Union Audio - area.6

area.6 is a six-channel analogue Eurorack mixer from Union Audio, the company founded by Andy Rigby-Jones after his long run designing Allen & Heath’s Xone mixers. If that name rings a bell, it should — he also engineered the PLAYdifferently MODEL 1 with Richie Hawtin. area.6 takes that same serious-mixer mentality and scales it down for modular use, with six channels, two aux sends, two stereo returns, an insert, tilt EQ and CV control over level, aux and pan. It ships as a desktop unit with wooden side panels, but can also be mounted directly into Eurorack.

Around the main mix bus, Union Audio has added the sort of hands-on processing you might expect from its larger mixers, but adapted for modular use. There is a resonant high-pass/low-pass filter with drive, aux routing and CV control over cutoff, alongside a peak-detecting compressor with conventional, negative and parallel compression modes. The filter is soft-switched on and off — in other words, the switching is designed to minimise clicks and other audible disturbances — and the drive control progressively clips the signal for added harmonics.

The CV connections are what really pull the whole thing into Eurorack rather than leaving it as a small desktop mixer with patch sockets. Level, panning, aux amount and filter frequency can all become part of the patch, while the compressor gives you another way to shape how the final mix moves. So yes, this is quite a serious mixer to put next to a row of oscillators. But that is also the appeal: a proper six-channel analogue mixing desk shrunk down into something that still belongs inside a modular workflow, rooted in the same hands-on, high-headroom design approach Andy Rigby-Jones has been refining for years.

Features:

• Fully analogue six-channel mixer
• Designed by Union Audio, founded by Xone designer Andy Rigby-Jones
• Six input channels
• Two aux sends
• Two stereo returns
• Insert connection
• Tilt EQ
• CV control over channel level, aux send and pan
• Resonant switchable high-pass / low-pass filter
• Filter frequency CV input
• Filter drive control
• Soft-switched filter on/off to minimise clicks and other switching noise
• Filter output can be routed to Aux 1
• Peak-detecting compressor
• Adjustable ratio, threshold and gain
• Conventional, negative and parallel compression modes
• Compressor CV output
• Maximum input level: +22 dBu
• Maximum balanced output level: +25 dBu
• Frequency response: 20 Hz–25 kHz flat
• Ships as desktop unit with real wood end panels
• Eurorack compatible

A Note on Eurorack installation:

area.6 is supplied as a complete desktop mixer with wooden side panels and its own 18 V power supply, but the mixer can be removed from the desktop chassis and installed in a standard Eurorack case. In Eurorack it occupies 52 HP, requires 55 mm of depth and runs from ±12 V, drawing up to +430 mA / −330 mA.

Union Audio also specifies that two internal jumper links must be removed before Eurorack installation, so it is worth following the installation instructions in the manual rather than simply taking off the side panels and plugging it in.