Hey pals
I want to start busking with my op-1, a mic, and my phone. Problem is, I can’t find a good solution for a mixer – a surprisingly small number (like 2 or 3) of mixers appear to be battery powered .
Any suggestions for tiny little battery powered mixers(or something else that would work as a mixer with 3 inputs), or for a way to work around needing power?
Also, any suggestions for speakers? I’d like something I can throw in my backpack rather than lug around separately . What do you think ?
@sesame Its worth a look at some of IK Multimedia’s stuff as they are pretty good at small battery powered solutions. How many inputs are you after with a small mixer? The iRig mix or iRig Pro Duo might be enough if you just want a couple of channels (OP-1 + mic).
The iLoud speaker is also really good, I borrowed one for a few weekend it handles all different types of music very well.
@sesame Its worth a look at some of IK Multimedia's stuff as they are pretty good at small battery powered solutions. How many inputs are you after with a small mixer? The iRig mix or iRig Pro Duo might be enough if you just want a couple of channels (OP-1 + mic).
The iLoud speaker is also really good, I borrowed one for a few weekend it handles all different types of music very well.
Ohhh nice, thanks for the suggestions ! I could get by and have fun with two inputs but I’d really like to have 3 if possible, but I’ll check out IK’s stuff
Edit: oh wait , I guess I wasn’t clear – I’d like to use my phone as another instrument rather than an interface or something
Those little $6-$8 5 way splitters from amazon can actually function as a mixer, but you do lose a little bit of volume, and have no mixing ability, but you can just use the op-1 and phone volumes and there’s no need for a battery. Also, the iLoud is amazing, I love it, I was thinking of getting two for more sound.
How are you powering your mic when you’re out and about with no wall power? I guess that’s part of what you’d need in the portable mixer? Or is the mic gong direct into the op-1 with no preamp/power supply?
Those little $6-$8 5 way splitters from amazon can actually function as a mixer, but you do lose a little bit of volume, and have no mixing ability, but you can just use the op-1 and phone volumes and there's no need for a battery. Also, the iLoud is amazing, I love it, I was thinking of getting two for more sound.
How are you powering your mic when you're out and about with no wall power? I guess that's part of what you'd need in the portable mixer? Or is the mic gong direct into the op-1 with no preamp/power supply?
I'm curious about a similar type of set up
Yeah I don't plan on powering the mic at all, this setup is gonnna be pretty minimal and lo fi hehe
Those Belkin type 5 way splitters are not suitable for mixing, the cheap ones are even worse as they do not even have resistors inside, the Belkin ones have 16ohm resistors which is almost as bad - just like splicing all your cables together - outputs sent into outputs = loading = bye bye output circuitry if you are unlucky, or just much shorter life potentially if you get away with it. Finally they do jot actually allow you to mix, change the volume on one device and the others will get louder.
Buy a properly designed mixer not a headphone splitter, a proper mixer will have typically 10k (10,000 ohms) input impedance, which will prevent loading on the outputs of your gear.
As you may know I make mixers (although mine are passive, no power needed) but a good powered mixer that runs on batteries is the Peavey RQ200, it isn’t tiny though, I think Nady make some very small battery mixers but they are not in the same league soundwise as the Peavey.
You could get an sp404 sampler. It’s battery powered has a stereo input and a mic input. You could do your phone into the op-1. Your op-1 and a mic into the sp. there’s one for sale in the classifieds.
As you may know I make mixers (although mine are passive, no power needed) but a good powered mixer that runs on batteries is the Peavey RQ200, it isn't tiny though, I think Nady make some very small battery mixers but they are not in the same league soundwise as the Peavey.
Those Nady 4 channel mixers are super cheap and battery powered . Thank you ! This might be exactly what I need
I think Roland Cube Street has 3 inputs, two monos and one stereo. But it seems that the stereo input has no volume control, but if you plug OP-1 there it shouldn’t matter, right?
Or for more stereo ins, the EX model has them but is more expensive.
Wow, lots of good input on this thread. I ended up just purchasing (like 10 minutes ago) a Behringer Xenyx 1002B (from pitbull audio - they hooked me up). It’s got something like a 8.5" x 11.7" footprint. For me it has more channels than I need, but definitely the cheapest option with send/return fx, and leaves room to expand.
Hopefully it doesn’t eat through too many 9Vs when portable.
Those Belkin type 5 way splitters are not suitable for mixing, the cheap ones are even worse as they do not even have resistors inside, the Belkin ones have 16ohm resistors which is almost as bad - just like splicing all your cables together - outputs sent into outputs = loading = bye bye output circuitry if you are unlucky, or just much shorter life potentially if you get away with it. Finally they do jot actually allow you to mix, change the volume on one device and the others will get louder.
Buy a properly designed mixer not a headphone splitter, a proper mixer will have typically 10k (10,000 ohms) input impedance, which will prevent loading on the outputs of your gear.
As you may know I make mixers (although mine are passive, no power needed) but a good powered mixer that runs on batteries is the Peavey RQ200, it isn’t tiny though, I think Nady make some very small battery mixers but they are not in the same league soundwise as the Peavey.
I knew something wasn’t right when I was using those with the OP-1. I was mostly using it to hear two volcas through one speaker, so the volumes wouldn’t change, and I never noticed anything weird. Thanks for the helpful input, hopefully I didn’t take years off the life of my favorite little beatmaking machines.
Are you into selling your own mixers or is it just a homebrew type of diy project? Any instructables? Thanks again
