dionb wrote:

There's someone selling one 2nd hand more or less locally (2 hours drive/train ride away), let's see what sort of offer he'll accept...

Gotcha. With a bit of luck I'll have it on Saturday, failing that on Tuesday.

Time to get the 19" patch case sorted. Ideally I'd like a nice retro-looking beige thing with good stainless steel. Unfortunately finding one as small as I'd like it (max 5U) is proving tricky. So instead I'm off to the local Ikea on Saturday: https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack

It's 9U by default, but at EUR 5.99 I can easily afford to saw it down to my desired height 😉

rolls rm203 is super awesome. 10 stereo inputs. 1u rack.

Although it's not rackmount, I was using an ART SplitMix4 for a while. It can mix up to four stereo channels into a single stereo output, and it's entirely passive so it doesn't need a power supply to work. It only cost me the equivalent of about US$50 as well so it's a great budget option. Inputs are unbalanced 1/4" stereo TRS, so it's basically the same signal configuration as the 3.5mm headphone/line in/out except it uses the larger 6.35mm plug instead. Really easy to use with consumer grade equipment.

dionb wrote:

Gotcha. With a bit of luck I'll have it on Saturday, failing that on Tuesday. […]
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dionb wrote:

There's someone selling one 2nd hand more or less locally (2 hours drive/train ride away), let's see what sort of offer he'll accept...

Gotcha. With a bit of luck I'll have it on Saturday, failing that on Tuesday.

Time to get the 19" patch case sorted. Ideally I'd like a nice retro-looking beige thing with good stainless steel. Unfortunately finding one as small as I'd like it (max 5U) is proving tricky. So instead I'm off to the local Ikea on Saturday: https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack

It's 9U by default, but at EUR 5.99 I can easily afford to saw it down to my desired height 😉

Thomann (a large German professional audio retailer that also ships to Holland) has a large selection of racks in all sizes. They also sell rack rails so you can build your own rack.

Here's the one I build using some 18U rack rails:

yawetaG wrote:

Thomann (a large German professional audio retailer that also ships to Holland) has a large selection of racks in all sizes. They also sell rack rails so you can build your own rack.

Thanks for the tip, they have some good-looking stuff, including one that pretty much fits my requirements apart from colour (the Millennium Steel Box 4U)

Here's the one I build using some 18U rack rails:

IMG_7216.jpg

Nice! Also remarkably familiar. Is that a single layer of Cetabever Mahogany wood stain (beits) by any change?

I had one of these for a while:

Behringer Xenyx 502 mixer. It's got a single mono input, a pair of stereo inputs, and you could even use the tape-in for an input. I used it primarily so I had in-hand volume control for my monitors and a headphone jack. Back then I had an M-Audio Audiophile 192 for my audio card and, naturally, it didn't have a headphone jack or anything like that, so the 502 mixer fit the bill. Plus it was DIRT cheap when I bought mine: I paid $29.99 + tax at Guitar Center for it years ago. I think they're maybe $10 more nowadays.

It's to the left of the monitor.

Anywho, if you need more inputs for more sound sources, Behringer has similar desktop mixers with more inputs for cheap as well. (When I was more into music and had plenty of keyboards and rack synths I had a Behringer Eurorack MX1604a mixer which I maybe paid $200 for)

Shponglefan wrote:

Your best bet is the Behringer RX1602. It's a rack mixer designed specifically for stereo sources (up to 8 of them):

I use this exact same mixer (in conjunction with a Roland/Edirol M-10DX) and am very happy with it so far.
Downside is it 'only' has 8 stereo channels. 😀

Edit: I only paid 30 euros for it because the power button was broken. That turned out that only the plastic 'guide' had fallen inside because the glue didn't stick anymore. The button itself was not broken.

I just hate how they all use those big connectors. It becomes more expensive when you have to buy new cables for all the inputs too.

Baoran wrote:

I just hate how they all use those big connectors. It becomes more expensive when you have to buy new cables for all the inputs too.

They use RCA or 1/4" connectors because that's the standard for studio use. More so 1/4" than RCA, but that's the reason. While the MT32 was a favorite for PC music, it did have it's place in budget recording setups. For a good while my old MT32 was the anchor of my production rig until I picked up a Yamaha TG55.

What I do find odd about Roland's Sound Canvas line is that most of the half rack units use RCA connectors while the more limited SC33/Boss DS330 tabletop units use 1/4" connectors (before I had the MT32, I had a Boss DS330) . I know a variation of that shell housed the Boss DR660 drum machine as well, so maybe that has something to do with it, but still it's pretty odd in my book that the more limited units had the more professional connectors.

Baoran, you don't want 6,3mm jacks and/or RCAs, right? Developers installed 3,5mm jacks very rarely. Usually it's pair of RCAs or pair of 6,3mm monojacks at each channel.
See this: https://www.bastl-instruments.com/instruments/dude/ - 3,5mm jacks only but as I guess they all are mono.
There is a huge number of different mixers at all. Just seek.

PARUS wrote:

Baoran, you don't want 6,3mm jacks and/or RCAs, right? Developers installed 3,5mm jacks very rarely. Usually it's pair of RCAs or pair of 6,3mm monojacks at each channel.
See this: https://www.bastl-instruments.com/instruments/dude/ - 3,5mm jacks only but as I guess they all are mono.
There is a huge number of different mixers at all. Just seek.

I don't mind RCA. I have lots of those 3.5mm to RCA cables and I also have awe64 gold with rca. Just those 6.3mm inputs would force me to buy new cable for each of the sound sources and good quality ones would cost 15-20 euros each here, so I would have to pay as much for the cables as a behringer mixer would cost. Otherwise I would have probably already ordered one. I know I probably could buy cheap chinese cables from ebay, but I have bad experience of those not lasting very long.

You can buy many pcs of RCAfemale to 6.3mm Jack male adapters. CHEAP!!!
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_tr … &LH_TitleDesc=0

PARUS wrote:

You can buy many pcs of RCAfemale to 6.3mm Jack male adapters. CHEAP!!!
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_tr … &LH_TitleDesc=0

That could be a nice option. Cheap adapters might last longer than cheap cables.