Does this mono downmix box exist?

[bdangler]

Hello all,
To solve a time-consuming problem at my work, I am looking for a piece of hardware that will do the following. We get in standard-def shows on digibetas with a stereo full mix, and a stereo md&e. Straight dubs are made for most regions, but one of our regions needs mono mixes, specifically 3 mono full mixes and one mono md&e on the 4 digibeta tracks. Currently, we ingest the stereo mixes into PT, then downmix on layback to the tape. This ties up our audio room quite a bit, and it seems that it could be handled in a better way.
I'm thinking there must be a hardware box with digital inputs and outputs that can be inserted so the dubbing guys can do the downmixes while they are dubbing for this one region. I can't seem to find anything other than a Terenex or Alchemist that would do such a thing, and those cost waaay to much. Any thoughts? Thanks!

[hummerZ]

How about a digital mixer that defaults to your downmix? Not very elegant, but you can pick them up fairly cheap. Hide it away in the machine room and put it on the patchbay as a magical black box! I can sell you a 16 channel one that we have lying around, for next to nothing.

[tj_davies]

I don't 100% get what you are doing, so if this post is rubbish, please accept my appology.

What about SoundConverter? That can convert stereo signals into mono?
Or make it mono via routing in Pro Tools during the recording process?

Timothy

[bdangler]

Hello,
Thanks for your replies. Right now, I record the stereo full mix and the stereo md&e into PT. I set up PT to output a mono full mix out of the first three outputs, and a mono md&e mix from output 4. I then lay these four mono tracks back onto the digibeta. I'm trying to find an external box that can achieve this result without having to use PT. This would allow the dubbing guys to make the mono mixes while they are dubbing, rather than tying up our audio room for this task. Thanks again for thinking about this!

[Frank Kruse]

Unless I didn´t understand, the secret box is called a mixer. An example is here:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/alesis_multimix_4usb.htm

I bet Behringer has one too that probably costs half. ;-)

You will probably need more input channels and 4 output busses (or 2 stereo outs) but there should be enough options on the market.

Frank.

[quadraphonics]

Some DBCs and HDCAMs allow for cross patching which would solve your problem. The Digital mixer is really the way to go. You could use something like a Dolby Decoder (564?) and have it st to mono. But in doing this you would need 2 of them (one for the comp and one for the MFX) and then you would need to mult the comp.

[tj_davies]

Originally Posted by Frank Kruse

Unless I didn´t understand, the secret box is called a mixer. An example is here:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/alesis_multimix_4usb.htm

I bet Behringer has one too that probably costs half. ;-)

But he would need a digital mixer.

Just to strip down time, you could switch the digiBeta signal straight to mono while recording and route it to the new digiBeta - that way you would half the studio time.

Hope this helps,
Timothy

[Frank Kruse]

Yeah, that was just an example to illustrate the idea.

[bdangler]

Yes, a mixer. But it needs digital ins and outs, no? Does a mixer exist that has AES ins and outs? Short of an o2r?

[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by bdangler

Yes, a mixer. But it needs digital ins and outs, no? Does a mixer exist that has AES ins and outs? Short of an o2r?

http://www.thomann.de/gb/digital_mixing_desks.html

Just a few examples.