That $75 Amazon Mixer.. // Maker Hart Loop Mixer Review 

I've been using this mixer for over a year. Definitely recommended! The multiple outputs is very useful being able to record and monitor output at the same time.

"Not to be confused with...your phone." The look on your face there...

Thank you SO much I have never seen that Squid thing and needed something for a portable battery just like it. Was stoked to see you reviewing this thing; I knew it looked solid but added it to my cart as soon as I saw it on your channel. You're an ace! Thanks Man!

was playing audio on my phone but when i plugged in my headphones and boom that tune in the background is so fire

I've got that mixer and it's fantastic for the size and price. I use it to combine all my Korg Volca's into one output to send into my 12-Channel Mackie Mixer.

What you describe as a pan knob is actually a balance knob, and is labeled correctly. Panning moves the sound from left to right in the stereo field. Balance adjusts how loud the left vs the right will be in the stereo field, but will not move the left to the right or the right to the left.

I love your beats man, always s good groove in the vid that I end up rewinding like 10 times haha

I love your channel, man.

Cool that they have set up the gain this way, as a continuum b/w mic and line settings.

Cool little mixer. If it was battery powered it would have been sold haha. I ended up settling for the Nady Audio mixer you can get for like $40, I think it’s the 242. Switches between 4 stereo or 8 mono inputs, stereo/mono out, no faders, all knobs but it is a metal case design and runs of a 9v battery. I love that little thing.

another hella underrated jam in the end! love it!

I have one with my Volca set up. I have one of those 3D printed, 4 Volca, tiered stands...with a bit of finnagling, you can get this mixer to fit into the tiered stand. Then I got the Volca multi-power supply and some low profile, right-angled 1/8” cables and the whole thing is a pretty dope, self contained, one PSU set up. The mixer is kinda garbage, but if everything coming in is line level(synths) and you leave yourself enough headroom, its totally fine. I’d only use it on “toy synths” like Volcas or Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators. Ricky’s Moog (pictured in the vid) would crush the headroom of this mixer.

Thanks for this review. I’ve been on the fence about this for awhile now but...

One of the Amazon packages you have linked includes a "bus cable" to connect multiple mixers.

Thanks to your review I just bought one whilst passing thru Taiwan. Looks great. Looking forward to using it when i get home... 😀

I also use it for concerts and I have to say it's fantastic.

ART SplitMix4 is a passive 4 channel stereo mixer and costs less. Barebones and acts more like a patchbay but if you need something portable without the need of a power supply, it's incredibly useful.

Still using one I bought around the time of this video and it's been flawless. I had one of their JUST mixers for a few weeks before that nuked itself though, so maybe I was lucky.

Cool little mixer for a small Volca setup, or even some Boutique gear. digging the acid jam at the end of the vid too!

Gotta add this to my wishlist for a possible Compliment to my new AE modular system!

I might have to snag one of these. My studio is setup in such a way that on one wall I have most of my instruments going in to a mixer and from the mixer into my interface, which is on the opposite wall on my desk. I have audio cables running from the mixer under the carpet and up to my desk. I also have my Hydrasynth on my desk and change out equipment pretty frequently which results in more cables running from my desk to the mixer. Been wanting a small mixer for the desk that I can sum everything on the desk before sending it to the main mixer. This might be it! Thanks Ricky!

that background music is fire

Cool Ricky, thanks for the review.

That's really neat, I'll have to pick one up, thanks!

This was great but, I would love some reviews on other mixers. I need a mixer but would like a professional opinion on what to get in my price range. thanks for the top quality vids!

I have had this mixer ages, I like it

no kidding on the gain, left and paused the video, came back to 808's blasting my ears

Would have been cool to hear multiple sources being summed together. Thanks for the review

I value videos like this because despite my love for DAWs, I have this desire to do live Jam Sessions on hardware alone. I also tend to be chronically low on money. I'm basically trying to come up with a setup that's budget friendly, but that I could come back to in 2 years and not look at it like a preschool keyboard that can't play 3 notes at a time. Also your voice is soothing. Thanks a ton for these!

I have one of these and it can be powered from batteries using a USB rechargeable power pack battery and a USB step-up voltage lead to give you the required voltage and power plug size. ALSO, you can just buy a battery box and put a PP3 9V battery in it or a 6 x AAA battery box to also give you 9V battery power. All of these are available on Ebay. SO, it's a "no battery-er" ERRR sorry, "no brainer". SO, there is simply just NO PROBLEM with running this mixer with batteries! AND, as you always say, "Share the love, share the knowledge, knowledge is power, let's jam". You are surely a cool, comprehensive and capable commentator. SO, please keep up your great work on here ...

Hi, if you read this....would you still recommend this or have you (or anyone else) foujnd a better solution? (as a tiny mixer with panning knobs) Thnx!

Wow, it's harder to decide the right mixer than the right synthesizer. Especially in the low-cost range to find that none-crap thing.

Nice review, been looking at mixers for such a long time. Just mixing for podcasts / streaming and don't need all the adaptors. Will grab this one, via your links

Great video as always.

Bro your video are so crispy

Thank you for your good report, Dude.

Sweet! Got a question, what is a good cheap option to record my hardware mixes? Do you recommend this mixer if I were to start a live hardware setup as a beginner? looking to get this as a mixer and probably a digitakt coupled with the new behringer td-3 when it comes out.

Good info, as always. Curious if you ever use guitar pedals and, if so, what do you do with line level vs instrument signal. I ended up using a reamp box into a stereo reverb and from there into a looper. (I do a slide guitar/harmonica thing with a rinky dink volca bass for bass lines, sort of a nod to Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s funk period).

Good job. Nice setup

Cool! Informative! Honest!

Love your channel Ricky ! stay safe ;)

Lol I just ordered a dude yesterday and then I saw this video this morning. Oh well. I guess I need both now!!

Nobody is able to sell me an amazon mixer… but you, Ricky😆👍🏼

I like the little Nady 4 channel mixer for about a third of the price. It may not have the output options that this does but I think it has more input options.

Great Video! Thank you

Have you seen the Blender from TC Helicon? It costs $130 but does way more... battery or wall powered, 6 stereo inputs, 4 headphone outputs with individual mixes (could be used as aux sends or monitor mixes for band), and has a multitrack USB interface built in

I like your videos because no bull. Just the straight goods.

4:30 "let's only listen to the kickdrum" sounds just like every party music ever.

would love to see any overviews on consoles you recommend. looking for an affordable all-in-one solution like the portastudios but maybe in the $500 - 1k range. Currently looking at the Tascam Model 24 but wondering what my other options are for DAWless mixing and recording that could compete with my computer in a way that is reasonable.

You sold me this mixer, but also…GREAT jam!

I could totally use this as a submixer. I’m currently using a Soundcraft Notepad for this but something smaller would be great. Thanks!

I was looking at this to record all of my Teenage Eng Pocket Operators (KO 33, Sub, and Drum) without loss of sound quality, and I have a Triton LE controller (with built in sound bank) that has a 3.5 stereo out as well. I currently have the 2 input 1 aux yellow Hart mixer and it works well but only with 2 inputs (basically)! thanks for the review!

best explanation i can give you for the loop function loop connects all the inputs to other mixers imagine your on stage with 5 guys drummer bass player lead guitar singer idk chello player each player gets a loop mixer beside them daisy chained together via the loop port mixer 1 is connected to mixer 2 mixer 2 goes into 3 3 goes into 4 4 goes into 5 5 goes into 1 now each person is connecting there instrument into a channel drummer on input 1 bass on input 2 lead on input 3 singer on input 4 chello on input 5 the drummer can now configure all the sliders to give himself a personal mix of everyones instruments without affecting the sound of the others mixers the same goes for every other performer the loop in gives them the unmodified inputs of all the other mixers and lets them controll there final output mix for monitoring anouther setup you can do and the one i plan to use is as follows i stream when i game so i have 3 outputs i care about output 1 is my headset what i personally get to hear output 2 is what the stream gets to hear output 3 is what people on voice commes get to hear i can have a loop mixer for each of theese outputs and use each mixer to get a taylored mix to each of the outputs so for example mixer 1 gives my headset my music my discord voice chat the game chat and stream notifications mixer 2 gives the stream game chat and music mixer 3 gives discord just my mic and perhaps a soundboard on a 3 bus mixer i could acomplish this but everything would have to be at the same level unless the mixer supports per bus volume controll its basically in a nutshell a easy way to split a input to multiple mixers to generate individual mixes the loop term comes from the fact you loop through all the mixers and back to the first

The word that is usually used to describe an output with volume control is variable (vs. fixed).

I got a K-Mix 2nd hand $400. it's amazing. On board reverb, not great, but not bad. Powered by USB adapter.

used one of these for my Korg Volca's, worked fine, but it does have some background noise, but thats to be expected at this price range.

Thanks for the review. Looks convenient. I've had my eyes on one of those for some time but never pulled the trigger. Can it handle Eurorack level (10V) ? That loop cable actually exists and comes with some units for +$10 extra. This actually seams to be an interesting feature. Considering the fact that only one power adapter is required to run the whole loop of mixers.

the stereo inputs would pair nicely with the Blackbox... now you got me thinking..

is it possible to hook this thing up to a scarlet 2i2 with the loop mixer's 3.5mm output? I'm new to all of this so just trying to cover bases before I purchase

Hi, I am new to these things. I want to combine 2 inputs to 1 headphone PS4 (for game sound and audio for in-game audio chat) (Audio + mic) PC (audio chats on discord) (Audio + mic) so, is it possible for me to use only 1 mic but can talk with both people from discord (pc) and random people in-game (ps4)? is there any additional wire needed? since each input has 2 knobs, and the second knob has written "mic", so I assume just connect AUX cable to the mixer, both stereo audio and the mic is connected to the PC/PS4. correct me if I'm wrong. PLEASE AND THANK YOU :D

Is there a way to connect a microphone and dose it have microphone support for a microphone headset

Seems like a solid tool for hosting podcasts or streams. Would just need an additional audio-card to get the extra IO on your PC.

1 foot three-prong extension cords > power squids. You can use whatever surge suppression/UPS you want, without splitting an outlet, and they're probably cheeaper.

Digging that track at the end bro - nice

I wanted to get the Dude but is out of stock everywhere so am going for this one even though sounds a little crappy but I need a cheap portable mixer urgently hehe

Just had my 5 year old screaming at the TV, "we have that, we have that one". We got ours last year for the pocket operators and use a few splitters, it's great for little on living floor jams, but you are right it does character the sounds a little, but that doesn't bother as we don't record.

ok, cool video and thanks because I was seeing that mixer on RU-vid. I'm going to ask for your opinion. I have 9 synths and need a new Interface. Im looking at the zoom rack mount mixer/interface or the Roland studio capture? id this a good way to go? or should I just get a reg. mixer and a 2 channel interface

If I were to use TRS cables to connect my 2 volcas into this mixer will it work as stereo?

I got OP1 & OPZ and other gears, but they all mono, Do I need any adapter? or they will work just fine. My Dude is broken I'm looking for alternative option.

Yea, so many keyboards today have extremely low output levels....what happened? After buying 2 Roland Boutiques I was reminded of a pro instrument with high output levels (pro level). Buying special TS to TRS cables or converters would make this mixer very expensive compared to other mixers that have mono and stereo inputs.

I need an answer. Would this work for streamers, because if I do start streaming, I dont want to have to get a massive mixer. Can I connect a mic to this and have it go to both of my PCs thru the input?

Has a really nice saturation character

Just to be clear, if you buy a dual 1/4” mono to 3.5mm stereo cable and plug one of the two 1/4” jacks into a mono synth and the 3.5mm stereo jack into the mixer will that sum the mono signal from the synth to stereo?

It seems like it's meant more for connecting the headphone outputs of your phone, tablet, game console, media player, and etc all at once to a bluetooth speaker or something rather than professional audio applications.

Thank you for telling us they're affiliate links in the video. I try not to click links like those if it's not called out. Because you did call them out, I've added your video to a private playlist so I can come back when I'm ready to buy.

That weird behavior on the balance knob is what makes it a balance and not a pan. Pan sends a mono signal to left bus or right bus ( and odd or even). Balance, like on a stereo receiver, attenuates the stereo signal on either the left or right side. I’ve never given it any thought, but are all pan knobs on stereo mixer channels actually balance and not pans? Do they switch depending on what’s plugged in? Weird. Also, can you put a mono cable halfway in the Hart input and get the signal flowing to both sides?

YOU ~ ROCK ! !

I really like this! Thanks for sharing the knowledge. ^.~

you never posted the link to that hosa 1/8 stereo to 1/4 dual female mono cable

Is it possible to connect it with a volca mixer? If and how..thanks

Ive never heard channels been called.. independent volumed outputs.

wow that's really very helpful....

How do I connect 4 speaks to this and play music from my phone?

In comparison to a "real" mixer like Mackie mixx8 do you think the loop mixer reduces audio level in live sets on big soundsystems? Or is it better to get something else for playing on big rigs?

They got the bus cable now. Word

When the drive gives a fuzzy clipping 1:47 \m/ \m/

DisplayPort isn't 'old school', and the pictures on the manufacturer's site make it look like the loop cable is included with the unit. The loop connection appears to be the most innovative feature of this unit so it's too bad you didn't talk about it.

I find that damn Circuit headphone jack is superior to everything and I am always chasing that sound out of that jack.........so I often run out audio of that in an AUX channel.......

2:37 Explanation for a lot of things

Have been considering snagging one of these off amazon for a whiiiile now. This video finally sold me on it.

JUST picked up an sp303 and sp404. Was wondering what type of portable mixer I could use to create a live setup for sampling and recording on the go. Im currently looking at the bastl but im not sure if id be able to line in both of the sp's, lemme know if you can help me out!

Based on your review I bought this mixer and I love it. Thank you!

Is the 9v power supply Center Negative or + ?

Did you ever try the Nady 5 ch mixer it’s like $30

Hey Ricky, can you do a follow up on this? Mixer not on a budget? Something that allows 4 stereo pairs still :)

What about just using a cheap small Behringer? I gigged with one for years and it was rock solid.

Will this work well to plug in 5 mics to shoot a podcast?

do you have any recommendations for mixers that are small and battery powered / portable? excellent video as always, thank you!

Yeah it does sound like the mixer changes the sound to something a little darker, it felt like it shaved off some of the top end and sounded compressed almost for whatever reason. I mean for 73 bucks it is what is. Great video man.

takes out a little fidelity, from your kick experiment, but not bad.... great little tool... I liked the way it overdrive'd...