It’s the no-mixer no-input-mixer. Developer Igor Vasiliev has created an experimental app that models the feedback effects of mixers and effects – and it’s capable of creating beautiful, ghostly sounds, all entirely in software.
There’s something strange and wonderful about taking a technique that is so connected to hardware and making it work in software – just because it’s there. It also means the ability to free yourself of that tangle of wires, and perhaps to get precise feedback effects that wouldn’t be possible on hardware, a unique character of its own produced in this virtual domain.
From this bare-bones interface, listen to these ethereal sounds. I think this is one of my favorite iPad demo videos of all time:
The technique may be a favorite of hardware lovers, but the what-if scenarios provided here are absolutely the territory of software experimenters. Here’s the architecture:
NoInputMixer consists of a seven-channel mixer and an effects rack with eight slots. Each effect slot can be configured as an insert effect for a mixer channel or used with two send/return buses. Effects has an option for hi-res or lo-fi sound processing. Each mixer channel has its own algorithmic generator of different types of noise, which can be added to the feedback signal or used separately. The input selector switches between multiple points in the signal path to make different types of feedback loops or can be switched to an external input for any channel to use it as an effect processor.
Also this application provides several additional options not found in usual mixers, such as preamp tube type and mode selection, op-amp type selection, adjustment of overload protection circuit, and other features that greatly expand the possibilities for experimenting with sound. The user interface can be presented in the form of a classic mixer, or in the form of complete control of a single channel.
Gotta love that schematic, pictured at top.
This will run on iOS on both iPhone and iPad, and on Apple Silicon-based Macs (both standalone and as AUv3 with hosts that support that, like Apple Logic and recent versions of Ableton Live).
And if the character seems familiar, that’s because this is from the storied creator of wonders such as GlitchScaper.
What a nice gift to get this week. And yes, it might even inspire some folks to get into doing this with hardware for the first time.
NoInputMixer – Feedback-based instrument