Mixer for Heil PR 40

Audio Production
1

I have a couple of Heil PR 40 dynamic mikes. My main uses are: creating educational screencasts (Screenflow on Mac) and Skype/Zoom interviews. I want to record to Mac, so need USB.

I want to simplify my set up and am looking for the ideal mixer / noise reduction / compressor set up. I have a Mackie 1402 VLZ3 but it did not have USB.

I bought a Soundcraft Signature mixer but it did not seem to provide adequate gain for the Heils.

I like the idea of DBX 286S to handle noise and levels. I assume I need a mixer with in-out for processors for the DBX, plus making mix-minus easy.

Any ideas? Would it be easier if I got rid of the Heils?

2

Get yourself a few cloudlifters first before your spend any money on mixing. You need to sort your gain level first and foremost to give you clean audio to work with at low noise level.

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3

The 286s is single channel
They do a dual channel but with less features.

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4

And so you say i’d be better off getting the Cloud Lifter first and then the 286S pre-amp processor.

It is very confusing when DBX also have 266xs and 166xs compressor/limiter gates.

5

I have lived by one rule for an audio signal path for over 40 years either analog or digital.
Start with clean audio. It saves you so much time later on trying to fix in the mix.

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6

I’d 100% go with the dbx 286s route into your Soundcraft or whatever mixer you’re going to use as @The_Tone_Arranger recommends @Jamie. This should give you a great sound with super processing too. The setup has worked for me just make sure to push up the input gain. The Heil PR-40 (and most dynamics mics) are quiet as you’ve noticed :slight_smile: