Movek MYmix personal Monitor Mixer with Multi-track. Photo by Movek.
Most churches don't have the luxury of a monitor engineer. When personal mixing products first entered the marketplace it was a valuable solution for houses of worship that wanted to free their front-of-house (FOH) engineer from running monitors from far away. I still spend a fair amount of time as a monitor engineer, so I'm the first to defend that role and say that personal mixing products can't do what a monitor engineer can.
However, even though there are a growing number of personal mixing systems on the market, there is still an opportunity for an improved experience in personal mixing. Most of the personal monitor mixing products on the market offer “affordable” solutions. As a result, they don't offer the fidelity and construction quality of what I consider a “professional” product. MyMix personal mixing products stand out because through their feature set—it's much more than just a personal monitor mixing system—construction, and fidelity efforts they seek to be a professional solution for personal mixing.
The components of myMix are simple. The myMix personal mixer is a small mic-stand-mountable device with a high quality color LED screen, six buttons, and one backlit knob right below the screen to get you through the internal menus. Each myMix unit uses an external power supply, or can be powered by the switch via power-over-Ethernet (POE). There are two XLR inputs on the side of myMix with input gain control for each input and switchable phantom power. There are two ¼-inch balanced outputs on the back, as well as a headphone output. There is also an SD card reader on the side. (More on that later.) To take the myMix system further, you'll use the IEX–16l, which is a 16-channel interface capable of accepting DB–25 (“D-Sub”) line inputs as well as ADAT inputs. MADI, Dante and USB options all exist to route audio signals into the myMix network.
Good questions, good answers
You may be asking yourself why the two XLR inputs on each personal mixer. Unlike most other personal mixing products, myMix is a decentralized audio networking system that does not require a proprietary master unit. There is no single “brain” that does all of the audio routing and processing. This also means that audio is not just sent to a myMix unit but each myMix unit can send audio to the other units in the network. Connectivity is simple and the smallest system connection is a Cat5 cable between two MyMix units.
To expand the network you only need a standard network switch that connects and routes signals between any combination of myMix personal mixers and IEX–16l input modules. The system size is not predetermined and can process up to 500 channels of audio.
There’s even an installation version of the myMix mixer that offers the ability to control audio in lobbies, classrooms, conference rooms—virtually anywhere on your church’s campus.
Another example could involve a small church setup with no front-of-house [FOH] mixer. By utilizing the balanced outputs you could connect these to a set of powered speakers and mix FOH from a single myMix unit. This might sound crazy, but in reality there are more tone-shaping controls inside myMix than most small mixers. See, we said it was much more than just a personal monitor mixing system.
In reality there are more tone-shaping controls inside myMix than most PA small mixers.
Each myMix personal mixer offers an impressive set of features and controls. There are seven stereo effects to choose from, a four-band parametric EQ on the output and channel controls for volume, tone, effects send, pan, solo, and mute. MyMix also has an auto-save function keeping your mix safe with 20 profiles available. The SD card reader allows for multi-track recording of all channels on your myMix. A “play along” feature allows for musicians to take a myMix home and practice to the recorded material. Pretty cool feature for band rehearsals.
Finally the myMix Control application allows you to connect your computer to your myMix network and label channels, set user permissions, create channel subgroups, and more.
So that’s a small outline of what myMix is. If you visit mymixaudio.com you can view tutorials and various system configurations with the myMix system. I recommend taking a look here because myMix can do much more than I can cover here. And as we mentioned earlier, much of it extends outside of traditional personal-mixing use.
Testing & feedback
I was asked to review the myMix system about the same time I began looking for a personal mixing solution for my own studio in Nashville, Tenn. Since myMix markets its products for both stage and studio applications, I decided to test the system in a recording session with critical studio musicians. I really wanted to see if the usability and audio quality would be noticed in a studio environment. Does the personal mixer get in the way? Is a higher-grade product noticed and appreciated?
It took me about an hour to get myMix set up and ready for a session. Connectivity and routing were fairly simple. The fact I only needed a network switch was quite nice. I did some initial listening tests during set up. Listening through headphones I was impressed by the 24-bit/48-k audio quality. The myMix sounded great and there was no obvious latency.
The screen size and resolution on myMix is impressive; I found the menus and controls to be straightforward, easy to navigate, and I was able to label all channels pretty quickly. The myMix mixer fits securely on a mix stand and the buttons and dial felt quite solid.
My personal testing and listening during the initial set up made me believe in the quality of the product—but having musicians in the studio for the session would be the real test.
A personal mixing system should never get in the way of making music. You don’t want a long learning curve because that distracts the musicians from what they are really there to do. I gave all the musicians a brief tutorial, showing them how to select channels, change levels, pan, tone, and effects. None of the players had a problem grasping the basics.
One of the players noted that with myMix they can’t “see” their full mix like other products that have physical knobs for each channel’s level. I suppose that could be seen as a negative from people that are used to physical knobs, but we discussed this a bit more and another player pointed out that they like knowing that a knob wouldn’t get bumped or adjusted accidentally. There also seemed to be more trust in myMix’s ability to save and recall settings and mixes.
As the band started to tune up and get their sounds together, it was the drummer who first mentioned that he really liked the sounds he was hearing. The keyboard player (who has his own studio) said that he thought it sounded better than the personal mixing option he had in his place.
Getting the lower frequency characteristics of drums and bass to translate through headphones can be difficult. When you have poor audio quality in your personal mixing solution, it can make it even harder for players to hear what they want. So I didn’t take these comments lightly coming from Nashville studio musicians—especially the drummer. I was happy with the functionality, features and audio quality I heard during my initial set up, and it was great to hear my feelings resonate in agreement from the players, as well.
I’m impressed with myMix. It stands out to me as a professional personal monitor-mixing product—perhaps the only product of its kind I can think of on the market today. Its features are far beyond other options out there. The audio quality certainly makes it a stand out competitor. I still don’t think myMix can replace a dedicated monitor engineer, but I don’t believe that will ever happen because there are too many variables in a professional live performance that require a human to interpret and manage. Still, myMix certainly is a great option if you want a professional personal mixer with a rich feature set.
A myMix personal mixer has a street price of about $680. At that price point an investment into a myMix system is higher than other available systems, but I believe the value of the myMix system is much greater than any personal monitor mixing system I’ve used. Then again, it’s much more than just a personal monitor mixing system.
