maker hart Drum mixer
Maker Hart Drum Mixer

TL;DR Review

If you are drummer without a full home studio, buy one of these. I never thought I would be able to great sounding recordings from a single microphone in a crowded bedroom. This mixer brings out the highs and lows in the drum kit and post processing is basic light mastering. There is very little color on the ending sound and the little bit that does exist, makes the highs sparkle. Listen with HEADPHONES to the demo below.

Intro

The Hart Loop 8 mixer was solid enough that I bring you a review of another Maker Hart product: Hart/Alpha Drumwerks — Drum Mixer.

Having a fully Mic’ed drum set, in a professional studio always at your disposal is not attainable many musicians. Over the years I have tried multiple “DIY” tricks to get drum recordings to sound good in a home setting. These included moving blankets on the walls, to building a carpeted plywood box for the drum set. None really yielded quality results and always left my drums sounding flat or crushing in the highs. I had mostly given up on live drum recording without a studio, due to all the work that was needed to get any usable result, until now.

Intro Hart’s Drum Mixer. After I had a great experience with Hart’s small mixer, I reached out to the Maker team to see if they had any idea’s/recommendations for recording drums. They told me about the drum mixer, and full disclosure, they sent me one to test out and review. That being said, all of the content in this article are my own thoughts and opinions. If a product is good or if it sucks, I will tell you the truth. Now without further ado, I give you the Maker Hart Drum Mixer.

Connectivity

  • 5 Line Input w/ Dedicated Faders – 3 – 1/4in, 2 – 3.5mm Useful if you have all your Drums already Mic’ed
  • 2 Main Outputs – 1/4in Send to Speakers
  • 1 Mic Input with Phantom Power – 3.5mm to XLR included in the box
  • Headphone Out – 3.5mm headphone monitor
  • USB Connection – Used for power as well as can be connected to a computer and used as an audio interface.

Usability

Setting this mixer up is pretty easy. Just plug it into a power outlet, plug in a Microphone (Supports Phantom Power), plug in headphones, and play. You should be able to hear output from the mixer instantly as it will be mixing any input it gets from the microphone. Depending on your style, you can tune the sound to your liking. I find that about 75% to MAX on the faders, and 50% on the Mic input is just about perfect for my sound. I usually plug this into my laptop which turns the mixer then becomes a audio input that can be used in any DAW. That way I can import the recordings directly into a project. The mixer is also very small making the portability and ease of transport a 10/10. My main concerns with this size is durability. I have taken this box on a couple trips with me and so far everything seems stable and the faders are still rock solid. If you were to drop an amp on it, it would probably break, but then again so would a normal mixer.

Special Features

Some notable features of this mixer are the Bass Boost as well as the USB Audio Input mentioned above.

Bass Boost is exactly what it sounds like. Hit the button with a subwoofer connected to the sub output. Pretty much turns a regular kick drum into a intense kick drum. This is great for laying down a thick bass from an 808, or creating a super punchy kick drum through stage woofers.

Maker Hart has done a great job with their mixer line, including the option to allow Audio over USB. I loved this in the Loop 8 and I love it in the Drum Mix as well. You just plug it into your PC, open your DAW, and select the Mixer as the audio input. It then acts like a microphone input and anything that comes into the mixer can be recorded into the DAW like a standard Mic. This allows someone without an audio interface to record at 96khz with no extra gear. This is a game changer from standard mixers.

Want To Buy One?

Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/31Wa6Jl

Demo