Tools
of the Trade: ENG Mixers
by Glen Trew published in Audio Media Magazine |
Welcome To the Top
The Cooper CS-104 reeks of quality with its natural finish
anodized faceplates, British "racing green" powder coated covers,
and Nagra switches, and is considered "King of the Hill" of ENG/EFP
mixers made in the US. It is the only ENG mixer made in the US with PFL monitoring,
a feature hard to live without once you've used it. It has two unbalanced L/R
"utility" outputs on space-saving TA3 connectors, which are switchable
mic or line level, and a separate TA3 tape output which can be switched mono
or stereo. A mix-bus input using another TA3 connector allows attaching any
other mixer as a sub mixer without losing one of the inputs. The CS-104's impressive
noise specs and additional buffered outputs demand a little more from its 8
AA batteries, but a full production day can usually be managed without changing.
External power is via a full-size 4-pin XLR with standard pin-outs. Its uncluttered
layout is probably the easiest of this class to manage.