pretty much. It's one of those things that can really free you up and open your mind when doing noise stuff. Instead of using 20 pedals in one big line, get three or four in three chains and mix them in together.
Or you can create feedback loops and go crazy... There is a whole Noise based genre of music that uses "No Input" Mixers as the sound source...
I have a 16 channel rack mixer with L/R, Monitor and Headphone outs... I run the L out through a chain of pedals and into channel 1... I run the R out through another chain of pedals and into channel 2... I run the Headphone out through a Delay and split into channels 3 and 4... I run the Monitor out through another Delay and into an Amp or Sampler or whatever... I can use the Monitor sends on each channel to get a whole huge wall of feedbacking crazy pedal mayhem mixed with itself from the Headphone send and I'm in Space Noisevana... Easy...
Any mixer with at least two separate outs will work... Mo Aux Mo Betta...
A mixer was the first thing that I bought in my early noise days, I started out with a Death Metal distortion and the mixer and went from there. Don't use it nearly as much as I once did with my noise stuff, as I try to keep my setups to 3-4 objects, but when recording instead of recording multiple layers digitally, I send each layer through a channel of the mixer and do it all at once.
I like going through the PA for noise sets (particularly since I don't have any loud amps and don't want to run the admittedly somewhat minute risk of fucking up somebody else's amp, not to mention the fact that I, gasp, sometimes take public transportation to and from shows) and a mixer is pretty much essential for that. Always handy to have extra EQ and volume control possibilities, too. Having two channels of crunchy, distorted contact microphone abuse is always better than one, I think.
skullservant wrote:A mixer was the first thing that I bought in my early noise days, I started out with a Death Metal distortion and the mixer and went from there. Don't use it nearly as much as I once did with my noise stuff, as I try to keep my setups to 3-4 objects, but when recording instead of recording multiple layers digitally, I send each layer through a channel of the mixer and do it all at once.
+1.
Think of recording a band "live in the studio."
That's basically what you're doing with a mixer--loading up on ambient elements that are easily isolated and controllable.
This is really neat stuff. If I come into a little spare cash, I may have to buy a mixer. Could you wise ILFers give me some recommendations for a newbie?
A mixer can really be an instrument. I stopped playing guitar for a couple of years and did only electronics. After while you really get a feel for subtle nuances in eq, what is a good and a bad fade in/out stuff like that. Make it live rather than just something to adjust levels.