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TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

teenage.engineering

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Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#91

Post by duped »

tayistay wrote: post #86
duped wrote: post #63

What bothers me is that I would absolutely buy this if it was bigger and had 1/4" balanced or stereo TRRS inputs, I actually have a variety of input sources in my home office that gets dual use for work, gaming, and music. But to use this I would need to go XLR to 3.5mm (and no phantom power?) for my voice and amp mics, main out to a Y split 1/4 TRS for speakers, and 1/4" to 3.5mm for a synth. So my desk would be lit…

The TX-6 is aimed at people who own the other TE stuff which is 3.5mm. If you're looking for a solid audio interface, consider RME or Apogee.

I have an RME actually, but the Apogee stuff has poor support for anyone not using a Mac.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#92

Post by squarefoot »

incanus77 wrote: post #48

Once, just once, I would like to see someone say “why is this so expensive, it’s just […]” and then build one themselves, and bring it to market, for that lower cost. Go ahead, just try.

No need to try as it already exists: Any Linux tablet with Reaper and a couple soft synths and a decent external sound card if needed would do a lot more for a lot less. A good portion of the cost of this device could be justified only if it really had motorized knobs and faders, which are shown in the video but not mentioned among the features; that would be a completely unnecessary gimmick (in such a device) which however would impact a lot on the cost.

Portable music devices aren't that expensive these days. Take a look at what SunVox can do on old hardware, or maybe the Polyend Tracker, which is a hardware solution that costs less than half of the tx-6 and doesn't kill the eyes on a toy display.

https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/

https://polyend.com/tracker/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQufJBVvAtY

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#93

Post by an-unknown »

ng55QPSK wrote: post #50
jelling wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious answer: expensive synths are the new expensive guitars. For the previous generation, guitar makers began cranking out premium priced guitars for purchase by people outside their prime music making years and into their prime earning years. Said guitars frequently just hung on the wall, which was fine because they were designed to be status items anyway.

Synths were always expensive. Polyphonic, analog Stuff was clearly in the 5-digit prices. Digitalisation brought this down to 4...5000€.

Back in the day, it somewhat made sense that polyphonic synthesizers were expensive, since the electronics itself was expensive. Today, if you have a few weekends time, you can rather easily design your own custom analog polyphonic synthesizer in e.g. Eurorack format, manufacture it for something around 30-50€ (e.g. using some Chinese PCB manufacturer + their SMT assembly service), and the resulting module will outperform modern commercially available modules that cost multiple times more (think of a factor of 10x for the price difference).

It's even crazier if you look at digital synthesizers or samplers. Remember the E-MU Emulator from 1981, which cost more than $8000 when it was released? Today, a cheap 5€ microcontroller together with a 2€ DAC will give you more of everything already (more polyphony, more RAM, higher sample rate, more resolution per sample, stereo output instead of mono, …).

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#95

Post by robotresearcher »

duped wrote: post #63

What bothers me is that I would absolutely buy this if it was bigger and had 1/4" balanced or stereo TRRS inputs, I actually have a variety of input sources in my home office that gets dual use for work, gaming, and music. But to use this I would need to go XLR to 3.5mm (and no phantom power?) for my voice and amp mics, main out to a Y split 1/4 TRS for speakers, and 1/4" to 3.5mm for a synth. So my desk would be lit…

There are lots of desktop mixers with regular-size connectors available, some with audio interfaces and effects. This one is super small and based on mini jacks - that's its differentiator.

Main difference from the similar-space BlueBox seems to be having little faders instead of a touchscreen. And it's twice the price. Design looks nice, hard to evaluate the usability from pictures. Menu diving on little screens can be rough.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#96

Post by arkad »

speed_spread wrote: post #49

Nowhere near as Wired-friendly as this, but as portable mixers go, Zoom's Livetrak series is where it's at IMHO.

+1 for that. Especially Zoom LiveTrak L-8 has nice pack of features for its size (nowhere as portable as TX-6, but still) and is also battery powered.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#97

Post by fastball »

mellavora wrote: post #71
kmeisthax wrote: post #30

Like most Teenage Engineering products, it's an absolutely amazing-looking, well-engineered product with a ton of functionality that does a thing I don't actually need for far more money than I can justify spending on it.

So, Apple!

Eh, all my Apple devices do exactly what I need them to.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#98

Post by elliotlarson »

pmags wrote: post #36

Small, portable mixers with lots of stereo inputs are relatively rare. That plus the Teenage Engineering "tax" (think Apple tax but for synth-heads) is driving the price. A cheaper, but slightly less tactile alternative is the 1010 Music Bluebox: https://1010music.com/product/bluebox

Yeah, I have a BlueBox and it works great. You can also add tactility with an external controller like: https://intech.studio, and you're still in the ballpark of like half the price of the TE mixer. I mean, I still want one, though. LOL.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#99

Post by vikingcaffiene »

I have an OP-1 and love it. Its a mainstay in my recording and live performances and honestly my "main" synth despite it looking like a toy. I keep finding new uses for it. Example: I needed backup vocals for a part and none of my bandmates could do it. I sampled the backup vocals and just play them while I sing lead in that spot. Really cool.

As for this mixer, I would love this bit of gear but I just can't justify spending that kind of scratch for what essentially amounts to a mini mixer (which I already have). It seems really great though and it being battery powered and tactile like that is great.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#100

Post by bullen »

reaperducer wrote: post #15
rpmisms wrote: post #3

Halo hardware, absolutely, but their design sense is utterly phenomenal. What a gorgeous piece of kit.

If I were ever to go back to the Wintel world (or whatever the word is for Windows+AMD), Teenage Engineering's computer is probably the only one my wife would allow in the house: https://teenage.engineering/products/computer-1

She should take a look at http://streacom.com, they combine look and functionality with their silent cases.
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