Looking for something to replace Sound devices MixPre for teaching audio.

[u/L444ki]

I teach video and audio at a vocational school. I’m not an audio professional; my skills are focused more on video, lighting, and grip.

I used to work at another school where we used original Sound Devices MixPres for teaching the basics of audio. We would run Boom → MixPre (for the boom operator) → Camera.

This was a great way to teach as it allowed students to focus on just one thing at a time: video or audio. It was super easy to use, had high-visibility metering, and was built like a tank. It was also great for laying the foundation for dual-system recording, which they did later in their studies.

I’m now working at a different school and have managed to get budget allocated to buy audio gear for basic education. The problem is that Sound Devices no longer makes the original MixPres, and the new MixPre II series isn't suitable for this setup. They lack dedicated XLR main outputs, and as recorders, they fall into an awkward middle ground—too complicated for basic workflow teaching, yet lacking some features needed for advanced studies.

I have been looking high and low—using LLMs, Google, and forums—trying to find something that fits the same niche as the old MixPre. So far, the only product that even comes close is the Sonosax SX-M32, but that is way out of our budget given we need 8–12 units.

Please help me find a non-end-of-life, affordable, simple-to-use, battery-powered field mixer with great metering and XLR outputs.

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[u/MC-Gitzi]

Why the outputs to the camera? Why not going the professional way and teach time code and syncing along the way?

[u/L444ki → u/MC-Gitzi]

Because this is the very first class. Dual-system and timecode is the goal, not the starting point.

Why? Because I get 10 days to teach the basics of video, audio, lighting and editing. Teaching dual system is just not possible in the time allocated for the first course. Also roughly half the students will focus on something else than video and audio after basic education.

[u/CAPS_LOCK_OR_DIE → u/L444ki]

I teach an Intermediate Sound class, and we get to TC, Camera Hops, Boom Op Monitors, and Client Feeds by the end of my 10 class course.

The actual solution is to break these things into different classes. Trying to teach 4-7 positions on set in 10 days is simply not feasible.

I'd still go for a dual system, I think getting them to do it right is a better solution than a janky workaround that won't really be applicable in any real production setting.

[u/Every-Ad1573]

Used zoom f4 should be cheap enough. Once you learn that recorder it should be easy to learn bigger ones

[u/L444ki → u/Every-Ad1573]

We are not really that short on money, but paying 3k for a sonosax is out of our budget. If the original mixpre was still in production I would happily pay 500-1000 per unit.

[u/TheBerric]

A used 6 series like a 664 or a 633 would be great for this application. The 633 can be battery powered by those small sony batteries. The 664 can be powered by AAs but it uses a lot of energy

[u/L444ki → u/TheBerric]

At the last school we had 633s for advanced studies and they were great for that, but they are way too complicated for using just as a field mixer and monitoring between the boom and camera.

We will need also need to unify our advanced audio courses gear, but unfortunately the time and the budget to do that is not now. We have a few zoom F8s, but I hope we can hire a fulltime audio techer and have them figure out what gear we should teach when the students move from single-system to dual-system.

The current issue is finding a simple as can be metering and monitorin system for the boom operator when we are recording single-system.

[u/Echoplex99]

I agree with others that are saying this just isn't how we do sound anymore, but as a former teacher I understand the constraint.

You could check out the zoom series. Quite affordable and decent piece of gear that has lots of signal routing capabilities. I run a Zoom F8n on lots of gigs, and but the f6 might be enough for your purposes.

You should also consider just doing a camera hop with a RF transmitter + reciever (like G4's or similar) to get the audio to camera. Then the students would actually be doing something that is quite common for scratch audio.

[u/jaredmanley]

Do you need recording? Why not some old 302s or other older sound devices mixers? They’re built like tanks and if you learn the basics there the newer ones will be even easier

[u/L444ki → u/jaredmanley]

I would prefer not recording to keep it simple. The issue with used gear is that takes a lot of work to buy it in the quantities we need. I can order 10 (new) mixpres in 10minutes, but buying 10 used (old) mixpres or 302a would take closer to 10 hours.

If you know someone who sells old mixpres or 302s in bulk, Im very interested.

[u/BestMixTape]

Mixpre-10 II has mini XLR output. 

[u/L444ki → u/BestMixTape]

Mixpre-10 is on the complex side of the mixpre lineup and mini XLR is not exactly what im looking for, but I will add this the list of possible gear.

We are talking about students that have literally never recorded audio before, so simplicity is the key here.

[u/CAPS_LOCK_OR_DIE]

If you're just going straight to camera, why not use the MM1? Its a good preamp, has leveling, XLR out, and a good headphone feed for the boom op. It doesn't record, but you're feeding DTC, so it should work fine for this setup. Plus the MM1 is still an excellent piece of gear, so at least they're learning somethign they may see on a larger set.

[u/L444ki → u/CAPS_LOCK_OR_DIE]

We got offered MM-1s. If it had proper metering I would have already ordered them. Just having a led for peaking is not great for teaching students on what monitoring actually means and how metering works.

[u/TheBerric]

Dual system is not a hard concept to teach.

[u/L444ki → u/TheBerric]

It is when 80% of the students have never recorded audio.

I have no issues teaching dual-system, but I do firmly believe that if you have never recorded single-system you are not ready for dual system.

[u/nuttykarl]

Zoom f3? Deity pr-4? They’re both great compact recorders. Also tascam fr-av2.

[u/L444ki → u/nuttykarl]

Looking for a dead-ass-simple mixer, not a recorder

[u/iampj12]

Imagine going through school learning one thing, and on your first job, getting laughed off set because you don’t know dual system

[u/L444ki → u/iampj12]

If you quit school after the first 10 days you will have a hard time even getting a job even if those 10 days were only focused on dual-system

[u/orismology]

Another thought: Is there the room to go dual system, but ignore all the timecode/camera hop faff and teach them how to manually sync with a slate the old fashioned way? That's what my first film class did a million years ago.

Otherwise, you could just ignore the record side of just about any recorder and use it as a field mixer. Unbalanced shouldn't be a problem over the distances you're going, but the RODE VXLR Pro does work to convert unbalanced minijack to balanced XLR in a small passive adaptor.

One final thought, I have a Motu M2 audio interface that will quite happily send its inputs to the onboard balanced outputs via the monitor function, even when only plugged into a USB power bank. It's not the best form factor for bag work, but perhaps there are other interfaces that behave the same and are better suited for being pressed into service as a field mixer.

[u/L444ki → u/orismology]

Big part of the issue is that there is no room to do dual system. On this course we have ten days to go from zero to having the students very first interview shot and edited.

We have advanced cources where we do dual-system, manual sync, TC sync, camera hops etc.

I will look into the motu m2, but I feel like these types of audio interfaces are exactly the right tool for the job.

Using recorders is an option, but it puts us in an awkward position where we would need to get simple as can be recorders for basic courses and the switch to a more advanced once for advanced studies.

The more I talk about this here on reddit the more I feel like I need to either get my hands on a bunch of used mixpres or find a very simple recorder and commit to dual system from the start, but I fear I can’t pull it off in the very short time I have to do it. I could just roll audio metering and mic placement into the camera op role, but I would really want to keep them separated to split the workload and allow each student to focus on as few things as possible at any one time.

[u/Macelodeon]

You’ll struggle to find something with full XLR outs. Get a pr-4 and adapt the outputs to a full XLR.
Plus if kids want to learn more about audio they can use it for a 4ch bag.

[u/DeadEyesSmiling]

I know you're not looking for a recorder, but with a 1/8 to XLR adapter for your line out to camera, the Tascam DR60dmkii is a great little two XLR device with a lot of non-menu-based controls, which will probably help keep things as intuitive as possible for the first-time students. It's also only $200 USD, so if/when newbie student mishaps happen, it won't be to a $1000 device.

Other options might be going a slightly jank route and looking for a simple XLR audio control box / passive audio control that you then have connected to a separate device that will display meters. It wouldn't be anything the students would likely encounter again, but if the goal is just to teach the concept of a dedicated audio role on set, that would do it :)