With the few audio outputs the matrox mxo has I was wondering what is a small mixer I could buy to accompany it? I was looking at the mackie big knob but really would be fine with something simpler. I'm used to hooking up mixers with aes/ebu so with the mxo not having them I am kind of stuck on what to get. I'm guessing it is just gonna be the RCA ports from the matrox into the mixer because I would need a de embedder to get the sdi audio to a mixer, correct?

Hi James,
It's a bit difficult to recommend an audio mixer not knowing what kind of output you want to mix to.
That being said, the simplest thing might be to use a pair of inexpensive computer speakers with an adapter to go from 1/8inch to rca. Or even a good pair of headphones with an 1/8inch to rca adapter.


cheers,


Joe

James and Joe,

I use Mackie's Big Knob for MXO's outputs and also inputting MOTU V3HD outputs to it and to two sets of powered monitors.

I wouldn't say it is top notch audio quality but better than using anything cheaper, but the functions are superior to regular mixers because you can switch the inputs and outputs, mute, dim with dedicated buttons, also includes talkback circuitry.

Great to see you here Joe.

This thread is really old, but lately there are many many good solutions so I will provide information since there might be people who can spare the information.

Any video I/O (I'd say most) don't have good audio control (except V4HD). Most of them just provide ins and outs with no master volume control. On top of that, when you use video I/Os with FCP, you can't use the audio input for the voice over purpose because of FCP's limitation (or video hardware's limitation).

First, you would want to connect nice and affordable powered speakers like KRK Rokit5 via low impedance XLR connections for its best sound quality then you won't have volume control around your desktop. So, if there's a pair of audio ins for the out from the video I/O's aduio and then volume control in between, then to the powered speakers. Lately, some USB audio interfaces provide zero latency hardware audio monitoring function by itself, without going to the route of the computer. Choose the one with big large knob so you can quickly control the volume.

Next, since FCP doesn't allow using the audio input of video hardware while you are using the video hardware for monitoring the video and audio, you can't use the video hardware for the voice over function. For the quick reference voice over, you wouldn't want to boot up separate DAW application and send the reference movie, even. Then if the same audio interface that I mention above, could act as audio input device, further, comes with mic preamp that provides 48v power for the microphone, the audio interface will be more useful.

Lastly, when it comes to looking for tunes or you want to have target music for the background of the video you are editing, but not sure to use anything particular, then you could use something like iTunes to gather some tunes and playback while you're editing. The same audio interface from above two situation would act as superb digital music playback system if you have decent audio interface and the powered speakers. Make sure you going in to the preference section of iTunes and make the playback buffer the largest, that will give you even better quality.

If you want something for the desktop, then if you want to spend least amount of money, then consider Lexicon i•onix U42s. It's the best sounding USB based audio I/O with very useful large volume knob and convenient balance knob between direct audio input from the video I/O and the audio out from USB connection. I'm using this for the MXO2 LE. With the proper setting, I can make the audio from MXO2 LE and the U42s's USB audio to output the same volume from iTunes.

For the portable situations, since MXO2s lack headphone jack, it would be nice if you accompany a small audio interface for the same reasons as above, but mainly for the headphone monitoring and the possible microphone connection. Then it should be USB powered. Lexicon has come out with few models for USB powered function, then what I would recommend is the Lambda. Never tried it but pretty much the same functions as U42s, little degraded audio specification since it's USB powered model. I should give you test results and people shouldn't just take my words at this point but it should work. Since it is very inexpensive, I can't guaranty the audio fidelity, so please wait until I buy it to check it out.

People who can spend more money then MOTU UltraLight mk3 with USB and Firewire would be very good, it offers a lot more, like hardware limiter, EQ and reverb. It also features "soft clip" function which rounds up audio clipping without sounding compressed.

I tried the PreSonus Audiobox USB, but this was a failure. It does not support 2 channel direct monitoring, both the audio channel come from the center of the stereo. Also the sound quality was not up to my standard. I also was wondering how ART's Dual Pre, but the dealer person was mentioning it suffers some manufacturing defective issues.

Hope this helps someone.