The Mackie ProDX4 is an ultra-compact 4-channel digital mixer with complete wireless control. It offers powerful processing, great sounding 'ReadyFX' effects and a control app for iOS and Android. You can also wirelessly play back music or backing tracks right from your phone with Bluetooth® streaming.
Key Features:
Simple and Intuitive
Wireless Streaming and Control via the MixerConnect™ app on iOS and Android™
Powerful Built-in Processing
Single knob design
ReadyFX™ effects
Wirelessly play back music or backing tracks right from your phone with Bluetooth
See more product detail: http://www.djstore.com/mackie-prodx8
There was a time when wireless internet via the use of a wireless router was all the rage and was considered revolutionary. Before that existed, routers had to use ethernet cables, sometimes running them across the house making our wives made and causing our children to tug the routers from the wall when they tripped over them. It was a tangled mess, but it did its job for the time that it existed. When the first wireless router and receiver were implemented it meant that you could use your computers anywhere around the house you wanted. For a device that was stationary, it was no big deal – but for a laptop it really meant that you could roam wherever you wanted.
Today, most laptops and tablet have wireless receivers built in to them; they are not an option (other than turning it on or off). We take for granted the extreme mobility this allows us to have. Producers who use a tablet to control certain gestures or functions would not be able to do so without it. Optimizing the wireless router is not as important as it use to be, since they are pretty powerful – but there are still small tweaks that can make them fast.
http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/connecting-your-system/increase-wireless-speed-and-range
The simplest explanation for why I don't have a mixer (in my studio anyway) is that I don't play with analog audio. Analog is how everyone used to record audio before computers came along and infected everything with binary.
Tape was usually how they did it, and it worked by converting the analog audio out of an instrument (or more likely a microphone) onto magnetic tape. Then a whole bunch of those tapes would be played into a mixer, and the mixer's job was to create a simple stereo track that could then be pressed to vinyl, cassettes or CDs.
Some producers and musicians still swear by tape, but for most of us, that's just not feasible. Analog recording is expensive and requires lots of machines and tape and knowledge.
That's why I (and most people) just use digital audio. Mixers still work with digital audio, especially if you have an awesome audio interface with dozens of inputs and outputs, but again, most of us do not. What I suspect my friend means by "mixer" is a control surface.
A control surface is a mixer-like device that lets us use our DAW as a mixer. You assign what the knobs and faders do, and the CS itself doesn't make any sound, it just gives you more tactile control over your DAW. They're a cheaper way to get that mixer feel, but they require more technical know-how and/or patience.
Another great thing about digital audio (and the goddamn futuristic wonderland we call the present) is that control surfaces are not limited to the physical realm. You can download WiFi mixer apps and programs like TouchDAW* that replicate a lot of the functionality of a control surface without dishing out hundreds of bucks.
I've been reading a great book on mixing, Mixing Audio by Roey Izhaki, and it has a few long detailed chapters on how digital and analog audio differ, and how most mixers (and control surfaces) work. I highly recommend it for anyone who has $50 and the desire to know more about how audio production works.
*Where's the link, I hear you ask. Fuck TouchDAW and their rude-ass customer service, that's where. A year ago, I tried out their free program, and it had a couple of strange glitches. When I sent them an email asking if they knew anything about those glitches or how to resolve them, their response was basically, "Shit happens. Don't bother us again." It wasn't even a polite "shit happens." Fuck those guys. Donwload TouchOSC nstead.
