Chandler Limited Mini Rack Mixer

The Mini Rack Mixer answers a practical question that comes up in every studio working entirely inside the computer: where the depth goes when every channel is summed digitally. Chandler's answer is not a passive box of resistors but an active unit with its own amplification stage on every channel. Each of the 16 channels passes through a transformer and through the company's own line amp, so the signal arrives at the stereo bus having already taken on its colour. In total the unit contains 20 discrete amplifiers and 22 transformers wound specifically for it, in a circuit based on the principles of the EMI TG designs of the 1960s.

Summing and monitor control together

In practice the unit replaces two pieces of equipment. On one side is the analogue summing, with an attenuator and pan on every channel and the ability to expand to 32 channels or more through the expander connector. On the other is a full control room: switching between two pairs of speakers, Mute, Mono and Dim, Talkback with its own microphone input, and an external input that doubles as an insert point so you can place a device in the monitor path. The Control Room and Stereo Buss outputs are independent and set by stepped controls, so every level can be recalled precisely from session to session. The Time Constant section adds seven stepped options that change the time-domain behaviour of the circuit. The unit occupies 5 U in a 19-inch rack, weighs 23 kg and is powered by the external PSU-2.