Help! I'm four channels short

[Toast]

So here's the situation. I have a Presonus D8 (eight-channel mic preamp), and I have eight microphones plugged into it for eight individual tracks. Recording digitally, no problem.

However, I only have four channels left on my mixer to pump the analog output of those eight tracks into headphones/monitors.

Is there a way to double up two analog outputs of the Presonus D8 into a single channel on my mixing board? It doesn't have to be perfect; the instrument has already been recorded. I just want the option to get all eight tracks into the headphones if possible.

Thanks!

[Phil O'Keefe]

22 minutes ago, Toast said:

So here's the situation. I have a Presonus D8 (eight-channel mic preamp), and I have eight microphones plugged into it for eight individual tracks. Recording digitally, no problem.

However, I only have four channels left on my mixer to pump the analog output of those eight tracks into headphones/monitors.

Is there a way to double up two analog outputs of the Presonus D8 into a single channel on my mixing board? It doesn't have to be perfect; the instrument has already been recorded. I just want the option to get all eight tracks into the headphones if possible.

Thanks!

 

I don't own one, and I've never used or reviewed one, so take this FWIW... but I did look at the PreSonus product page for the D8, read all of that, as well as a couple of reviews, and it doesn't appear that there's any kind of onboard summing for the analog outputs on that unit - each output is hardwired to each input / mic preamp, and there's no way to sum outputs internally on the D8. 

So that means you'd need to do it externally. A simple submixer, or even a a pair of cheap passive (resistance) mixers (Behringer still makes one) would do the trick, assuming the output levels from the D8 are reasonably hot enough. 

The only other option I can think of is to get a larger mixer with more inputs. 

 

[Toast]

Ooooh ... that's a pretty decent solution. I'll need to find one that takes 5 inputs and pushes out one signal, though. Send three direct to the mixer, and then five left for the last channel. Or failing that, I'll just be down a track in the headphones.

[Phil O'Keefe]

32 minutes ago, Toast said:

Ooooh ... that's a pretty decent solution. I'll need to find one that takes 5 inputs and pushes out one signal, though. Send three direct to the mixer, and then five left for the last channel. Or failing that, I'll just be down a track in the headphones.

 

Two things - first, a correction: the Behringer 4x1 line mixer isn't a passive mixer like the old DOD I was thinking of - while it looks similar, it uses an opamp, and it's active, so levels shouldn't be a problem. 

If you use two of those 4x1 units, you could sum all 8 channels from the PreSonus and run them into only two mixer channels, leaving you with two unused channels on your main mixer. Or, you could run two channels from the PreSonus straight to your current mixer, and sum the other six channels using two of the Behringer units (three channels to one, the other three channels to the second one), and send them to the last two remaining inputs on your main mixer. 

Either way, any summed channels would need to have their relative levels adjusted with the Behringer's level controls, since you won't have individual control over them at your main mixer. The only way to get that is to get a bigger main mixer, with more input channels. 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

If you want a single unit with eight inputs, you might want to look at the similarly-priced Nady MM-242. It has eight inputs and two outputs in a 4x2 configuration. You'd still need two channels on your current mixer to plug it into, but it would handle all 8 outputs from the PreSonus in a single unit. 

https://www.amazon.com/Nady-MM-242-Stereo-Channel-outputs/dp/B07215MFNY