Zoom Livetrak L-6 mixer/recorder test drive - Back in the saddle

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Full Disclosure: I occasionally take on freelance work at Sonicware on an hourly rate producing synth & sample sound design, beta testing, checking English text, video manuals etc. This video wasn't paid for directly but as a result of my work with Sonicware it is marked as Paid Promotion

So I had some rough plans of what I wanted to achieve in the studio today which all went out the window when my new Zoom Livetrack L-6 turned up unexpectedly early. I've had my eye on these since they were announced and pretty much pounced on being able to purchase one because as far as I'm concerned it's the missing link when it comes to battery powered dawless jams.

I've been on the lookout for a battery powered mixer for a while and it wasn't that long ago that I bought a Bastl Bestie which is pretty cool, but frankly this blows it out of the water. You have a per channel controls for level, mute, pan, 3 band EQ, 2 external fx sends and 1 internal fx send which is already more than I needed but it also records multi-tracks to SD card and will work as a multi channel audio interface. Did I mention it's battery powered and not much bigger than a Volca? Oh and the 1 button compressor is surprisingly awesome because you can also use the master level control to dial in the compression amount. Pretty much perfect tbh.

One of the issues I always have with dawless is I'll create something quickly using a basic mix, sometimes with an analog mixer to get things sounding good. When it comes to recording I had 2 choices, stick with the mix and just create 2 track recording which means I have far less options in terms of mixing in the future or reconnect everything to my DAW completely changing the sound I've created with my analog mixer sometimes ruining it. Pretty much a lose lose situation. With the L-6 I can just stick with the setup I write with, capture and\or record a 2 track mix for my videos while also recording multitracks. Win win baby 👍

In this jam I'm using the Lofi-12 XT for strings and hi-hats, that's using it own internal reverb. 2 channels of Volca Beats are being used with the 1st dry and the 2nd one eq'd so only the top end is being heard, this is sent to the internal reverb. The Volca Bass is being sent to the L-6's internal reverb but also the external sends which in this case is connected to the Korg NTS-1 stereo delay. This is sent back to an input where it's being eq'd to clean it up.

One thing to be aware of when using the NTS-1 as an external send\return effect is that most mixers have mono send connections including the L-6. However the NTS-1 has a stereo input. The usual adaptor to convert from 1\4" to 3.5mm won't work either because this will just result in a signal only being sent to the left side, so I'll need to make a special cable for that, job for tomorrow! Here I'm just sending to both sends on the L-6 and plugging both into the NTS-1. Waste of sends but it works.



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