Where can I find a battery-powered music mixer?

March 5, 2004 1:56 PM

I am looking for a battery powered mixer. Some friends and I want to start doing street shows with a pair of Handytrax and an old skool boom box. But, we're stuck on the mixer problem. Googling "battery powered mixer" turns up the wrong kind of mixers, and we don't want to use a generator.
posted by badstone to technology (15 comments total)

Do you mean a mixer or a blender?

Hand-cranked mixers are a dime a dozen. Blenders that operate on anything other than wall current are unusual, but there is a hand-cranked model, as well as an outrageously priced gas-powered blender (doesn't that sound appetizing?

Sorry, I'm not aware of any battery-powered mixers.
posted by adamrice at 2:09 PM on March 5, 2004

Googling "battery mixing.board" got a little bit more information than using the term "mixer" did. Obviously as above, the term leads to confusion about just what you want.

Something mentioned in the results is the Behringer MXB1002 10 CH Mixer W/Battery Option, but not being a pro sound guy, I can't tell you if it does what you want.
posted by majick at 2:17 PM on March 5, 2004

um, yeah, the kind with equalizers and a crossfader. ooh, but having a blender on hand to serve refreshing smoothies to b-boys worn out by too much popping and locking in the park would be nice.
posted by badstone at 2:17 PM on March 5, 2004

majick -
no not that kind, not a board. i just want a DJ mixer, like these guys on that site.
posted by badstone at 2:19 PM on March 5, 2004

Well, you can get a passive mixer that doesn't require any power source at all, but I'm guessing you need a phono preamp. Maybe you could make/find a battery-powered phono stage?
posted by hyperizer at 2:41 PM on March 5, 2004

Well, that was my shot in the dark. Hopefully someone will come up with the correct, battery powered specialized equipment, but if they don't, have you considered just running your mixer from a car battery and an AC inverter? A decent-sized car battery and a quality inverter ought to last the life of a show or two, easily a few hours.
posted by majick at 2:43 PM on March 5, 2004

You could get one of these portable batteries. Not exactly a generator, and it will power your mixer (essentially its a battery-powered wall outlet).

on preview, what majick said.
posted by mfbridges at 2:44 PM on March 5, 2004

Cordless models tend to be somewhat less powerful than their corded counterparts.
Here are both types.

Had been shopping for a cordless blender a while back and saw a bigger selection on the net than now. The one iirc which I liked took D size batteries and was priced under $50.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:45 PM on March 5, 2004

Something like this maybe?
posted by dodgygeezer at 2:47 PM on March 5, 2004

I total goofed your post with the first comment below it, sorry.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:52 PM on March 5, 2004

oh man. i was looking at doing a project for a long time (which involved setting up a pirate radio kit and having folks bring boom-boxes to provide the PA -- instant portable party) and one of the sticking point was the battery powered mixer -- they're usually very expensive or non-existent. Radio shack *may* *MAY* have a battery powered mixer in their realistic line of products ... other than that you can plan on doing the option i was thinking about -- using a deep-cycle marine battery for providing all the juice you need.
posted by fishfucker at 2:54 PM on March 5, 2004

lots of good suggestions. unfortunately (re: dodgygeezer's link, and hyperizer's passive mixer suggestion), I need to have a crossfader for mixing records. looks like we'll have to go with portable power and a regular mixer.

thanks!
posted by badstone at 4:00 PM on March 5, 2004

A deep cycle battery and AC inverter would be a way to get power without a generator. No idea how long it'd last, though.
posted by zsazsa at 6:32 PM on March 5, 2004

What about a USB-powered mixer. Do you have a portable computer? My roland UA-30 is completely USB-powered and could be considered a very simple mixer. Maybe someone makes a more professional one that can be powered from a laptop.
posted by milovoo at 7:00 PM on March 5, 2004

deep cycle lasts fairly long. i had a friend who was with the spiral tribe/spaz crew and she used to run PAs off of her truck battery (!) at burning man, outdoors, etc, and it worked fine.

it is, however, NOT an environment I'd recommend doing a live PA from, as you've probably got folks playing on laptops, and I've seen many obscure glitches introduced into laptop usage (particularly on ibooks, as opposed to powerbooks) when the power isn't perfectly clean.

but yeah, if you want it super-portable and quiet, a deep-cycle and an inverter are the way to go -- if you don't care about noise, there are REALLY small jennies you can get that will power a small PA and all the accessories to make it go -- I'll bother trying to recall these if you are interested.


you mentioned you're mixing records -- i'm curious what solution you were planning on in order to power the turntables? those new portable vestaxes that just came out, or something else?
posted by fishfucker at 3:06 AM on March 6, 2004