MyMix Personal Monitor System Review

[GospelLighthouse]

Our church is moving to a personal monitor system, so I was looking at Aviom, Hearback, RSS, and whatever else might be out there. Then I discovered SamePage, which is cool because it is a touchscreen computer that shows you your music or chord sheets digitally. No more paper. The SamePage has an integrated software personal mixer, so it's a neat idea. However, we're a portable church, and didn't want to spend $1000 per SamePage station, and we were concerned about the long-term reliability of setting up and tearing down the SamePage music stand computers week after week. So we were about to spring for Aviom. But then I discovered MyMix, a personal mixing system that was released in 2010. After asking the MyMix folks some questions and chatting with them on Facebook, I found out that the national rep (and co-owner of MyMix) Josh was doing a weeklong whirlwind driving tour, and he offered to stop by my house in Michigan on his way from Ohio to Chicago. So I gathered two other members of the worship team, and we took the system for a spin.



All I can say is WOW. MyMix runs circles around Aviom, and costs less. The MyMix personal mixers consist of a color LCD screen (Josh said it's the same screen used in Gameboy), a large turn knob, and some soft keys (keys next to the screen, whose functions are displayed on the screen next to the keys). The color LCD screen is nice because unlike on the Aviom, you'll be able to read channel names on the MyMix even when the lights are turned down on stage during worship. Each MyMix has two combo inputs (1/4", XLR) with gain controls. These inputs are available as channels on the bus. If your gain is too high and your input is clipping, that channel flashes red on everyone's MyMix, so they can get your attention while you're in sonic bliss. Mymix personal mixers have dual outputs - an 1/8" headphone jack on the side, and dual L/R 1/4" output jacks on the back. There is a SD card slot onto which you can record the audio. Just hit the record button, and you're individually recording all 16 currently-selected channels, as well as a stereo mix .wav file of your personal mix. Load these files into your DAW (digital Audio Workstation) software later on to mix your worship band's CD, or to put together a practice mix with your vocal/instrument missing. MyMix personal mixer units are very light, with no moving parts except for a CPU cooling fan that I did not know about until Josh told me about it. You can feel the gentle airflow coming out the unit, but cannot hear the fan operating.



MyMix units are very simple to operate. Rotate your turn wheel to highlight an available channel, and press down on the turn wheel to select. Then rotate the turn wheel to adjust that channel's volume, or hit one of the soft keys to select channel Pan, Effects, and Tone (simple bass/treble control). Return to the channel display, where channels can be individually muted or solo'd, and the master volume level can be adjusted. The master volume adjustment is not a separate entity, but rather a function that simultaneously adjusts all channel volumes while retaining their relative levels. Individual MyMix units can be named for the person using it ("CHRIS") or the stage position ("DRUMMER"). Each MyMix unit's channel inputs can be named ("GUITAR", "VOCAL", "MP3 PLAYER" etc.). Once named, the channels show up on everyone's MyMixes (e.g ."CHRIS GUITAR" or "DRUMMER VOCAL").

Channel selection is easy, and the MyMix settings give you two options for displaying the available channels: Grid format, where all channels and their volume levels are on screen at once; or scroll list format, where each channel is displayed in its own row, and you may have to scroll up and down to see channels that are off screen. This user thinks the next firmware upgrade should allow the user to select an icon for each channel for those of us who prefer picture books over words. And that's the beauty of the MyMix. The user interface is software-based and is therefore capable of future improvement and upgrades.

Channels can be paired for stereo signals. I think the built-in reverb is very cool, and sounds great. You can only select a single global effect (large room, large hall, small room, etc), but then you can selectively apply that effect to individual channels. I put a large hall on my bass guitar and suddenly I was playing worship for a crowd of thousands (or so my ears told me). MyMix units have a global mute button in easy reach.

One of the most creative features is MyMix's multitrack recording capability. MyMix sports a record button that glows red when you are recording audio onto a SD card (not included). Josh said the MyMix accepts up to 32GB SD cards, which would be adequate for 3+ hours of 18-channel recording (16 channels plus stereo mix). Considering that 32GB SD cards are under $75, that's a very cool feature. I recorded some during the demo, then took the card to my PC and downloaded the content. Each channel was recorded as an individual .wav file conveniently named with the channel name. These files are of the unprocessed channel input (no reverb, tone adjustments, etc), allowing you to remix the session in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software. In addition to the individual channel .wav files, the MyMix also recorded a stereo .wav file of the headphone mix just as I heard it, with all effects, relative mix levels, and so forth.

Global settings on the MyMix include a 4-band parametric EQ so you can dial in your earphones and make even your .mp3 player earbuds sound good. The ability to save multiple profiles lets you recall various setups and mix levels depending on which earphones you are wearing, which band you are playing with, or what musician/vocalist is using that particular MyMix unit. Whatever profile is active, any changes made are dynamically saved to that profile, so you lose nothing if your MyMix loses power. The MyMix settings page lest you pick and choose which 16 channels from the MyMix bus you want to mix.

MyMix units are connected via a commercial ethernet switch, rather than proprietary hardware. Buy a POE (power over ethernet) switch and you can power your MyMixes from the ethernet cable, similar to Aviom. Buy an ethernet switch that has IGP snooping (whatever that is), and you can make available more than 16 audio channels on your MyMix bus (though each MyMix can only mix 16 of the available channels simultaneously).

Each MyMix unit comes with a microphone stand adapter (which costs extra with Aviom). The microphone stand adapter quickly attaches/detaches, with tabs on one end that fit into slots on the MyMix unit, and a thumbscrew on the other end. It takes 5 seconds to attach/detach. Each MyMix also comes with a power adapter.



How to interface to FOH (front of house): There is currently no way to output the individual MyMix channels to a FOH mixing board, so you can't currently use MyMix as a digital snake (though some portable churches use another MyMix as their main mixer, running that MyMix's L/R outputs to their main power amps). However, with MyMix's new IEX-16L input module (released November 2010), you can now pick up your MyMix inputs from your mixing board's channel inserts or direct outs. The input module has balanced DB25 inputs for 16 channels (two cables, 8 channels each). You can rename the IEX-16L's inputs from any of the MyMix units on the network, so that's real handy. More than one IEX-16L can be used if you want to make more than 16 FOH channels available, with the only limit being what your ethernet switches can handle. Theoretically, you could put over 200 channels on the MyMix bus. But each MyMix mixer can only select 16 of those channels to mix.

The only possible thing that Aviom might have over MyMix is the ability to remote-control a mix for a rack-mounted in-ear transmitter, but that also costs twice as much since you have to buy a rack-mounted Aviom mixer and a Aviom control surface. That, and Aviom interfaces with digital boards. Currently, the MyMix IEX-16L input unit is analog-only, but Josh says they're working on a digital version and an output module.

Bottom line, I think MyMix is the cat's meow. One of our non-techie worshp singers was using it within a couple minutes, and was doing complicated things like renaming inputs in less than 5 minutes with very little instruction. We're buying 8 MyMix units this week for our worship band and singers.

Street prices: We're paying $490 each for the MyMix units ($649 retail), and $750 for the IEX-16L 16-channel input unit ($999 retail). And even the most capable of the recommended commercial ethernet switches (with POE, IGP snooping, and the ability to connect more than 8 MyMix units) should cost you no more than $450.



Check them out at http://www.mymixaudio.com/

Cheers.

(photos used with permission)

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Here's the channels we plan to use with MyMix:

FOH mixer channel inserts to MyMix IEX-16L input unit:
(these will be available for personal mixes and for FOH mixing):

Pastor guitar
Pastor vocal
bass guitar
Piano L (mono)
Drums - kick
Drums - snare
Drums - hi hat
Drums - cymbals/ride combined
Drums - toms
worship team vocal 1
worship team vocal 2
worship team vocal 3
worship team vocal 4
worship team vocal 5
drums submix
vocals submix

If we combined our drum channels a bit more, we could add a talkback mic or an instruments submix...or we could just buy a 2nd input unit (which requires a 2nd ethernet switch).

MyMix Inputs at individual MyMix Units:
(these will be available for personal mixes, but not for FOH mixing)

Click track from Drums
.mp3 player L
.mp3 player R
ambience mic

[[Admin] osborn4]

Would this integrate economically with a Yamaha LS9?

[GospelLighthouse]

Originally Posted by osborn4

Would this integrate economically with a Yamaha LS9?

We were looking at that, because we are considering moving to the Yamaha LS9-32 at some point. The Aviom has interface cards for the Yamaha LS9, which is nice.

The 16-channel MyMix input unit they just released this month (IEX-16L) only has analog inputs in DB25 connector style. I am told they are working on an input module with digital inputs, so we'll probably trade up once that is released and we want to move to the LS9. We currently have a Midas Venice mixing board, and are going to use "tricked" cables to tap off the board's channel inserts.

For now, to connect to a LS9 board, I assume you'd use two 8-channel XLR to DB25 cables, and assign your LS9 XLR omni outs as desired depending on what channels you want on the MyMix bus. But since there are only 16 omni outs, you would be limited since you need at least two of those for your mains, and maybe more if you have other mixes. There is also the option to pick up two MY8DA96 Mini-YGDAI cards which would then connect to the IEX-16L directly with db25-to-db25 cables, but that would be expensive ($420 each) and is kind of a step in the wrong direction (going from digital back to analog).


We definitely thought that using a mixing board's preamps with gain control levels was the best way to ensure a good input level into the IEX-16L input unit, although I think the IEX-16L has some basic +/- db settings for the inputs (don't know for sure, will have to check when we get the input module in).

So bottom line, the "economically" part comes down to this: $750 for the IEX-16L 16-channel input module, plus $140 for two XLR-to-db25 cables. Or for more flexibility, $750 for IEX-16L, $840 for two My8DA96 cards, and probably $140 for two db25-to-db25 cables.

Chris

[cmchamp]

And if you need a dealer in the Tri-State area - Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, drop me a line.

[[Admin] osborn4]

Just missed. I'm in Wisconsin.

And I'm not sure when we'd have $$$ for personal mixers anyway.

[Arlin]

I am waiting for a personal mix system that has a direct EtherSound, or Cobra, or Dante input module. I can't believe no one has something like that yet.
Once that happens (if ever) it will be very easy to integrate with a yamaha digital board.

Roland is the closest one to that, but their system is proprietary.

[cmchamp]

Joel, I'd sell to you. Arlin's a repeat customer in MN.

[GospelLighthouse]

Originally Posted by Arlin

I am waiting for a personal mix system that has a direct EtherSound, or Cobra, or Dante input module. I can't believe no one has something like that yet.
Once that happens (if ever) it will be very easy to integrate with a yamaha digital board.

Roland is the closest one to that, but their system is proprietary.

MyMix rep told me they were considering MADI interface. That way it could interface with every digital mixer out there... But who knows when???

[ntravis]

MADI seems like a solid choice for universal compatibility. It seems like most digital consoles have some form of MADI comparability. If only the audio world could live in digital bliss where everyone used the same digital interface technology.

[EricE]

Yup, it's a year later but in case anyone comes upon this thread like I did, they do have digital support now:

http://www.mymixaudio.com/iex-16l

It's an extra $300 (retail) for the digital version. We don't have a digital board yet, but will be getting the digital version in anticipation of eventually moving that direction.

They are using ADAT. And yes, you can integrate it with your Yamaha. It's an add-on card for the Yamahas, but it is supported. I was talking with the MyMix President/founder at WFX in Dallas and the Yamaha guys just happened to be passing by the booth when someone else asked about digital console compatibility and the Yamaha guys confirmed. That kind of synergy is still hard to replicate over the Internet

My only issue is coming up with the funds for the system - but I was really impressed by it and it's simplicity. The fact that it can double as a portable mixing console as well as in ear monitor system for "on the go" gigs too is also way, way cool. At first I wasn't that interested in the recording, but someone mentioned letting band members record their mix to take home later - I have a few in mind where I would buy them an SD card and teach them how to use it - I think it could be that helpful!

[snedecor]

If it's OK to talk about dealers here, where are you finding Mymix units for $490. All my sources are stuck on retail...

Thanks!

[cmchamp]

Snedecor - $490 might have been the street price last year.
As a dealer for many other products, with possible access to MyMix produces, I can say that there are stringent rules now for keeping contract and pricing policy.
MyMix dictates that $649 is their present MAP (minimum advertised price) with no deviation between internet pricing or printed pricing.
Some contracts are so specific that, in this case, were I a MyMix dealer, and I posted a price lower than $649 here, I could be found in breach of that contract and loose my dealership.
Hope that helps.
C.