Synth-Studio Weblog

I got some new gear to showcase: a second Yamaha Mixer model MG124cx, and a Radial J33 Phono Preamp.

First I’ll talk about the new mixer. Having been very happy with the MG102c, having a desire to be able to plug in more of my synths simultaneously, combined with the holiday sales at Sam Ash, the MG124cx seemed a somewhat logical step. I would have rather gotten a non ‘X’ model, as I will probably never use the on-board effects, but they didn’t have that model in stock. It’s basically the same great little mixer as my 102c, except it has more inputs and two stereo outputs. The extra output pair is really great because now it allows me to truly separate my microphone input from my synths from within my computer itself. I had an amusing yet headache-inducing time wiring this thing up for the first time. I had to draw up a whole spreadsheet of all my audio I/O’s, from my Two M-Audio Delta 1010’s through to both Yamaha Mixers until it all finally made sense.

Moving onto my new Radial J33 Phono Preamp, this thing is pretty cool. I’d been looking for an easy solution to allow me to ‘archive’ my LP records at a quality I saw fit, like 24bit/96Khz FLAC. So far it works great! I plan to have a dedicated page for the J33 sometime in the future with some example clips.

Below are some more photos of the new mixer and phono preamp.