Submitted by Jon from Huntsville, AL (500 points) on Nov 17, 2007
Depending on how you set it up, it can be very useful, or it can turn everything into shit...
It works superbly to hook up bent toys that have no/not enough volume control. You can hook up 4 Speak & X's or whatever, and they won't overpower each other or your other devices hooked to the main mixer... But keeping the volume relatively low is an absolute must, as it doesn't take much for the signals to bleed into one another and make everything sound like shit... Keep the volume low and boost the overall volume from the main mixer...
It also works nicely at the beginning of feedback loops... the ability to adjust the volume creates nice glitching and octave jumps in some effects. Also, you can hook up several contact mics or anything you want to the beginning of a chain... so you can have a regular 1/4 plug mic, a shaker, a contact mic, and whatever else, and you can switch between them by adjusting the volume without dealing with a bulkier mixer or having to unplug anything... quite handy as long as it's not used as the main mixer in your setup.
Good Points: Small enough to literally fit in the palm of your hand, Surprisingly tough, yet thin aluminum enclosure... Even the plastic knobs seem quite robust, Great way to tone down loud signals (I encounter this problem with a lot of bent toys that have no volume control) and save mixer space at the same time, Has useful applications in feedback loops and pedal chains.
Bad Points: Turning the knobs too far up causes the signals to bleed together in a very annoying and not-good kind of way, Only works with and adapter-- The problem with this being that it only works with 12v adapters, so you can't run on batteries *or* use a 1spot/godlyk adapter, No channel mute switches or EQ knobs like bigger mixers have, It's something you could build yourself, more or less... But it's seems durable enough and it's really cheap, so it actually may be cheaper than making one unless you already have the parts