Undertone Audio Pyra-Sum Summing Mixer Review

Full Quality Mix Passes:
drive.google.com/file/d/1pJxu...
Undertone Audio's Pyra-Sum is a completely passive summing device that lets you incorporate 8 preamps of your choosing for sonic color on your mix. We'll compare 8 Channels of API Preamps in the Pyra-Sum to an API The Box Console, as well as incorporate the UTA MPDI-4 into the mix with all of it's sonic combinations. Don't forget to download the session files of all of these Pyra-Sum passes as well!
Time Stamps:
00:00 Intro (Talking)
05:58 Console vs API PyraSum
09:44 Pushing Console vs PyraSum
14:16 UTA Preamps Clean
16:06 UTA Preamps Input Transformer
18:20 UTA Preamps Output Transformer
20:47 Hybrid "Super Console"
23:04 PyraSum Montage

[@steveg219]

Outstanding work to set this up properly to really hear the difference - thanks

[@pepeeze]

Amazing video and great song! Thanks!

[@CarstenGoeke]

Off topic: This intro! One day, I will also go to such a cozy little studio where I won't disturb anyone and can make music in peace. That would be great. And the dog can come along too 👌🏻✌🏼

[@hamanino]

Thank you very much

[@JonManness]

That super console was epic! I need to start running my 2-mix through my RNDI-S and TG2 for some basic summing.

[@MillSounds]

That would be a killer combo!

[@ehav]

Cool tune

[@MillSounds]

The artist is “Stükenberg”, not sure when this song will be released. He just put out a really cool EP yesterday called “The Truth About Cowboys”. I helped on some tracking on that one, but he did it all himself and it’s really cool. If you liked this song, you’ll enjoy it! spotify.link/GzVp2R3EMDb

[@assshakerstudios549]

OMG Your awesome! To think of how many StudioHeadz and GearSlutz that come on here doing videos, and your the very first one that has done something correctly, that I've seen in 15yrs on here! It's fucking asstounding and I salute you! And funkin a ....sounds so good when you push it! Especially on the chorus section. Even if you don't push it for the versus, then push it for the chorus....DO THAT!!! A good set of Planar's helped tremendously while listening. Audeze for me. And what's that tune? Wicked good job of mixing the end of that tune btw!

[@wewantmoreparty]

Awesome

[@steveg219]

My overall observation is that they all sound great and are just a little different. I like the highs and high mids of the API , the UTA softens the transients and creates fullness in a really nice way but might roll off the highs slightly too much. Of course it is easy to brighten it back up and keep the fullness and softening!!

[@Christian_svedin]

Cool test! I think the UTA added very nice weight without being to much. The coils where just way to much and there was to much of an trade-off. For me the drums are where analogue really shines. Softening and fattening of the transients.

[@MillSounds]

Ya, agreed. I would focus too much on what sounded “better” on these, it’s kind of backwards to do the summing after the mix is done. Like you said, the Coil “super console” was just way too much, but it possibly would have given me a stronger starting point if I set that chain up at the beginning of the mix. The Undertone preamps we’re the best middle ground to my ears as well. They added some nice weight and smoothed out the high end on the vocals and drums nicely. Plus, you have all the options with transformer combinations to tweak. Really amazing combo with the pyra sum! I really love the punch on the API’s for this, more subtle than the Undertones but really nice as well!

[@AH-Okay]

Thanks for doing these. Looking forward to hearing the files in my studio. The UTA pres sound excellent. How do you feel about the Pyra Sum mixing workflow overall?

[@MillSounds]

I wish I had more analog gear to experiment with compressing and treating the bus system. It’s really interesting to have the first bus cascading into the second bus, being able to stack some processing individually on those as opposed to over the whole mix bus (which is how most of us do it on a smaller console) opens up a lot of possibilities. There’s a lot of times where I want to compress my mix bus more, but an artist will want their vocals louder during mix revisions and your mix starts falling apart. That’s frustrating, you could probably set up a nice system on the pyra sum that would avoid that.

[@AH-Okay]

@@MillSounds Yeah, the cascading busses are what intrigues me about this set up. How speedy was the calibration process when moving between different preamps?

[@LosFicosMusic]

API ALL DAY 🙏🙏🙏🫡

[@kylechandler4929]

I was just wondering what the PyraSum coupled with the Coils would sound like. Thanks!

[@MillSounds]

Freaking massive! It was way too much for the song in its already finished state, but it probably would have given me an easier starting point if I were mixing into the Pyra-Sum set up with the Coils.

[@m9shamalan]

I think the best of all was the API Box summing (not pyrasum with API preamps). And I mix with a passive summing mixer with UT preamps as the makeup gain. Interesting.

[@MillSounds]

I liked my console as well for this specific song. The UTAs are way more versatile though, so many options!

[@jimmygigga6819]

I would be interested more in the sound of the hi-hats. There doesn't seem to be annoying harmonics that stick out too much like with Zildjians or Paistes.

[@MillSounds]

It wouldn’t have helped much, I’ve got Zildjian K Constantinople hats for all those reasons 😂. Smooth sounding and not harsh, but never get lost in the mix.

[@dougleydorite]

In either case, how do people treat panning automation in these scenarios? Either way, you have to give up stereo channels for panning, which sucks

[@dougleydorite]

Awesome song btw!

[@m9shamalan]

In the first examples the Box summing sounds quite a bit louder than the Pyrasum version..

[@MillSounds]

It’s hard to match these exactly with so many examples. I think I decided overall to match each example with the original in the box bounce as the reference. Each price of hardware does drastically different things to different frequency ranges as well, so it makes it even harder to match if you just try to use LUFS. I usually match with a phase test, by flipping the phase on one pass and playing back another one and mess with levels until I get the most cancelation. That seems to get things the closest. Long story short, your right. Some are going to seem a little louder, which isn’t a bad thing. That’s what you want from a summing mixer. Some of it could just be perceived loudness, which is another thing to factor in and compare. It’s just impossible to get everything perfect when you have this many examples and variables. Download the mix file session and deep dive a bit more on specific examples if you’re curious on why that’s happening. Put a frequency analyzer on there and see the differences and what’s happening to the peaks and transients in certain spots.

[@danolivier4899]

API sounded deeper, UTA sounded wider.