Tonelux OTB 16
Demo unit available

16 Channel Summing Mixer

Features

  • 16 Mono Inputs with volume and pan pots (2x dB25)
  • 1 Stereo Input (2x bal. jack) with fixed unity gain, typically used for cascading additional OTB’s
  • 8 Stereo link buttons to control volume of a stereo input with just one pot
  • Master pot
  • 2 independent pairs of Stereo Out (4x XLR), one with output transformer, one without

€ 1245,-
Price excl. VAT
excl. shipping

General

The Tonelux OTB16 is about sound first and foremost.
In our opinion it’s the one summing mixer out there with perfect balance of colourisation and integrity of sound.
It will smoothen transients, create rounder and tighter lowend, add lots of 3D imaging, but wont put too much of a sonic stamp onto the mix bus. You won’t get any of that “damn, all my mixes sound the same”.
We regard the OTB16 to be the “one size fits all” summing mixer out there.
Its features are simple, typically you would calibrate the unit once and then hardly ever touch it again.
Particularly fast transients as well as 3D imaging will improve considerably as compared to ITB (“in the box”) mixes.

Please note:
When testing the OTB16 – as well as any other summing mixer out there – we recommend to never just using an existing former ITB Mix and routing it to the 16 input channels.
If you truly want to explore the sound of a summing mixer you need to mix into that unit, i.e. monitor through the units summing stage from the very  beginning of a mixdown.
In doing so, chances are you won’t be de-essing as much as mixing ITB.
You sure won’t nudge out as many resonating high mid frequences.
Some individual signals you might compress less than you would ITB, particularly when trying to create a tight low end.
Now by taking it a bit easier on all these issues chances are you will end up with considerably better phase linearity and overall clearness and retain more of the original character of an individual sound.
The mixes will become more lively and dynamic with way improved 3D imaging.
Last not least, you will find it lots easier to bringing your mixes to the standard loudness level when mastering, at the same the process of limiting will produce less of those ugly artefacts – and no, you won’t be losing that vital snare attack no more…
So what’s the snare got to do with it?
It’s all to do with the transients.
Read on.

 

Hints & Tips

The OTB16 has two very different pairs of stereo outs.
The “MIX OUT” is controlled by a master pot and runs through the TX-100 output transformer, adding the unique Tonelux sound flavour, whereas the “MON OUT” bypasses both the master pot and the TX-100 resulting in a purer and lesser coloured sound.
It may well be down to your choice of master bus compressor which output will suit your needs better.
In any way, the OTB16 comes with two very different sound characteristics built in and so we therefor do recommend wiring both outputs to your patchbay.
Anything acoustic or rock or live instruments will love the MIX OUT’s TX-100 sound, but then if you are working on an into-your-face-four-on-the-floor-electronic-dance-track the colder and purer MON OUT might work better for you.

The other use for the separate sounding outputs is this:
When cascading two OTB16’s for a total of 32 input channels you would typically run the MON OUT (non tranformer) of the first OTB into input channels 17-18 of the second OTB, using the MIX OUT (with transformer and master pot) of the second OTB as your main stereo output.
Hence you get a full blown 32 channel mixer with one of the world’s best sounding summing stages – for a staggering € 2100,-
I told Paul it’s too cheap.

History

Tonelux was founded in the late 90’s by former API owner Paul Wolff.
In his API days Paul had designed classics like the 2500 bus compressor as well as the 19″ orientated summing mixer line, the 8200 series – the very first summing mixer of its kind.
Not only are these designs still being built to original specs to this day and highly revered, it was Paul who foresaw the need of 19″ summing mixers some 10 years before the rest of the world did.
When Paul decided to sell API – too much under the burden of his own companies dinosaur legacy, feeling a bit like the sourcerers apprentice – he founded Tonelux with the idea of building am entirely modular mixing console.
The Tonelux V-Series was born.
For the first time a user had the option of configuring their own console in detail, be it the most basic 4:2 mixer or a full blown 192 channel monstruous 5.1 biest with fader automation and all, you name it.
A mixer could be portable in racks or a fixed installation, each individual input channel could have a fader, EQ, comp, mic pre – or not, the possibilities were and still are endless to fit the exact needs of the owner.
The V-Series was born, arguably the best sounding summing stage built to date.
At the core of this circuit are the TX-240 and TX-260 op amps, as well as the TX-100 output transformer, regarded by most to be way superior and more contemporary sounding than older API designs.
Different from – say – vintage Neve consoles the Tonelux stage results in a very fast and very direct sound, indeed in measurements the circuit shows a very high slew rate.
But somehow Pauls design manages to still round of nasty transients, sweeten the highs and tighten the low end – what vintage Neve is all about – but without resulting in the overall fluffiness of sound, typically heard in so many designs with similar qualities (talking about vintage Neve summing).

Now, for those of you that are familiar with the Tonelux V-series modular consoles:
Technically the OTB16 is pretty much a Tonelux V-Rack with 6 FX2’s and 2 FX2+’s – the latter two modules acting as the actual summing stage – with an added stereo input at unity gain just before the summing.
Right, the OTB16 does 18 channels of summing.
Actually it should be called OTB18.
It’s also a mere fraction of the price of the above setup.
When it was new admittedly I did complain to Paul that it is way too cheap for what it is.

dB says

Personally I couldn’t name a better price / value summing mixer on the market than the OTB16.
Users range from renowned mastering studios to typical bedroom laptop studios.
At this stage it seems worth mentioning that the OTB is indeed one of the best sold products in our entire portfolio of audio ware – and we didn’t get a single one back yet.
In my personal mix setup (which is a rather freaky affair of racks and racks of analogue stuff of all ages) I use the OTB16 as drums mixer.
When total recall is required (forcing me to do all my individual signal processing ITB rather than outboard) I will still use the OTB16 as my only summing stage.
However, when mixing analogue the OTB16 will round of my live drums, take care of any nastiness in snare, highhat and cymbals and enable me to get those drums ridiculously bright and loud without any of out of control transients all over the place.
At the same time the OTB16 will help me considerably in bringing the live room of the recording across without losing any impact. I get all the 3D imaging I want.

Here’s something important, btw:
When comparing the sound of the MIX OUT and the MON OUT bear in mind that the MIX out is actually about 1dB down.
If you intend to hardwire your setup and need to decide on just ONE stereo output I recommend the MIX OUT all the way.
It will give you more music.

Last:
For those utter audio freaks out there, yes, we do offer a modded version of the OTB16.
By changing a few things here and there we managed to squeeze out a couple of dB more signal to noise ratio, as well as changing the sound a tad. We feel that the low end is yet even fuller and 3D imaging is still better (not that we thought it possible).
You might want to call that modded version the “missing link” between the OTB16 and a full blown Tonelux console with MX1’s and SM2’s and everything.
But no worries, you will find that standard version of the OTB in a number of renown mastering studios, so it can’t be that bad…
BTW, in my own OTB16 I modded just 8 of the 16 channels to give me both colours.
OK, I’m a bit of a nerd.