, and posted them here:
http://spacelabstudio.com/passive_summing_fixed/
Anyone who would like to play should just reply to this thread. I'm interested in hearing:
1) Which version to you think sounds the best.
2) Can you describe the differences that you hear between the versions?
3) Which wav files do you think are which mixes? Can you match them up?
It would be great if you didn't read other people's responses before taking the ITB vs OTB challenge.
Thanks all!
Chris