Hands on with the MixPre II Series of Audio Recorders That Can Never Clip

IBC 2019 is behind us but there are still a number of interesting products that were shown on the show for the first time. One of them is the second generation of the popular Sound Devices audio recorder series called the MixPre II. On the above video Nino from cinema5D talks to Sound Devices’ Paul Isaacs. 

So what is new with the MixPre version II? there are actually a number of changes introduced by  Sound Devices – here are the main ones:

  • Bit depth up to 32-bit float – think about sound bit depth in this respect as a sort of dynamic range for your audio – with 32 bit you don’t necessarily gain any audio quality boost (as you might be getting moving from 16 bit to 24 bit) but you will be getting the option to play with the audio levels in post so that your audio will never clip even if you accidentally record and a train or aircraft passes by.
  • Record up to 192 kHz – not all of the older generation MixPre recorders were capable of 192 kHz – but all of the new series is.
  • Faster, more advanced hardware – we don’t know exactly what Sound Devices changed here but faster should be better.
  • Internal LTC Timecode Generation and Output – this one is going to make a lot of video recorders happy. For the first time in a relatively budget series of audio recorders, you now have an actual time code generator built-in – you now don’t need an external unit.
  • Adjustable Limiters – the older MixPre had analog limiters as well but you could not configure them – to be honest, this might be redundant with the 32-bit capabilities but it is here anyway.
  • Auto-copy to USB Drive – this is actually handly – just connect a USB thumb drive to the recorder and have a backup copy of all of your recordings in addition to your SD card (some more professional recorders have dual SD cards – here you have this).
  • Pre-roll buffer increased to 10 seconds – just in case you pressed record too late.

EposVox hands-on review of the MixPre 3 II

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To some, these changes might not be super relevant and should certainly not warrant spending hundreds of dollars upgrading from their existing recorders, but if you do find some of them crucial to your work prices for the new series will start at $650 for the MixPre-3 II  the MixPre-6 II sells for $850, and finally, the MixPre-10 II sells for $1400.

If you want a more technical perspective you can watch our friend Curtis Judd talk with Isaacs on Skype 

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If you liked this video you might also be interested in some of our other videos and coverage of IBC 2019 – here on LensVid and if you are into sound recording for video productions check out this link which covers both equipment and techniques here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

1 comment

  1. Hi Curtis
    Some time ago I ordered a course for the mixore 11. I was injured but can get at it now. May I receive the course again?

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