True to the Music
Radial Engineering Ltd.
Space Heater™ User Guide
8
USING THE SPACE HEATER AS A SUMMING MIXER
When mixing in a digital audio workstation (DAW) or even with some
digital mixers, folks often complain that something is lost. There are
lots of theories as to why or even if this actually occurs, but most agree
that something magical happens when audio tracks are combined in
the analog domain. The Space Heater handles this task with ease.
Not only is it an extremely high quality, transformer coupled analog
mixer; it also offers a tube circuit for endless personality!
Because the tube drive section may be turned on or off for each
channel pair, the Space Heater can be used when clean analog
summing with slight vintage character is preferred. In this case, the
signal will only pass through the level control and output transformer
on each channel.
1. Make sure all LEVEL and DRIVE controls are turned off (fully
counter-clockwise) to prevent accidental volume spikes.
2. Connect your DAW outputs to the Space Heater’s eight
individual channel inputs via ¼” TRS or DB25.
3. Connect Left and Right XLR outputs of the Space Heater to
your recorder. Try routing the
fi
nal stereo mix back to new
channels on your DAW for recording and monitoring or if you
prefer, connect to a dedicated 2-channel tape machine.
4. Turn each channel pair of the Space Heater ON and engage
the BUS switch to assign outputs to the stereo mix.
5. Turn the TUBE DRIVE ON for each channel pair where
desired. Leave off if simple resistive analog summing through
transformers is desired.
6. Setup DAW or recorder to play back 4-stereo recordings
assigned to the outputs connected in step 2.
7.
Turn MIX BUS ON and adjust level control. If sending the stereo
mix back to your recorder, set the output level between 12
o’clock and 3’o’clock. If connected directly to studio monitors,
set at a lower level until playback begins.
8. Begin playback. Slowly increase the LEVEL and DRIVE
controls on any one channel (only LEVEL control is necessary
if tube is not engaged).
9. Adjust balance between LEVEL and DRIVE on all eight
channels. Increasing the level will result in a cleaner sound
while increasing the drive will introduce more distortion.
10. Adjust the HEAT switch between the three different voltages.
Lower voltages will starve the tube and result in a grittier
distortion while higher voltages will produce a warmer overdrive.
TYPICAL STEM MIX ROUTING
DRUMS (LEFT) .......................................CH 1
DRUMS (RIGHT) ......................................CH 2
BASS (LEFT) ............................................CH 3
BASS (RIGHT) .........................................CH 4
GUITAR (LEFT) ........................................CH 5
GUITAR (RIGHT) .....................................CH 6
VOX (LEFT) ..............................................CH 7
VOX (RIGHT) ...........................................CH 8
STEM MIXES IN YOUR DAW
A common method for using the Space Heater as an analog
summing mixer alongside a DAW is to work with stereo
stem mixes. This means that you mix similar instruments
to separate stereo outputs. All panning is handled by the
workstation so the Space Heater is only performing the
fi
nal
stereo mix from these groups. When you engage the BUS
switch on the front panel, odd channels are automatically
routed to the LEFT bus and even channels routed to the
RIGHT bus.
PROTOOLS
INTERFACE
OUTPUTS
INPUT
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