[Simon the Magpie] found himself in possession of a Behringer mixer that turned up in someone’s garbage. They’re not always the most well-regarded mixers, but [Simon] saw an opportunity to do something a bit different with it. He decided to show us all how you can use a mixer as a synthesizer.
[Simon] actually picked up the “no-input” technique from [Andreij Rublev] and decided to try it out on his own equipment. The basic idea is to use feedback through the mixer to generate tones. To create a feedback loop, connect an auxiliary output on the mixer to one of the mixer’s input channels. The gain on the channel is then increased on the channel to create a great deal of feedback. The mixer’s output is then gently turned up, along with the volume on the channel that has formed the feedback loop. If you’ve hooked things up correctly, you should have some kind of tone feedbacking through the mixer. Want to change the pitch? Easy – just use the mixer’s EQ pots!
It’s pretty easy to get some wild spacey sounds going. Get creative and you can make some crunchy sounds or weird repeating tones if you play with the mixer’s built in effects. Plus, the benefit of a mixer is that it has multiple channels. You can create more feedback loops using the additional channels if you have enough auxiliary sends for the job. Stack them up or weave them together and you can get some wild modulation going.
Who needs a modular synth when you can do all this with a four channel mixer and some cables? Video after the break.
And you are not limited to using only the mixer’s output for input!
The folks at Behringer might disagree with your comment that they’re not always the most well-regarded mixers. Yes they are built to a price, but so is everything and I think they are respectable for their place in the performance per dollar curve.
Yeah .. I’ve been a profi musician/song writer and producer for 60 years.
I’ve used a Behringer 16 track mixer (live and recording) for 20 years without any complaints .. and the manual they supplied with the mixer was some of the most informative literature on sound technique I’ve seen .. really excellent.
To call these products crap is just a demonstration of inadequacy, out of control ego and a horribly loose mouth .. a real artist can produce an excellent result with any kind of equipment, because it all hangs on creative ability and not w**king with technology.
Even with a 4track cassette recorder, I can still produce a result that has far more depth, spatial separation and dimensional imagery than anything that can be produced on digital toys .. and all done simply, in real time.
NB: I also work with my own build 16 track analogue recorder (originally 2 Revox 8tracks) and previously, with the most advanced digital studios in Europe.
>a real artist can produce an excellent result with any kind of equipment
Alright. Do it with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzWaj_vDKBM
I agree. I had a similar mixer 25 years ago, and it was completely silent within say 70/75 decibels of range. So in practice, you never hear any background level noise at all, even when having 16 mics on stage (with a variety of how big the gain-buttons were opened) and the venue completely silent, at the main mixer it would not go above -70/-75dB which is pretty healty even for todays standards.
Surprisingly, switching to Motu gear directly without a mixer in between a few years later, did not change anything for background noise (and sound quality by the way) ;) The Behringer colouring by those mixers was pretty “flat” and neutral, as I learned then (a few thousand euros later).
At school we had a terribly expensive Sony O1V96 mixer, which would start hissing as soon as you opened that gain button a little bit. Sony was and still is very much ahead of their ADC technology, but they did always put crappy ADCs in their less-than-half-a-million-dollar-mixers.
I am confident you can do this trick with any mixer, even those produced today. The reason is simple: no ADC is perfect.
Glad to see other Behringer brigaders here! Behringer opened up high-quality preamps, DACs, and USB interfaces to the average person. They work great!
I used Mackie way back, but realized I could get way more for my dollar. I recently got my first presonus, but I just wanted a motorized fader.
(woo. came for the possibilities, stayed for the 2 characters. Too much fun. Do not miss the jams at the end of the video. )
The real knock on Behringer is that their products are often shameless clones of other companies’ engineering. Not that they’re alone in that; just about every budget tabletop mixer from most makers now looks like the little Mackie mixers that blazed the trail here.
Most of these are a good bang for the buck. And a bit fragile.
Budget or not – finding it in the trash? Awesome.
And, um, I own a small Behringer mixer. So….
Note that if this technique interests you, just about anything with an audio amp onboard (eg nasty little portable radios) can be circuit-bent into novel oscillations.
“A crappy mixer” is an un-called for slur upon Behringer kit. Of course it’s not the top of the range, but their gear is honest, durable budget equipment and a mainstay of schools, village halls and impecunious young bands everywhere. I have a couple of their mixers and a small PA, and while nothing fancy they always get the job done. I have always found Behringer to be decent budget gear that more than fulfils the promise of it’s modest price.
Wasn’t making weird synth noises using feedback from their gear how Daft Punk started?
I mean, it goes back way further than that.
Shout out to King Tubby.
And Toshimaru Nakamura!
The godfather of no input loops!
I’m pretty impressed with the copies of Roland 808 and 606 drum machines Behringer has been releasing…I don’t own one (yet) but as a drum machine newbie I gotta give them props!
I agree that Behringer deserves more respect.
Is it the flagship product I’d buy if I had an unlimited budget?
Hell no.
But at the price point they do a really good job.
As a guy who designs electronics, it always amazes me what a company like Behringer can do with a product that’s selling at $100 wholesale, while being absolutely _full_ of expensive electromechanical bits like connectors, pots and switches that can’t be optimized out by moving the function to software.
Just open one up and tote up all the parts that go in there.
Even the enclosure is an extra expense, since it’s not the ‘standard’ 5-side or double U box that everybody is tooled for.
Yeah, the product isn’t spectacular, but it’s not crap, either, and it takes real engineering skill to design a decent product to a demanding pricepoint.
I always felt that the engineers who designed the Toyota Yaris actually had a much harder job than the guys who designed the latest Ferrari.
The Toyota is a car that was sold en-masse to a market that expects their car to be very inexpensive while running forever with little maintenance all backed by a half-decade warranty. Meanwhile the Ferrari is a ‘spend what you want’ design sold to a market that performs expensive maintenance meticulously, and when the car does break – which is often – just chalks that up to living on the cutting edge.
People have been doing no input feedback loops for along time.its not a new idea.do some actual research