The outcome of the lesson: A mixer is a multi-device piece of gear.

A mixer is an electronic or digital audio unit made up of different electronic/digital devices by which two or more (up to all five) signal processing types are controlled.

Devices making up a mixer:

• Pre-amp (Intensity processing – controlling intensity)
• Equalizer (Tone processing – controlling timbre)
• Routing matrix (Routing - controlling the signal paths)
• Onboard effects units (Adding effects for aesthetic and production reasons)
  some analog and most digital mixers
• Onboard dynamics (Intensity processing – controlling intensity)
  some analog and most digital mixers
• Onboard input or output delay (Time processing – controlling time)
  some digital mixers

An average analog mixer will perform the following audio processing:

1. Dynamic
2. Tone
3. Routing