BASTL Bestie Mixer Review... It has a weird downside.

[@jonmakesbeats]

I see you got your Octatrack back...

[@ChumpyDumps]

I get this reference

[@luvinfunvan]

Mackie 802 mixer tip. Use your tape in for a private metronome using your cv out. One other really nice "hidden" feature of the Mackie is that the XLR balanced outs provide a +6db boost so if you have quiet instruments you get signifiant noiseless gain (awesome for us Deluge users).

[@ejmikk]

When you are using it as a micpre, your voice has a phase problem, the voice is almost impossible to hear in mono. The phase problem weirdness is also easy to hear in stereo. Probably a balanced signal going into a stereo input with the balanced + and - signals being used as L and R of a stereo channel.

[@vinylarchaeologist]

Yes indeed. I‘m very sensitive to phase inversion, and this is very noticeable even on my iPad stereo speakers.

[@jackjackjackncoke9666]

Dang, I just learned about the Dude an hour ago looking for compact/portable mixers and now this? Too good. I am a little conflicted spending $200 but it's so perfect for my setup and I'm not quite hating myself enough right now to drop a grand on a TX-6. Thanks for the vid, Ricky!

[@Lexxo777]

Super cool device! No master volume is a significant oversight IMO.. Could have easily been added, even at the rear or side as a smaller semi recessed pot.

[@ramseydoon8277]

Dang, the lack of volume control for the main output is a huge bummer. Maybe it will be added in version two, or the next iteration of the dude/bestie mixer series. It sucks because I'd use the shit outta the gain and feedback. Thanks for the great video, dude! Keep on rocking in the free world!

[@o3rMeNs]

You can use the headphone out as main which does have volume control, and pre/post mute switch. There are more setup options than this video goes in to.

[@noiseentropy]

Thank you very much for your video. I learned a lot to tame my freshly bought Bestie, especially your clear explanations on the type of cables we need in the different inputs.

[@noahsiekmann4275]

I just got a Bluebox. Without a doubt, it's the best compact mixer.

[@alb_reuel]

the most chill youtube channel of all time

[@DannyTaurus]

The saturation sounds real nice. Gonna pick up one of these to compare to my Analog Heat. I only use the Heat on the first 3 characters, and not very heavy either. So this might get me in that gentle saturation territory at a fraction of the price/size/weight/hassle. 🙏

[@jaguarvssnake]

That’s interesting if accurate, thanks!

[@bastlinstruments]

It will definitely do the trick!

[@RickyTinez]

I feel you on the MK2 Heat. That's where I lived with it also for a long time and eventually sold it haha. That's why I love these little mixers, like the Bestie, Dude, or the Monotron Delay

[@smacksalad]

Ah, very much interested in this tiny mixer. Love Bastl stuff.

[@tombrews]

Compact mixers would be so much better with 2 simple aux sends, similar to the Boss BX-8 and BX-16. No auxes renders a mixer near useless IMO

[@ChumpyDumps]

Everyone talks shit about it but the TX-6 has that.

[@tombrews]

@@ChumpyDumps Not wrongly so either at that price! Doesn't have to be tiny either, IMO the Boss BX series is a good size for what they offer, quite a characterful sound to them as well. Something like that OTO Machine Bebe Cherie seems to be a good size if it had a couple aux outs and dedicated returns!

[@pongtrometer]

I love the bass synth vocal feedback 👾 this is a funky lil sound processor for resampling through .

[@DJKaBz1]

This is the mixer I’ve been looking for

[@Gainn]

The Moukey MAMX1 is a dirt cheap option if you want something no frills and USB powered. Zero noise issues either.

[@ZetaCarinae]

Damn that is dirt cheap, almost disturbingly so.

[@Gainn]

@@ZetaCarinae yep. I've got one of those and the 8 channel version as well. No noise issues or any other problems. Not exactly packed with features, but it does the job as well as things 5x it's price.

[@ancientmartianunderground6413]

Main output volume control is the main job of a mixer. So we wait until the next version

[@GoGoGoRunRunRun]

Might be a good sub mixer, though.

[@o3rMeNs]

Or just use the headphone out as main like many people do using this box.

[@badoedipus2551]

Yeah… I’ve decided there’s one in my future. As soon as I saw it it was clear… #1 cheap #2 way cool distortion madness #3 way portable #4 actually has a lot of stereo channels given the size.. For my gig rig plans… there’s sometimes a couple more channels then I can quite facilitate easily… AND I kinda have this want to be able to put digital stuff through distortion… so it was almost like the missing piece I was looking for

[@bastlinstruments]

we wanted to make such a mixer for some! Thank you for supporting us!

[@christianmauricedion]

Very helpful review - thank you !

[@thethrillofnoskill4521]

Ricky dropping some gabber 🤩

[@bruteflorist]

I've been waiting for somebody cool to review this unit. Thank you!

[@chambre466]

the stereo imaging in this demo is post or pre bastl

[@williambrandon9660]

Ricky! thank you so much for reviewing this piece of gear. I'm looking around for mixers that are fairly small like this one.. all I know of so far are this one and the teenage engineering one, which I dont' know if I can justify price wise, if you know of anymore or have anymore that you can/will review please do!!

[@fuloptibor]

Is it possible to use this as a stereo FX send tool? - so plug 4 instruments to the inputs 1-4 and e.g. hook the microcosm to the main output with full wet setting, - feed microcosm to channel 5 and mute it. (to not create feedback) - and the main output is the headphone where everything is pre (as it comes to the mixer) ? Would it work?

[@embersandash]

Exactly.

[@Painsoreal]

Check not released OTO mixer. Looks like it’s gonna be the best for electronic musicians

[@NN-sp9tu]

Starting at 2:42 sounds sick

[@SonicVibe]

just when they discontinued the dude mixer great timing, but how does it stack against say a 20$ myvolts passive 5 channel stereo mixer of course no distortion. I wanted a microgranny till i realized you have to disassemble the thing to fall apart to put batteries in also the battery just free floats around and bangs on circuitry the app they made though is fantastic especially for making custom IR'S impulse responses

[@MrMarcLaflamme]

Waiting for the Bastl Homeboy with some extended features 😀

[@bastlinstruments]

:D haha great name

[@DD-co1zn]

Respect to you for pointing out a significant flaw, and emphasising how WEIRD it is. Also respect to you for stating upfront that your video was sponsored. On a couple other 3rd party promotional videos devoid of *any* meaningful critique, masquerading as reviews, I innocuously commented that I was disappointed that the unit that superceded the DUDE didn't have a simple pan/balance, despite a significant price increase, and one of the designers had a shit fit and started spamming the same diatribe at me on multiple videos. Nice way to interact with one of their long term supporters, I have at least 16 bastl products in this room alone, going right back to their earliest products and including their most premium(ly priced) products. I'm not a mindless, fanatic sycophant though ... So a product designer being a asshole to me, or blowing smoke up my ass, isn't going to be the factor that determines if I buy something or not ... So it's not like they lost a customer if they release some other interesting products ... But it's nice to know when you're supporting assholes, if it boils down to a 50/50 choice or decision between them or something else.

[@sapiotone]

I can see the lack of master volume leading to a bump in popularity and price of those old dbx desktop compressors

[@DT.2024]

Im down for a review of the poly 61 korg

[@sKnobloch83]

i'm wondering why there is no version of the bestie or also the bastl dude with more than 5 channels. that would be awesome af.

[@gianlucamarchese]

Secret cheat code for lo-fi house, can't wait to get this 🥵

[@bastlinstruments]

this will work nicely

[@saardean4481]

Looks like a cool little device! I have been looking for something like this for a few weeks now and till now tbh I have not found any alternative to the Bastl Bestie. There somehow doesn't seem to exist that many mixers like this -8and at this quality level of course)

[@hirudo3d]

Im currently looking for a mixer i can use for my dawless setup, i find it weird that most mixers only have 2 dedicated stereo channels. Im sure there is a reason for that, but still... As soon as you have more than 2 synth with stereo output, you have to fall back to workarounds (i count using two mono channels as workaround here). I currently have my eyes on the Livetrak L12, also because of recording capabilities... but shits expensive, yo.

[@GizzyDillespee]

I've actually never found a way to stereo link the mono tracks on the L12. On the older R24, I could link adjacent tracks, in the menu system. I never found anything similar on the L12, so for stereo inputs, I hard-pan mono tracks. It's kind of annoying to try to match faders and preamp or compressor knobs. The channel strip knobs are detented, with LED indicators, so those are easy to match, between 2 channels.

[@hirudo3d]

@@GizzyDillespee Right? Thats the problem. I think linking adjacent tracks would be easier on digital mixers, but i feel like they dont care abou that feature. Or they hope you buy a bigger model to get more stereo channels. The only reason im looking into the L12 is that its just better than what i have currently, being an audio interface + the recording features. Other than that, its still a workaround solution. There is nothing on the market i know of that is geared towards the DAWless community, with more stereo tracks.

[@SonicVibe]

myvolts makes a 5 channel small stereo mixer for 20$ passive no power needed you need pre amp for headphones unless your going into a recorder

[@hollownation]

Currently trying to figure out what mixer to get and I’m seriously considering a dj mixer specifically the omnitronic rotary mixers for simplicity and performance they look like a nice option all analog as well so you can probably drive them unfortunately dj reviews are useless

[@djlehara]

...and I thought I was the only one that like Dollar Tree batteries and whatnots!

[@dashansel3896]

Sick video Rickylove everything Bastl puts out. Did the signal clean up on a regular power source?

[@edgarm6017]

They’ve mentioned that you’d get the cleanest signal on batteries. It’s usb-c powered so that could generate some signal hum. Has more to do with the power situation in your instruments

[@RickyTinez]

oh yea, the regular normal power source helped it a ton. I had to use my grounded Eventide Powermax for the cleanest result - bit.ly/3WcvtRo But batteries are a good option says BASTL and Edgar :)

[@Blackhoodie85]

Interesting. I liked my Dude mixer for the short time I had it. I wonder if this would be suitable/capable of powering a small home audio setup? Ideally I'd like to run my computer audio into it, as well as a couple of instruments, and hook up a pair of Rokit monitors to the output. Would this even work? Kinda wonder if maybe I should just get a small Behringer or Yamaha mixer.

[@sullycliftona]

Yamaha second ten ch.. I paid less than 60 pound. It’s brilliant all Yamaha stuff is behringer just annoying because it crack’s plastic useless such a shame because their actual wiring is amazing

[@niallcameron6433]

I'd say this would be pretty terrible for that use. Too noisy, no control over your overall output and just not really fit for purpose. There are much better options out there.

[@Blackhoodie85]

@@niallcameron6433 Yep, that's about what I figured. I'll go with one of the smaller Yamaha units. I love Bastl, but this doesn't really seem like it's for me. Cheers

[@landonh3535]

Nice, so it sums well for sending groups out of the DAW and gluing them together? If so this will be a battle between the OTO Cherie and Bestie for me. I really want a nice, grimy summing mixer.

[@robsinHL]

OTO Cherie is going to be $780…

[@landonh3535]

@@robsinHL That's fine with me if I like it. OTO makes exceptionally high-quality stuff. That said, it would be nice if I didn't like it more and saved $500. We will have to see how it sounds and functions. Props to Bastl for making this awesome little mixer at a very fair price.

[@RickyTinez]

Holy crap.. I never even seen the Cherie before this comment! It looks awesome

[@landonh3535]

@@RickyTinez Funny to revisit this as I have a Bestie showing up this week. I am going to try running it's out into my Boum to control volume that way and add some compression. The Cherie indeed looks awesome, I hope you can get your hands on one to review it.

[@antonystannard3333]

The mutes make an audible pop.

[@jordanWAH]

And I just bought a xenyx x1204usb. I have not had the best experience from Bastl, though. The microgranny 2.5 at least just was too unreliable.

[@josemurcia9315]

So you like the Dude better than the Bestie?

[@returnofthemilk]

Good video. Who knows what the intended purpose actually is for this machine but to me it looks like a naughty box. Patch it back into itself, make some nasty sounds.

[@robsinHL]

Yeah. No. Would like it if it had balanced 1/4” outputs and main volume control. For $200 otherwise meh. I’ll stick with my 1010 mixer (which has the same flaw of course).

[@VJFranzK]

Still like Slider for a mixer, knobs aren't intuitive

[@kaiserclicker8479]

thx u

[@kevinvotaw2916]

I too am wanting to be on top of one another 😏 2:06

[@domting8973]

nice，as a dude owner this is tempting but still, seems can wait til some extra cash flowing around :)

[@cooksoni.a]

second 5 channel mixer i see has come out today lol

[@cooksoni.a]

@Synth&CoffeeGuy critter and guitari came out with one called 5 moons i think

[@InfotoxIn]

@@cooksoni.a it's not a mixer, but a recorder/looper. 1 in 1 out sadly.

[@cooksoni.a]

@@InfotoxIn ooh damn

[@KurtLorenz]

❤

[@luvinfunvan]

Arrrgh, that is disappointing. Great otherwise.

[@derflyer]

meh

[@iancain6647]