When Netherlands-based Cosmotronic came out with Vortex, their Through-Zero Complex Oscillator, it instantly drew my attention. It appealed to my love of absolute symmetry, and it had a no-nonsense design that was perfect in its simplicity with its black faceplate and use of blue LED underlighting creating a beautiful landscape with which to navigate its easily maneuverable and well laid out controls. Since then I’ve picked up a few more Cosmotronic modules [Messor, a stereo compressor, and Peradam, a side-chained distortion unit] and have really enjoyed them, excited for each new release.
Cosmix Pro is their latest, a high-quality performance mixer with four mono and two stereo channels with two Auxiliary sends and a return. It might seem a bit strange that they’d come out with a mixer as they already have the original Cosmix mixer, but Pro is a different beast as the original incorporated stereo dual band distortion and overdrive and Pro has done away with that and instead has the extra Aux channel, and is more of a studio utility than a sound sculptor.
I love the look of Cosmix Pro as it retains the great layout that I’ve come to expect from Cosmotronic modules. There’s a sort of global section on the right side of the module with left and right Main outputs, mono and stereo Send/Returns [Aux 1 and 2], and two CV inputs for panning channel’s 5 and 6. There’s also stereo LED meters and a main volume knob at the bottom of the module. The four mono channels each have controls for the amount of both Aux 1 and Aux 2 [yes!], as well as a pan knob, a nice backlit mute button, a slider for volume control, LED metering, and a switchable high pass filter. The stereo channels are similar but only have controls for Aux 2, not Aux 1, and have a switchable +18dB gain boost instead of the HPF switch so that you can easily bring non-modular gear up to level.
There are options on the back for chaining more than one Pro together, or even for chaining with the original Cosmix as well as places for future expanders. I’d love to see ¼ or XLR [or combo jacks] outputs as an option for expansion, but I do like the small footprint that the 3.5mm jacks take up, I just hate adapters as I’m always losing them. If it isn’t screwed down in my rack, it’ll find its way into a dark corner of a club or a trunk or something.
The biggest thing with any mixer is how it sounds, and Cosmix Pro sounds great. It’s clean and clear, and there’s plenty of headroom. I love the feel of the mutes—clickless and reliable—as well as easily viewed in any lighting situation, and one thing to note is that the mutes work when you release them—as opposed to when you touch them—which works particularly great in live applications. I also really like the design of the LED metering as usually you have a row of LEDs to denote level, but here it’s a miniature meter, fluid in its design and implementation, and informative, yet taking up little space on the faceplate.
I really love this mixer. It doesn’t have everything I‘d like [XLR outs, headphone amp, more channels!], but those can be easily obtained and will hopefully be available in future expanders. It’s a great mixer and it’s going to be sticking around in my case and handling my mixing duties for the foreseeable future.

22 HP +12v 170mA -12v 170mA
Price: $399

cosmotronic.nl