Quality Audio Mixer for offline final cut pro edit

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

What do you mean by “work with”?

All mixers will work with most audio sources in an edit bay.

Or are you looking for a digital control surface to actually operate the software?

[Dan Riley]

What do you need a mixer for?
As a mic preamp? For monitor level control?
If so, a Mackie is fine. The 1202 or the 1402.

Remember, you aren’t mixing on the mixer anymore.
That’s done in FCP, Soundtrack Pro, Pro Tools, Peak or whatever.
The only time I ever touch my mixer anymore is for
monitor level control, or for feeding a mic into FCP.
The Mackies are fine for this.

Dan

[Pat Defilippo]

I ended up buying the Berringer 1204 because it was smaller, less expensive and it gave me another stereo output over the Mackie 1202 and 1402. I have a AJA Io LA and a Sony BVW-1800 Beta-SP that are both able to input and output with the Berringer 1204; with the Mackie, I would have had to either buy a matchbox and convert from an extra RCA output to XLR in order to send the signal back to both sources or I would have had to switch the cables (from the mixer) to either the AJA or the Beta-SP every time, depending on where I wanted to send the signal. With the Berringer 1204, I’m hooked up to both 100% of the time plus I didn’t have to buy the matchbox (although I did have to buy two phono to XLR cables). It works well, plus it gives you two extra phono inputs and a left and right RCA input.

The only knock I have on it is that the signals seem to come in pretty hot, even with the individual input adjustments turned all the way down. You can’t use the full range of the mixers and only halfway gives you full levels. On the upside, though, you can crank up a low signal much higher! Mackie might have the same problem, though, so it might not be a fair knock on Behringer.

If you only have two sources, like I do, check it out at https://www.behringer.com/UB1204/index.cfm?lang=ENG and then check it out on eBay for the best price. I think it cost me all of $50 including delivery on eBay plus it fits the space I have for it perfectly (the similar Mackie is a bit larger).

If you want something with more pizzaz and interoperability with FCP and Soundtrack, I did see a mixer at NAB this year that let you “ride” your non-linear levels. If I remember from the demo correctly, in FCP, it also lets you tweak your color levels with the three-way color corrector via the mixer levels. It looked great and I think it was only $500 or something like that. It is the Tascam 1082 (https://www.tascam.com/Products/fw1082.html), and your clients will be impressed because the mixer controls move all by themselves as they emulate the Audio Mixer in FCP as you play along the timeline!

Good luck!

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AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

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[Pierre]

Thank you very much! I’m going to check in the the mixer now.

Michael

[Travis Ballstadt]

The Tascam FW-1082 is a great mixer, and has become an indispensible part of my edit system. I originally bought it to do some location audio recording, and it had the added perk of controlling FCP when I was done with it.

I haven’t bothered yet to program the extra controls. Frankly, having transport controls, jog/shuttle wheel, and audio channel controls like solo/mute and the automated faders is all I really need.

Once you get it set up, the thing just works. It takes a bit to get everything to mesh with it properly, but once it’s set up, it rocks.

Highly recommended here!

travis ballstadt
http://www.thrillcateditorial.com

[David Jolosky]

Just curious on your setup.

I have 1 fw card dedicated to my external drives
1 fw card dedicated to my dsr 11 dv deck
and the internal dedicated to the tascam fw 1082

i’m getting dropped frames when using sliders (surface control) in FCP. Any thoughts?