Digifish,
While this was intended to be a pre-amp review, can you you tell us how you like the mixpre? I found these comments on a forum, I think they mainly do audio for video, though.
the battery life is shi* with phantom power on and led illumination ,
no mic level outs , no individual high pass filter
no individual channel monitoring , no ms matrix , no headphone ms matrix
the pots are to small
let say if you need mixer its not something to consider , if you need additional preamp to add to your setup it could work .
by the way it sounds good what doesnt make it ideal for normal jobs
http://dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=110933
About the MixPre...
Battery life, a couple of thoughts 1. the battery life is about on par with my R09's batteries. That is 3~4 hours, phantom on. Honestly my R09 always goes flat before my MixPre, I have never even worried about it as I always carry spare batteries with me. The MixPre warns you when the batteries are low, and that said, I have never seen the warning. I just don't record for that long between changing the batteries. 2. Field recording is not like concert recording, you have plenty of time to manage your batteries etc and recordings seldom last longer than 5-10 minutes.
Let's get this straight, the MixPre has been the darling of the 'quietude' field recording set for years (also appears as a Shure FP24), it has the lowest noise floor of any mic preamp I have used, sounds fantastic and is built like a tank. It will turn a $300 consumer digital recorder with a decent line-in into something that is audibly indistinguishable from a 700 series recorder under all but the most critical of analysis or listening conditions. Actually I'd like to see a blind comparison.
I don't think of the MixPre as a mixer (each channel can only be
panned switched into one of three positions, L, C or R anyway), it's really a pair of pristine mic preamps and phantom power front end to a digital recorder (R09 & R44 in my case). It gives you 700 series recording quality when paired with an R09 for ~$1000. Spend the $1500 you save on mics. And while recorders and recording formats become obsolete, I am confident the MixPre will outlast them all
Yes it has linked high-pass filters (80 or 160 hz), I don't see the fact they are linked as a real limitation. The compressors, which are adjustable and excellent, on the other hand can function independently.
No ms matrix. How many mic-pres do?
Pots too small? Then the pots on all the Sound Devices gear are too small. I have never had any problem with them (even while wearing gloves). They are rubberized which makes them even easier to grip.
It also has the very nice feature of a mini-stereo-phono line-out to connect it to consumer recorders or XLR if you have those inputs on your gear. It's been very well thought out as far as connectivity goes.
What does suck is the size and location of the power switch, but it's no big deal. Of all the gear I have ever owned there are two pieces I will recommend without reservation, they are the Sound Devices MixPre and a Rode NT1-A.
digifish