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Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: Jbliss on June 14, 2016, 12:08:52 pm

Title: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 14, 2016, 12:08:52 pm
Hi
Im looking a building a Inverting Summing Amplifier like this http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png (http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png) 

Pretty Simple. However just wondering if it is possible to sum 20 inputs using this design or would it be better to say make 5 of the summing circuits and then sum the outputs of them together. The signals are Line level Audio signals 
Thanks you for any help
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: dmills on June 14, 2016, 01:39:38 pm
What is on the back of that link is not an inverting stage, but assuming you are in fact building a standard virtual earth stage, you can indeed do 20 inputs, but the noise tends to come up because the noise gain increases with each input you add.

This may or may not be a serious problem in your application, and there is some good discussion of the subtle points in "Small Signal Audio Design" by Douglas Self.

Regards, Dan.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 14, 2016, 03:09:55 pm
Hi Dan
thanks for the reply. is there a way I can combat the noise issue

Thanks 
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 15, 2016, 06:34:42 am
Would it be better to do it in stages

What is on the back of that link is not an inverting stage, but assuming you are in fact building a standard virtual earth stage, you can indeed do 20 inputs, but the noise tends to come up because the noise gain increases with each input you add.

This may or may not be a serious problem in your application, and there is some good discussion of the subtle points in "Small Signal Audio Design" by Douglas Self.

Regards, Dan.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: danadak on June 15, 2016, 10:31:02 am
Short answer is depends on G thru signal path.

Take a look at page 47 -


http://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/14_Books_Tech_Papers/Motchenbacher_Connelly/Low-noise_Electronic_Design.pdf (http://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/14_Books_Tech_Papers/Motchenbacher_Connelly/Low-noise_Electronic_Design.pdf)


Regards, Dana.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 15, 2016, 11:19:34 am
Short answer is depends on G thru signal path.

Take a look at page 47 -


http://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/14_Books_Tech_Papers/Motchenbacher_Connelly/Low-noise_Electronic_Design.pdf (http://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/14_Books_Tech_Papers/Motchenbacher_Connelly/Low-noise_Electronic_Design.pdf)


Regards, Dana.




Thanks for the link Interesting.
would isolating each input reduce noise. Eg using a buffer

Thanks
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Zero999 on June 16, 2016, 07:48:21 am
Hi
Im looking a building a Inverting Summing Amplifier like this http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png (http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png) 

Pretty Simple. However just wondering if it is possible to sum 20 inputs using this design or would it be better to say make 5 of the summing circuits and then sum the outputs of them together. The signals are Line level Audio signals 
Thanks you for any help
What's the intended gain and bandwidth?

The op-amp sees all the input resistors in parallel so with 20 of them, negative feedback will be 1/20th of what it would be with one input. For example, if the design gain is unity, then expect to see the same, bandwidth, transient response, output impedance etc. as you would if the same op-amp were configured as an inverting amplifier with a gain of 20.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 16, 2016, 01:34:30 pm
Hi
Im looking a building a Inverting Summing Amplifier like this http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png (http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png) 

Pretty Simple. However just wondering if it is possible to sum 20 inputs using this design or would it be better to say make 5 of the summing circuits and then sum the outputs of them together. The signals are Line level Audio signals 
Thanks you for any help
What's the intended gain and bandwidth?

The op-amp sees all the input resistors in parallel so with 20 of them, negative feedback will be 1/20th of what it would be with one input. For example, if the design gain is unity, then expect to see the same, bandwidth, transient response, output impedance etc. as you would if the same op-amp were configured as an inverting amplifier with a gain of 20.


Its intended of monitoring vocal. would what I'm planing on doing not work for this application ?
thanks 
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 16, 2016, 01:38:12 pm
Would it be better to do it passively.
http://wiki.diyrecordingequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/schematic.png (http://wiki.diyrecordingequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/schematic.png)
however i would lose gain due to the resistors ?
Thanks
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Zero999 on June 16, 2016, 10:24:29 pm
Would it be better to do it passively.
http://wiki.diyrecordingequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/schematic.png (http://wiki.diyrecordingequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/schematic.png)
however i would lose gain due to the resistors ?
Thanks
The passive option would work and yes you're right, there will be some attenuation, by a factor of 20 minimum.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 17, 2016, 01:03:23 pm
Ok thanks every one
what would be the best option for summing 20 Channels of audio each with there on volume pot and no attenuation due to summing resistors (use of preamp) also the least Noisy??
thanks you all very much. 
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 18, 2016, 07:42:25 am
Hi
Im looking a building a Inverting Summing Amplifier like this http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png (http://masteringelectronicsdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3_input-summing-amplifier.png) 

Pretty Simple. However just wondering if it is possible to sum 20 inputs using this design or would it be better to say make 5 of the summing circuits and then sum the outputs of them together. The signals are Line level Audio signals 
Thanks you for any help
What's the intended gain and bandwidth?

The op-amp sees all the input resistors in parallel so with 20 of them, negative feedback will be 1/20th of what it would be with one input. For example, if the design gain is unity, then expect to see the same, bandwidth, transient response, output impedance etc. as you would if the same op-amp were configured as an inverting amplifier with a gain of 20.

I assume this would this Cause distortion as well ??
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: ruairi on June 18, 2016, 07:55:09 am
Hey J,

Mastering engineer here, 22 years into the game.  A question - why are you building a summing mixer?  (I know there are several possible answers, curious to hear yours specifically).

Cheers,
Ruairi

Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 18, 2016, 10:55:09 am
Hey J,

Mastering engineer here, 22 years into the game.  A question - why are you building a summing mixer?  (I know there are several possible answers, curious to hear yours specifically).

Cheers,
Ruairi




Well its actually for monitoring a rack of radio Mics for a music theatre show. So the quality does not have to be amazing as it not or studio work.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 19, 2016, 11:32:20 am
Hey J,

Mastering engineer here, 22 years into the game.  A question - why are you building a summing mixer?  (I know there are several possible answers, curious to hear yours specifically).

Cheers,
Ruairi




What would you recommend thanks.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Zero999 on June 19, 2016, 12:43:50 pm
Why not just use an ordinary, inverting summing amplifer?
(http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp11.gif?81223b)
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_4.html (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_4.html)
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 19, 2016, 12:59:00 pm
Why not just use an ordinary, inverting summing amplifer?
[img]http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp11.gif?81223b[/imh]
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_4.html (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_4.html)

Hi Thanks your reply. Thats a great idea just wondering how much noise there would be.
Thanks
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 19, 2016, 01:03:28 pm
Why not just use an ordinary, inverting summing amplifer?
[img]http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp11.gif?81223b[/imh]
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_4.html (http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_4.html)

Also what is the benefit of using a Inverting summing amplifier instead of a non inverting
Thanks
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Zero999 on June 19, 2016, 01:09:19 pm
The amount of noise depends on the type of op-amp used and the source impedance.

What sort of microphones are they?
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 19, 2016, 01:15:50 pm
The amount of noise depends on the type of op-amp used and the source impedance.

What sort of microphones are they?

I would be a line level output from a RF Mic receiver.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Hideki on June 19, 2016, 01:46:20 pm
The typical way to mix audio signals (in an audio mixer) is the inverting circuit shown above, and NOT the non-inverting one from the first post. It will sum the currents at the virtual earth node, and you avoid each input interfering with the others.

Noise from the mixer itself isn't going to be a problem for your application as long as you keep the resistor values reasonably low. Less than 10k would be good.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: ciccio on June 19, 2016, 02:39:23 pm
When I read the first post I though the OP wanted to buid a "standard mixer".
Now I understand that his needs are simpler.
He has 20 line level, low impedance outputs.
If he does not need individual volume controls, a passive mixer (it does not needs to be balanced) will be enough.
Using 10K resistors everywhere, it will have an attenuation of 20 times, eg - 26 dB.
I think he will need some monitoring amplifier, that can easily supply the gain needed to compensate the attenuation.
The amplifier will have a volume control, to adjust monitoring level.
If he wants to go into experimenting, all this can be built with a "chip amplifier" (LM3886 or equivalent, boards can be found on ebay) summing the channels' resistor on the volume pot.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Zero999 on June 19, 2016, 10:05:48 pm
The amount of noise depends on the type of op-amp used and the source impedance.

What sort of microphones are they?

I would be a line level output from a RF Mic receiver.
I'd just use the circuit linked to in my previous post with 1k resistors all round and an NE5532 op-amp.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: FlyingHacker on June 20, 2016, 04:17:37 am
Might want to stick a small cap on each input too to block any DC.

Also perhaps a pot for each input (along with a smaller fixed resistor) to set relative levels for each source?
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 20, 2016, 01:21:41 pm
The typical way to mix audio signals (in an audio mixer) is the inverting circuit shown above, and NOT the non-inverting one from the first post. It will sum the currents at the virtual earth node, and you avoid each input interfering with the others.

Noise from the mixer itself isn't going to be a problem for your application as long as you keep the resistor values reasonably low. Less than 10k would be good.

Thanks everyone !!! great help all of you. So would say a 10 k Pot then in to a 1uf cap then a fixed 1k resistor??
thanks again 
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 27, 2016, 01:54:25 pm
The amount of noise depends on the type of op-amp used and the source impedance.

What sort of microphones are they?

I would be a line level output from a RF Mic receiver.
I'd just use the circuit linked to in my previous post with 1k resistors all round and an NE5532 op-amp.


So you would say 10k potentiometer then a 1k fixed
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Audioguru on June 27, 2016, 03:00:40 pm
An inverting opamp with 1k input resistors cannot use 10k volume controls because the 1k will load down the 10k control so much that it will be difficult to adjust the level. Maybe use 20k input resistors fed from 10k volume controls.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 28, 2016, 01:56:13 pm
An inverting opamp with 1k input resistors cannot use 10k volume controls because the 1k will load down the 10k control so much that it will be difficult to adjust the level. Maybe use 20k input resistors fed from 10k volume controls.

Thanks for your input will definitely implement.   :D :D So would you Have the pot first then the fixed or other way. 
thanks
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Audioguru on June 28, 2016, 03:38:50 pm
So would you Have the pot first then the fixed or other way?
If the input goes to the fixed series resistor which feeds the pot to ground then when the pot is turned down the low frequency gain of the opamp will be a few hundred thousand and its output noise will be very very high. Actually the output of the opamp will be as high as it can go and it will not amplify because it will be amplifying its DC bias voltage or its input offset voltage instead.
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 29, 2016, 01:29:01 pm
So would you Have the pot first then the fixed or other way?
If the input goes to the fixed series resistor which feeds the pot to ground then when the pot is turned down the low frequency gain of the opamp will be a few hundred thousand and its output noise will be very very high. Actually the output of the opamp will be as high as it can go and it will not amplify because it will be amplifying its DC bias voltage or its input offset voltage instead.

so pot first then fixed. thats what most of the circuits I have seen implement
thanks 
Title: Re: Summing mixer
Post by: Jbliss on June 30, 2016, 02:06:19 pm
Might want to stick a small cap on each input too to block any DC.

Also perhaps a pot for each input (along with a smaller fixed resistor) to set relative levels for each source?

so say a 10k Pot then a 20k Fixed resistor. ???


Thanks