MyVolts mickXer - the Volca Mix killer

MyVolts are no stranger to electronics for musicians, having previously worked on iterations of their Volca power splitters for powering more than one Volca at a time. As mentioned in other posts, I've had quite a lot of respect for this for my growing collection of Korg's grooveboxes and Kaoss pads, however the subject of how to mix the audio out of so many devices working at once created a new problems.



However, it seems that MyVolts have been considering the same issue and reached out to me to get feedback on an upcoming product that they dubbed "the mickXer": a 5 channel passive mixer with a footprint not that much larger than a credit card (as shown) that sums the audio ins to a single audio out. I've been working the mickXer hard with a variety of different hardware synths to try and induce noise or issues and so far the mickXer has done exactly what is says on the tin: provide extremely low noise summing with no need for external power.

Given the market has been crying out for a mixing solution, it seems only natural that other companies would come up with their own solutions in tandem with Korg. Naturally this will lead to comparisons, though for me they really are aimed at different markets. The Volca Mixer combines a power solution, mixer and effects into one package at the tradeoff of relatively high expense, lack of portability and limiting mixing to three channels only. Meanwhile, MyVolts are aiming to undercut existing Roland and Belkin options by pricing the mickXer at around the £20-30 mark, providing five channels, volume control and passive operation. 

For me, the mickXer does exactly what I need it to, both for quick connections in the studio as well as on-the-go jamming outside of the studio. I don't need the built in compressor, VU meters or external clock out on a dedicated display on the Volca Mixer so this ticks all the essentials. I've also really enjoyed the fact that the mixer "just works" and I can plug even fairly hot signals of stereo outputs into them and the mixer handles it all fine. Whether it's for Volca jamming or a combination of Volcas, Pocket Operators and other "proper" synths like the Korg DW8000 or DSI Evolver, I can tell that this is going to be a pretty major part of my day-to-day setup. The success of this has actually meant that my Behringer Xenyx1202 has gone largely unused, as for most cases I've found the mickXer to be more than enough for what I need to use it for.

Perhaps the only feature I would have liked on the unit that I thought would be relatively straightforward to implement is toggle button mutes for each channel, however on inspection of the top end of the board there's not a lot of real estate to put the buttons and whether this would affect any noise cancelling features of the design. I did look at push button pots but not only are these expensive but also pose an ergonomic question - imagine if you wanted to twist a pot and accidentally mute a channel instead in a live setting. Of course, this will also need a case, but this is something that MyVolts are working on for version 2.

Speaking of Version 2, I managed to catch up with Caroline of MyVolts for an in-depth interview, check out the responses in a future post on Monday. In the meantime, what do you think of the mickXer