mother 32 amplification

[moogtr]

Hi, i bought a new "mother 32" and "korg sq-1",
for listening i bought second hand "Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBL" headphone and "Cayin C5" headphone amplifier...
Yesterday i played with them : )
For near future i have a plan, i will buy another equipment such as BFAM and another MOM32 with "Mother-32 Three-Tier Rack Kit"
and i have a question at this point,
what will i need for listening them?
I dont want to use a reference monitor or active loudspeaker/powered speaker because of neighbors and family...
and also i dont want to record them in PC so i dont want to use cmputer sound interface..
So i bought reference headphone (ATH-M0x),
i think i need a mixer for three semi modular such as "behringer mx400" or "Mackie - 402 Vlz4",
and also a good amplifier,
but i dont know this kind of equipment enough or not...
what is your suggestions for me? What i need for my future plan?
Thanks for answers...

[dalahorse]

The mixer is all you need. It should have a headphone output. A multi-headphone amp would be useful if you want others to be able to listen in real time via headphones. Otherwise, just the mixer should do.

[moogtr]

Thanks for reply dalahorse,
i have another question at this point, what is your suggestion for mixer;
- Behringer mx400 (4 channel flat),
- Mackie 402-Vlz4 (4 channel with preamp)
- Mackie 802Vlz4 (8 channel with preamp)

[DUBMCT]

I would go for the MAckie 802.
I have one, and it has a couple very important features. Besides the very flexible routing and extra outputs, it has a dedicated stereo return channel - meaning an FX loop wont eat up channel 7/8, and more importantly, you can have the FX run pre/post fader, so if you only want to hear only the FX, you can, vs only having fx with the channel fader up.
This is of course all good if you are planning on running fx loops, and the 8 channel will give you room to grow,

D

[Stevie Ray]

If you're using a decent mixer you won't need a separate headphone amp.

I normally use a Mackie 402 VLZ-4 with my modular (which includes 3 x Mother 32 and a lot of other stuff). It works well. I can patch signals directly from the M32s or any other modules directly into a Mackie 402 channel with no problems at all. 4 channels are all I need to mix outputs from the modular and I feed the mixer output (stereo) directly into an audio interface or into my main mixer as needed.

I considered buying specialist 'line out' modules but concluded they were a waste of money and panel space. Any decent mixer should cope with signal levels directly from a modular synth. Attenuate 'hot' signals at the synth or mixer end if absolutely necessary (it is rarely necessary in my experience).

Mixers from other vendors like Yamaha, Behringer, Soundcraft and others will perform just about the same. They will accept modular signal levels with no problems at all and will give you plenty of headphone amplification - almost too much in the case of the Mackie 402 - I value my hearing so never turn up the headphone gain above the 4 mark.

Seriously though, when using headphones with a modular, please be careful and keep the volume low until you are familiar with the dynamics of the patch. You can potentially damage your hearing if some unexpected volume change occurs.

[moogtr]

Thanks for all incredibly useful information for "DUBMCT" and "Stevie Ray"...
These are very important information (what i need) because these are emerged from your experience..
Thanks alot again...

[Stevie Ray]

Thanks for all incredibly useful information for "DUBMCT" and "Stevie Ray"...
These are very important information (what i need) because these are emerged from your experience..
Thanks alot again...

You say you don't want to record to PC. How do you plan to record? Maybe you don't plan to record, which is a perfectly valid option.

I sometimes record to tape using an old Revox B77 while noodling and I like it very much.

[moogtr]

I believe that record an analog synthesizer's sound to PC is killing it's soul...
Magnetic recording such as Revox example can save it's originality,
but making live music is always different.
I am not a professional musician or a producer,
in years i have used lots of different vintage analog synthesizers,
at the end i understand, moog is the king of all other analog synthesizers..
so, i only produce live/pure analog moog melody for me,
than i listen it's fatty/moogy sound,
it has really different taste..
synth world; moog and the others for me...

[Stevie Ray]

I believe that record an analog synthesizer's sound to PC is killing it's soul...
Magnetic recording such as Revox example can save it's originality,
but making live music is always different.
I am not a professional musician or a producer,
in years i have used lots of different vintage analog synthesizers,
at the end i understand, moog is the king of all other analog synthesizers..
so, i only produce live/pure analog moog melody for me,
than i listen it's fatty/moogy sound,
it has really different taste..
synth world; moog and the others for me...

Yeah I sort of get what you're saying. I love Moog synths too but I also love analogue Korgs (MS20 etc.) and early Rolands (for polyphony) - Moog is not the only game in town.

[moogtr]

After i saw/experienced a couple of problems with the vintage synths,
i decided to use only new ones...
roland and korg still on the wrong way at this point,
maybe DSI and korg lil bit better than roland,
for example using DCO (for DSI) and using digital delay on an analog synth (for minilogue) is bad idea for analog geeks such as me,
producing an analog like old skool, this is the way which moog choose to live.
so this is the reason why i choose only moogy sound...