Hey it's Harry and in this video we're going to go through the EVO Mixer
that comes free with the EVO 8 audio interface.
The EVO mixer is the perfect tool to control your audio inputs and outputs
enabling you to effortlessly set up and control your routing, levels and more.
On a mac with the EVO app open
click on the EVO icon in the menu bar and then select Show Mixer
or on Windows right click on the EVO icon in the system tray and select Show Mixer.
Provided EVO 8 is connected to your computer, the mixer window should then open.
Simply put the EVO Mixer is the control center for EVO 8
allowing you to customise functionality and settings to make EVO 8 work best for your workflow.
One of the main things that the EVO mixer controls is the ability to have ultra low latency monitoring
enabling you to listen to your live inputs without any audible delay
or latency and therefore ensure you're getting the most out of your recording sessions.
The mixer is made up of a number of channels
all of which can be renamed for easy organisation by double clicking on the name at the top.
The left channels are your mic channels
these are your mic or line inputs on the back of the unit
or your instrument input on the front so if you have something plugged into
one of these you're able to see the input levels represented here in the mixer.
Next to these you have your computer channels
this shows you what audio is playing back from your computer or audio software.
So if you have audio playing from your
digital audio workstation like Logic, Cubase or Ableton, you will see the output of it here.
As you can see there are two stereo computer channels
and I'll show you an example of why you'd want to use the second one later in this video
On the right of the mixer is the master section.
Here you can control the volume of both sets of outputs
as well as see a visual representation of your audio going out to your speakers or headphones.
You can also quickly hide both the mic
and computer channels to keep your screen tidy by pressing the
hide buttons as shown here.
Now back to the mixer.
As you can see, each channel has a fader.
Turning a fader up will send that channel to the physical outputs
By default the computer 1+2 outputs are turned up
which means you'll be able to hear everything that's being played out of your computer.
When you turn up one of the input channels
you're making use of the ultra low latency monitoring
meaning you can listen to your live inputs directly from the interface
without your audio passing through your audio software
which can introduce an audible and distracting delay.
You can also use the pan control to
balance the signal between the left and right sides in your speakers or headphones
so you can easily craft the perfect headphone mix.
If you're using a stereo source you can press the stereo button
to link the channels together allowing you to adjust the left and right sides
of your signal at the same time for a more consistent listening experience.
To help get your session set up you can quickly mute or solo individual channels
meaning you can listen to them in isolation
great for checking how individual mics are sounding
and for added flexibility you can adjust the input gains on each of your
microphones as well as turn on the phantom power from the EVO mixer.
You can do this by going to the View menu and then clicking show mic
pre controls a control will then appear below each of the mic channels allowing
you to adjust your input gain levels and toggle phantom power on and off.
So as an example of how you might use the EVO mixer let's set up a low latency
headphone mix for when you're recording
Let's say you're recording yourself perhaps with a couple of mics on a guitar
as well as a vocal mic.
You have a backing track and metronome which is
playing in your audio software so therefore you want to make sure the
computer 1+2 channel is turned up.
As well as the backing track you also want to hear your guitar and vocals.
For the guitar let's say there is a stereo mic configuration coming in on inputs 1and 2
so you can stereo link the channels together
and then turn up the fader to hear the latency free direct signal.
The vocal mic is coming in on input 3 so turn up that fader as well
balance it out with the backing track so it sounds good to you
and you're ready to record.
You just need to make sure that you aren't monitoring through the software as well
otherwise you'll end up hearing a weird echo effect.
With this setup the audio will come out of both sets of outputs on EVO8
whether using the speakers or multiple sets of headphones.
So this is the simplest way of using the EVO Mixer
however let's go through a slightly more advanced setup.
The EVO Mixer gives you the ability to create a separate artist mix
which allows you to create an individual headphone mix and send it directly to
the second set of outputs so for example you could have your fully
processed and mixed audio coming from outputs 1 and 2 for you to listen to on
headphones or speakers while also sending low latency input audio
as well as a metronome for an artist that you're recording on the second set of outputs.
This way everyone is hearing exactly what they
need to be hearing and you can get the most out of your sessions.
To enable artist mix go to setup and then click enable artist mix button.
Now you'll see that the master section changes slightly
and when you click on outputs 3+4 it will actually switch over to
give you a separate mixer for those outputs.
So you can have your outputs 1+2 just playing back from your computer
and have outputs 3+4 playing back your low latency direct inputs for an artist.
In this example I suggested that the
artist might want to metronome in their headphones while recording
by making use of the second computer channel we can send the metronome to the
artist on outputs 3+4 without it interfering with what we're listening to on outputs 1+2.
Most audio software has the ability to change the output of a channel
By default, audio software will usually send audio to "stereo output" or "output 1+2".
This corresponds with the computer 1+2 channel in the EVO mixer.
However if you select a channel in your audio software and send it to "output 3+4"
you will be able to see that coming in on Computer 3+4 in the EVO Mixer.
So by sending any extra elements the artist wants to hear like a metronome to
outputs 3+4 in your audio software, you can keep it separate from whatever you'll be hearing.
So now I have a metronome sent to output 3+4 in my audio software
I can go to the artist mix tab and turn up computer 3+4.
Then I can also turn up the input channels so that the artist can hear
themselves without any latency
and that's it
we now have a completely separate headphone mix for the artist.
So to quickly review exactly what we've just done, if we go to outputs 1+2
this person will only be listening to the full processed audio from the audio software
and then if we go to output 3+4 we can see that this person
the artist, will be hearing their live input along with a customised version of
the audio from the audio software so they can get the most out of their recording.
As you can see this can get a little complicated but
once you have the hang of it it becomes second nature.
One of the benefits of the EVO Mixer is that you can choose just how complex you
want to get with it and forget about it completely if you don't need it.
To make it easier for you going forward you can quickly save and load mixer presets
so if you move around and change your settings regularly
it takes just a few seconds to get everything set up.
To save go to File and then Save
give your preset a name and click save.
To load a preset go to File then Open
and select the one you want from the list of options.
We know that workflow is important which is why we designed the EVO Mixer to give
you a wide range of options when recording, no matter what you're working on.
So whether you go all out with features such as artist mix
or simply have the mixer in the background
the EVO Mixer is a powerful and flexible tool to enable you
to get the most out of EVO 8 and your recordings.
If you found this video useful please give it a like and if you have any questions about the
EVO mixer then please leave a comment or get in touch with our support team
and they'd be happy to help and don't forget to subscribe to keep up to date
with EVO related news and video content.