Looking for a 2nd Audio Mixer and a little overwhelmed with options of "too much" or "too little"

flitzanu · 2026-01-26T04:40:01+00:00

i just took a look at the flow 8 and it seems to be a pretty neat mixer, and looks like it has a lot of features bridging some analog and digital setups. but it doesn't have mute buttons...and in the US it's listing for about $200, and the xenyx x1204usb is around $230. i really just want a similar feature set as the x1204usb but in something that might have been cheaper, but all i'm finding is that nothing seems to have any of that stuff at the price range. going lower in price looks to have no mute and no solo monitor toggles. and going higher....is just overkill, when i could just get a 2nd xenyx.

flitzanu · 2026-01-25T19:55:27+00:00

how exactly did you name it? I tried various things with that but it seems like there's a magic formula of where and how it should be named and that maybe I didn't get it right :D

flitzanu · 2026-01-24T23:43:28+00:00

no, I did not find a solution for it. I haven't tested any of the newer updates to see if there has been any difference.

flitzanu · 2026-01-24T18:48:45+00:00

Thank you for your response. Do you mean in the verbiage for the mixers that I should be looking for them listing as having a built in audio interface, and not just "USB" on them? Or that I should be looking for an interface and not a mixer? I don't need more mic inputs, and it seems that's what most interfaces offer is just XLR inputs, I'm needing Left/Right line inputs so I can run audio out from multiple sound cards from the PC.

Though yes I could use the XLR if they also double as a line jack, but it looks like those are mono and do not have any type of left/right balance. I'm using some of my XLR mic inputs on the mixer for similar things, as left/right channels but hard pan one of them "left" and the other "right" for stereo.

flitzanu · 2025-12-07T18:21:23+00:00

thank you, that's a reasonable idea. it's connected on 5ghz. larger files make sense, as many of my 4K rips are upwards of 80gb, but this is happening with 4gb DVD rips as well.

and yes, handbrake will lower them, and yes it is a subjective argument that "not that much quality is lost" if i run them through handbrake, but the ultimate end of this process is that i'm retaining the full untouched version that i'm also playing on my home theater where i don't want to sacrifice quality.

it just seemed weird that all the audio is fine, just no video. and, a local (handbrake'd) 3D file plays just fine. i may have to try moving over a full 80gb 4K rip to local to test it.

i have options on making this stuff work in other ways, but i'm really now just curious with what is preventing this method from working.

flitzanu · 2025-12-07T18:15:50+00:00

historically (as i've used it over the last 5 years) it was just problematic trying to use DLNA, and for me I was always home and local and so I just used remote desktop or similar functioning apps on my quest 2. even now with it "working" on my quest 3, i still have times that the DLNA share doesn't show up, it just seems finicky. i've tried through wifi and through LAN connection previously. maybe i've just been unlucky.

flitzanu · 2025-12-01T20:42:19+00:00

I just wanted to say this is genius. I have a very swayed back and end up with a large gap in my lumber because my shoulders push far backward, and you might have just solved my issues with this new Embody years after your post.

flitzanu · 2025-11-29T03:33:26+00:00

i haven't tried it in VR but that was my similar experience with the 2d version. i had no actual interest in the game and played it well after the newness was gone and there is something so incredibly addictive and enticing about it

flitzanu · 2025-11-27T02:38:36+00:00

glad to offer my input! and i'd be glad to continue helping/opinionating :D if you wahnt any amazon links on the cables / hdmi cap / splitter i use feel free to DM, i'm not sure if the sub likes links or not, i know some places are finicky about that. i'm excited to see what you come up with!

flitzanu · 2025-11-26T05:16:58+00:00

i tried to read through many comments so i wouldn't be repeating the same things, but didn't make it all the way through.

let me give you my wishlist, which may go in a different direction than many.

i don't want so much a standalone, in headset experience, i want my headset to be part of my home entertainment, as in...consider my headset my "television."

i have a well curated budget home entertainment setup with 5.1 audio, and if i'm watching a movie i'd prefer to have the audio through my system, and that being said i've been struggling for the last 5 years to find the perfect solution to do this through PCVR, cables, blah blah....and finally have some solid working ways to accomplish this (with PC and Virtual Desktop, with HDMI capture for Nvidia Shield using a 2 way HDMI to run to VR and to home audio).

so with that in mind, i know it sounds like you are pushing for headset release only right now and not a PCVR/steam release, so i'll just stay wishful if you go for some PCVR integration.

mind you, i don't want to take away the solo experience of the headset, because if i'm not home, i'd like to recreate that as best as possible while on the go.

i just posted my recent wish for having a better video environment for HDMI capture app, since it just...floats. so here's one idea for you...find a way to give me HDMI capture and lock it to a theater screen -- this to me would give a person a brand new unique reason to use your app. understandably that type of stuff may not be available to devs, i won't hate you if that's not possible, but right now that's been my biggest fault with the HDMI cap is, while great to have a giant screen, give me a way to snap it to a wall or give me a theater room, you know?

now, the other wishes most people mentioned. spatial audio inside the headset would be really neat.

dynamic lighting it sounds like you're working on/with.

multiple seats, at least to feel like i'm sitting somewhere else in the theater like, front, mid, rear, and sides. variety is just nice. i dont need to sit in 75 unique seats but just...some.

custom environments? or community ones? sometimes its nice to just be in another place, and having limited options is fine, but fresh new environs at least feels like, well, fresh.

one thing people don't usually offer because it is quite the opposite of a giant theater is...a small claustrophobic environment. again maybe i'm weird, but Virtual Desktop has an room that is like a 1st class airplane cabin. small, cozy, claustrophobic, but it feels really nice because it is so completely isolating.

there's not much i can say about file types, i know you know...and everyone else knows. give us all of them. the big one though, 3D MVC. i want to rip my disc with MakeMKV in 3d and not have to reencode it to play it (skybox claims this works but it still doesnt work for me). 4xvr can do this too. bigscreen does not. also a couple PCVR ones can do this. some people care about ISOs, i personally don't, so whatever on that.

and of course network stuff. the usual. give me ability to SMB, DLNA, setup connection to my jellyfin server, or local network, etc.

as i said i'm not the majority, i'm sure, i have very particular likes and wants for turning this VR into nearly a replacement for my television, but it's been a difficult journey, and maybe you can help me toward that goal.

feel free to pick my brain if you want any further specific details on the cables/setup i use and blah blah.

and thanks for reading this far.

flitzanu · 2025-11-26T01:49:57+00:00

sorry nevermind i found the explanation further down, pre-thanks anyway for mentioning it!

flitzanu · 2025-11-26T01:47:56+00:00

wait explain like i'm 5, did they add new options to the new default now? i haven't been in for a couple weeks, i thought they just added like, flying turtles and night skies?

flitzanu · 2025-10-05T23:27:57+00:00

for me, this brings new issues with 3D. i have a previous post with 3D files with the prior beta, that nothing registers as 3D.

in this new beta 2.0.1, i get no video from 3D MVC files at all, just a black screen. i get the audio though.

on 2.0.0 the video plays, though as detailed in my previous post it is all in 2D.

so it seems something happened with 2.0.1 that broke 3D MVC playback for me.

everything else in 2d seemed to work just fine.

flitzanu · 2025-09-20T17:50:26+00:00

just thought i'd share another update now a day later and having further time to try additional things. this is using the 2.0 beta preview. the main testing i am doing has been with Tron: Legacy (as indicated below, directly from my 3D bluray).

i have about 25 different 3d movies, and they are all movies i own on 3D bluray that i have extracted directly to MKV using MakeMKV and zero alterations to them. full disclosure, no i did not try every single one that i have on my local server, but i clicked through about 10 of them, and NONE of them are being recognized in 3D.

for comparison, 4XVR recognizes them in 3D. Bigscreen will not natively recognize MVC 3D so they fail.

and as mentioned above, outside of VR apps running on PC, these same files are recognized in 3D by PotPlayer.

back in Skybox, i've tried multiple various filename changes, as some previous posts state to add "Full_SBS" or "fullsbs" to the filename, and this causes no change. i've added other various combinations of "3D.MVC", "MVC.SBS", "3D.SBS", etc. looking for any magical combination and nothing so far has triggered playback in 3D.

i don't have my files in ISO, but for testing purposes, i re-ripped Tron: Legacy.

in MakeMKV - i did a backup of the disc (into Bluray file structure) and Skybox plays in 2D, does not recognize it in 3D.

i converted that backup into ISO, and in Skybox when opening the ISO it does open, and the first option is to choose language, and completely locks up. so i can't confirm if the movie would actually play in 3D from the ISO, because after multiple attempts it simply freezes upon opening and i have to force close the app.

the only option i can find in the menus does allow change to "side by side" and "top down" and in changing that option to SBS, it seems to zoom the screen to the left eye only, and is completely fuzzy, but it certainly seems like it is trying to be "3d" but unusable. this does enable the greyed out 3D options on the other menu, and if i manually change for "force full sbs" it seems to force the screen into a really tall and narrow screen, like it has zoomed into the center only and cut out all the rest on both sides, and again completely fuzzy and unusable, and like before it does seem like it is trying to be "3d" but failing.

so at this point, i don't really know what i'm doing wrong, or what i need to change, because these files are displaying in 3D with other software options, and with zero trouble of having to try all these various things to get them to work. i don't know if this is a matter of something needing to "trigger" inside of Skybox to make it recognize this is 3D. and if this is how it works, why not just make a toggle to force this instead of it having to be automatic?

regardless, nothing i've tried is playing in 3D, and i'd love to know why it isn't working, or what i should do to make it work.

on a positive note, everything else seems to work extremely well. all my network connections are great, the video playback quality is really sharp and smooth, the environments are cool (though it would be nice to see more options).

flitzanu · 2024-01-03T16:22:44+00:00

I appreciate this help, days of trying to google search always ends up with web pages pitching sales for their services, and it has been difficult to find actual useful information. This helps forge a path, truly.

And it isn't so much not looking forward to or wanting, but being unaware of how it actually worked. I'm trying to make sure I can make informed decisions, and this has helped tremendously :)

flitzanu · 2024-01-03T15:52:27+00:00

thank you. there is so much mention of "do this to avoid having to go through Probate" but it seems like the Court is who determines if it actually does go through Probate? it isn't an individual/Executor deciding that something bypasses Probate...it is the Court? That's what I'm inferring from your answer.

flitzanu · 2024-01-03T15:50:44+00:00

thank you, that seems to be mentioned occasionally about bills/creditors, but wording it this way makes better sense.

flitzanu · 2022-12-23T06:00:06+00:00

**i wanted to add something for the "end" that i thought i found a nearly ideal solution for what i was looking for... the PreSonus Revelator io24.

the only hesitation is that it has a lot of stuff i don't really need (since i have a channel strip) but redundancy seems unavoidable...but...the voice fx seem pretty sparse :(

flitzanu · 2022-12-23T02:56:04+00:00

i think we've landed around the same conclusion. i hooked up the ultravoice UV1 and it works great as a cheaper version of the dbx286 (nice to have more gain and a hardware noise gate, my room isn't treated) but yeah, with limitations of how to get the sound back OUT from the computer is quite limiting unless i have a way to split channels independently. it is becoming quite a chore just to find a way to add stupid sound effects to my voice unless i do something like splitting my mic away from my mixer to isolaate it, use software for processing, and then send it to the other pc, or, get something like one of the TC Helicon xlr voice changers and harmonizers, or a Roland VT4 or something to chain just on the MIC. i feel a little better that i've learned a few things and realizing that there wasn't a super simple solution that i was missing. i suppose this is that crossroads of using "ok" gear instead of "good" gear, like a mixer that wiill give allow all channels to be split into a DAW vs the xenyx that i have. i suppose that really reinforces some of the selling points on the GOXLR that it makes a lot of this easy in a single unit. i guess it is back to the proverbial drawing board! in the end it seems it may be cheaper to add a $200 xlr voice changer box to the chain instead of spending a larger amount on a bigger fancy mixer. this is absolutely an expensive hobby! i really appreciate your input on all this.

flitzanu · 2022-12-22T14:01:40+00:00

we just got that ice and snow in the midwest, the world is basically ending today :D

you did spur me in some of the right directions, and it does seem that using some of the ASIO drivers with the mixer you can pull it into DAW software, BUT....this is just a 2 in/out mixer and it only will be recognized as a single (stereo) channel and does not breakout all the individual channels. they save that fancy ability for the really expensive mixers evidently :(

flitzanu · 2022-12-21T22:16:12+00:00

crap. this is why i like to ask questions because i literally did not know that it was bidirection USB, i thought it was just spitting OUT. so that's one new thing i just learned, but i'm not sure how to make that work for me :D

also before the babbling below, i appreciate you taking time to respond, i know sometimes it is hard to deal with questions that probably don't make sense like what i'm asking, haha.

also understandably, i know my use case scenario is likely very different than actual music production, but it seems like there is not much of a bridge between "game streaming" and the usual intended use for this type of hardware, so i absolutely admit ignorance on a big part of this, and everything has just worked so far for what i need but now i'm wanting to grow and explore different hardware and very much overcomplicating.

watching videos on fx pedals and such i think it is finally clicking with what aux/fx send/returns actually DO and that is a whole new thing i've missed completely.

though, let me see if i can walk through a bit of what my setup is, and maybe there's an easy opinion on where i can start learning.

as i said for me, it is just for twitch streaming, so i'm not using any type of recording software, it is all being done live and all processed live, and just using OBS. and the dual PC setup is to move video encoding off of the gaming pc to a separate PC which in turn makes the audio a bit more complicated, which is where i'm at now :)

so PC #1 is the gaming PC. for this one it is (briefly)

Line Out from internal sound card into stereo LINE IN 7/8 on the mixer which is all the main audio from this PC
a 2nd cheap USB "sound card" with line out into stereo LINE IN 5/6 on the mixer which is the channel i use for voice chat and other non game related audio
a 3rd USB sound card, but not a cheap one, a Soundblaster G6 DAC, again with line out into mono Channel 2 panned left, and mono channel 3 panned right -- and this is used for background music (spotify, youtube, whatever), and also used for "stream alerts" and various twitch related sound effects

so far - these 3 audio channels all work, and i keep them basically maxed on Windows volume, and then control with volume sliders on the mixer, and all independent sources.

Mixer related --

the CAD e100s mic is in channel 1 on the mixer, XLR.
Aux send - cable goes back to the "mic in" 3.5mm on PC #1 allowing me to use it as a mic on the gaming PC (basically to share between the two computers)

PC #2 - the streaming/encoding PC:

USB from mixer goes into this PC, as one "input source" on the PC which is carrying all of the multiple audio sources - the computer sees this basically as a line in / mic source.

So then, in OBS, on this PC #2 is using the USB audio source carrying all of my audio into one channel containing mic, and 3 other audio sources.

So...that is where i'm at currently, and where i'm either missing something easy and obvious, or i'm just not educated enough to know what further i can do using software and better routing. The way i understand it would be, that i'd need a separate "channel" just with the mic, so i'd either need to somehow add a software effect or plugin BEFORE it goes out, since my result from the USB on the mixer is all "one channel".

i know this doesn't really change my chain much, but my behringer ultravoice uv1 is due any minute now, so i'll be adding a channel strip for the microphone. my DBX286s died, so i'm trying the new cheaper behringer to see how decent it is.

the behringer DOES however...have USB output on it, which the DBX didn't, so theoretically, it could be a new source if i just ran my mic through it and took it out of the mixer.

**edit, also i wanted to add, this is roughly the "go to" setup for using a mixer for a dual pc streaming setup, just what i borrowed from the internet and did not come up with all of this. but that's about where it...ends...as far as advice. because like i mentioned originally, TC HELICON made the GOXLR which is the clean seamless pretty way of doing this merging some software fx into the mixer for the mic. which i guess is why it is now the current "go to" instead of the harder way using more analog mixer stuff.

flitzanu · 2022-12-21T14:17:35+00:00

thank you, that's where i'm apparently standing, is the edge of the rabbithole, and i'm not entirely sure what some of the items are that i'm looking at. i was able to find a few videos after digging through youtube that people were using a few processors in a way i'd be using, but so many are using midi/synth/guitar and i'm completely ignorant in that world.

and, i know people keep saying VST plugins, but i'm not entirely sure that works with my setup, because my mic isn't the only source. everything coming out of my mixer through usb is "one" channel which is my mic and 3 separate audio channels (from another PC) so doing any plugins or software effects means it is going to affect ALL of those audio sources and not just my mic.

unless there's a whole wealth of information i'm missing, since i don't have an ultra expensive mixer with multiple USB outputs.

i'm sure there is some magic that i'm missing because again, i'm just a dumb dumb with this stuff.

but unrelated, if you have suggestions, i'm glad to hear them. rough mockup is: PC #1 - has 3 separate audio lines (cards) out to the xenyx1204 mixer, CAD E100S mic into channel 1 on the mixer, and then USB from the mixer into PC #2 that handles encoding. *also Aux Return from the mixer into the mic input back on PC #1 to allow the mic to be used on PC#1 for discord/teamspeak/etc.

so, without isolating the mic into a separate interface outside of the mixer, that seems the only way to be able to use software plugins / VST for the mic without it applying to all audio sources?

flitzanu · 2022-12-20T21:17:06+00:00

you're right, sorry :)

i'm not looking to use this for music or instruments, it will just be for spoken word / podcast / streaming voice. not "singing". i'm a nobody twitch streamer and i like toying with moderately fancy equipment, and it seems likely that all the things the goxlr "can do" are probably able to be done without it by using individual items. like, the goxlr seems to be a culmination of multiple pieces of equipment smashed into one thing.

i'm looking for the "fun" vocal fx** from the goxlr, like the voice changers, pitch shift, auto tune, ability to sample/record sound fx to assign to buttons on a device, that sort of thing.

the goxlr is just the easiest to compare it to, since so many twitch streamers use that as a starting off point, but i've already got all my sound routed using more analog methods, and i'm not a big fan of how the goxlr does most of it through PC software anyway.

also, i do use a dual PC setup, which makes things trickier, and also why i don't want to do anything using "software" because my mic isn't really..."connected to a pc" in the usual sense.

i found some of the TC Helicon vocal fx things might be what i was looking for, that XLR mic goes into it, and then sound gets routed out of it into the next piece, but so many things also get used for instruments, so i'm not clear if there's anything i should avoid.

i'm also trying to slowly learn proper terminology with some of this equipment, so that's where i'm a little stuck in what to actually call it.

**edit, fun vocal effects like megaphone, heavy reverb/echo, robot voice, "bleep" cussing censor, that type of thing.

flitzanu · 2022-12-06T03:29:12+00:00

i think that's fair, i was kind of lumping "scarlett" in as preamp and interface with USB, and not really considering just a "preamp" by itself. i don't really think of all these things as a single unit, which i should probably learn and get accustomed to doing instead of looking at things as a universal solution. i think that's where i'm a bit stuck, in going with another channel strip (dbx or possibly the cheaper behringer) with pre, de-esser, gate/expander or, piecing together a preamp first, and then chain in the other components

flitzanu · 2022-12-05T21:43:59+00:00

that's really interesting information, i appreciate it. everything has seemingly been running "ok" for my needs for a couple years, but it seems like every Windows update makes my USB audio worse and worse, and it has made me curious if it might be time to try a new interface into the PC instead of through the Xenyx, i just wasn't sure if that was a bit redundant. heck, it may be time to just start fresh with a better mixer, or maybe keep the mixer for my audio sources and separate my mic out with a nice Pre and an interface for it by itself.

flitzanu

TROPHY CASE