By Brady Betzel

Even though things are opening up slowly, many of us are still spending the majority of our time at home. Some of us are lucky enough to be working, some still furloughed and some unemployed. Many are using the time to try new things.

Here is one idea: While podcasts might not be a moneymaker out of the gate, they are a great way to share your knowledge with the community. Whether you’re making video or audio, there is one constant: You need high-quality audio recording equipment. In this review, I am going to be covering Sound Devices’ MixPre-3 II three-preamp, five-track, 32-bit float audio recorder.

While at Sundance this past January, I saw someone using this portable recorder. It seemed easy to use and very durable. I was intrigued enough to reach out to Sound Devices about a review; they sent me the MixPre-3 II, which is their smallest and most portable recorder. The box can run with a power cable, USB-C or with four AA batteries. The MixPre-3 II has several new advancements over the original MixPre-3, including 32-bit float recording, USB audio streaming, recording up to 192KHz, faster hardware, internal LTC timecode generation and output, adjustable limiters, auto-copy to USB drive, and pre-roll buffer increased to 10 seconds. But really the MixPre-3 II is a rugged field audio recorder, voiceover recorder, podcast recorder and more. It currently retails for around $680 from retailers like Sweetwater and B&H.

One of my goals for this review was to see how easy this recorder was to set up and use with relatively little technical know-how. It was really simple. In my mind, I wanted to plug in the MixPre-3 II and begin recording — and to my surprise, I was up and running within 10 minutes.

Up and Running
To test it, I grabbed an old AKG microphone (which I got when I purchased an entire Avid Nitris offline edit bay after Matchframe went out of business), an XLR cable, my Android phone and a spare TRRS cable to plug my phone into the MixPre-3 II for audio. I accessed the menus using the touch screen and the gain knobs. I was able to adjust the XLR mic on Input 1 and the phone on Input 2, which I set by pushing the gain knob to assign the input to the aux/mic input, and I plugged my headphones into the headphone jack to monitor the audio.

The levels on the on-screen display used in conjunction with my headphones let me dial in my gain without raising the noise floor too much. I was actually impressed at how quiet the noise was. I think I can attribute the clean audio to my AKG mic and Kashmir microphone preamps. The audio was surprisingly clean, even when recording in a noisy garage. I used Spotify on my Android phone to mix in songs while I was talking on the AKG (like a podcast), and within 10 minutes, I was ready to record.

Digging Deeper
Once I was up and running, I dove a little deeper and discovered that the MixPre-3 II can connect to my phone using Sound Devices’ Wingman app. The Wingman app can trigger recording as well as monitor your inputs. I then remembered I had a spare Timecode Systems Ultra Sync One timecode generator from a previous review. One essential tool when working with backup audio or field recording during a video shoot is sync.

Without too much work, I plugged in the Ultra Sync One using a Mini BNC-to-3.5mm cable connector to send mic level LTC timecode to the MixPre-3 II via the aux/mic input. I then enabled external timecode through the menus and had timecode running to the MixPre-3 II. The only caveat when using the 3.5mm plug for timecode from the Ultra Sync One is that you lose the ability to feed something like a 3.5mm mic or phone into the MixPre-3 II. But still, it was easy to get external timecode into the recorder.

It is really amazing that the MixPre-3 II gives users the ability to be up and running in minutes, not hours. Beyond the simplicity of use, you can dive deeper into the Advanced Menu to assign different inputs to different gain knobs, control the MixPre-3 II over USB, use timecode or HDMI signals to trigger recording and much more.

Summing Up
Sound Devices produces some great products. The MixPre-3 II costs under $700; while that might not be cheap, it’s definitely worth it. The high-quality casing and ease of use makes it a must-buy if you are looking for a podcast recorder, field audio recorder or mixer.

In addition to its product line, Sound Devices is also one of those companies making a difference during the pandemic.

The past couple of months have been very eye-opening for our industry and the world. We are seeing the best from people and businesses. My wife began sewing masks using her own fabric for hospital workers (for free), people are donating their time and money to bring meals to children and the elderly, and we’ve seen so many more amazing acts of kindness.
Sound Devices recently began producing face shields. See our coverage here. After we get through these hard times, I know that I and many others will remember the companies and people who tried to do their best for the community at large. Sound Devices is one of those companies.

Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on shows like Life Below Zero and The Shop. He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.