Best FireWire mixer for Mac OSX and Live?

flyingrabbit · Post by **flyingrabbit** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 6:26 pm

Hello fellow Live-ers (Livers?)

I'm in the market for a FireWire mixer, which will plug into a Powerbook (1.5gHz G4) - but I've no idea which ones work well with both Live and OSX. I need the ability to crossfade and preview clips during live performance (i.e, the whole point of Live), but my drummer's DigiDesign hardware (an MBox) doesn't allow this. I need 8-12 channels, and if the board has MIDI imputs too, it wouldn't hurt.

Suggestions?

monarkeys · Post by **monarkeys** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 2:34 am

Why not use Live as the mixer?
I've played around with that and plan on performing live that way.
I have a MOTU 896 (8 ins and outs), running real keyboards into Live and using it for mixer and effects - very cool.

flyingrabbit · Post by **flyingrabbit** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 5:15 pm

That looks very promising.

Tell me, (and I know this may be a dumb question) - does this allow for previewing of loops/tracks during performance? Like, I have two or three tracks sent to the Master track, but also a track that I'm listening to on headphones (say, to sync a loop to the beat the band is playing) but which is *not* sent to the Master track?

dave999z · Post by **dave999z** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 4:26 am

monarkeys wrote:Why not use Live as the mixer?

Because if you're going to need a control surface anyway...

czechchap · Post by **czechchap** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:06 am

yamaha 01X.

it's a digital mixing desk that send midi control data and audio via firewire to your computer thus killing three 3 tres birds with one stone.

In America now these are cheaper than some of the Motu soundcards, although European pricing are still way too high.

If it's just for DJing though and you don't need all the functionality then how about a Presonus firebox and behringer BCF2000? cheaper and can do all you need.

flyingrabbit · Post by **flyingrabbit** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:50 pm

I'm not DJing - I'm using Live to capture sounds performed by other musicians and creating loops on the fly to play out during performance *and* I'm playing keyboard - one MIDI controller and some old synths.

monarkeys · Post by **monarkeys** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 6:42 pm

dave999z wrote:
monarkeys wrote:Why not use Live as the mixer?
Because if you're going to need a control surface anyway...

Ya - I just set up my MIDI controllers to get at everything, but that's a good point.

It may be just as cheap to buy a mixer as to buy a controller.