When WMD announced their closure at the end of 2022, it was an enormous bummer. After seventeen years in business, the Colorado-based company had cemented themselves as an important cornerstone in the industry. Not only were they steadfast in their forward-thinking and unique designs, but they also helped many small designers manufacture and distribute their modules and helped others turn ideas into reality. Their absence left a hole that was felt by many, and it must have left a hole with them as well as they regrouped, re-energized, and refocused, announcing a return in early 2024, albeit with the business taking on a different form. No longer making modules for other companies, WMD is now focusing their efforts solely on their own ideas, which have freed headspace and bandwidth, and therefore are now free to do things like release arguably the most fully featured Eurorack mixer ever made.
The long awaited update to their original mammoth mixer, Performance Mixer MKII builds on its predecessor, fixing a few things, adding a few, and streamlining the building process with some future-proofing (e.g., the Patchbay, Power board, and Master section are all separate PCBs, making fixing/replacement in the future easier if need by).
No other Euro mixer looks like or has Performance Mixer MKII’s deep capabilities. Each of the eight stereo channels has the ability to CV Level and Pan, X-fade between two inputs on one channel, Mute, add Aux sends pre or post fader (Aux 2, which can also be VCA'd!), mix a bit behind the scenes with a DJ style Cue, assign Group Mutes (fave feature), send your mix out via MIDI into a DAW (for easier mixing in the box), expand it up to a twenty-four (!) track mixer, and listen in headphones. And it's not just the inputs/tracks that are stereo; everything is, including busses, aux channels, and the cue mix.
The tech specs are excellent (too long to list here), with less noise than before, and the workflow is well thought out, with all jacks on the left side, leaving the mixing surface completely clear. Light up faders, input Gain, channel features and Master meter help with navigation as well. I've learned to RTFM post unboxing, but I'm familiar with mixers of all sorts, so I thought I'd jump right in. Once I had a layout, I was happy with (melody/noise/ambience channels 1-4, bass in 5, kick 6, snare 7, and other percussion 8) I went about setting up Mute groups. Instead of solo buttons, if you want to break it down to one or two elements, a Mute Group is the way to go. Really, it's more of a mix/mute snapshot as you save the mute configurations of a current setting into one of eight slots. I try to be methodical from module to module for stuff like this, so in Mute Group 1 nothing is muted, Group 8 everything is muted, and in between there are various combinations. It makes it easy to jump from complete muted silence to a full-blown mix. For example, if I need to be able to quickly break everything down to just kick, snare, and bass, I saved that in Group 6 as that's the first percussion track (bass on 6). When I want to bring everything back in, I just hold Group and 1 (full mix) and on the button release the Mute Group takes effect. No matter the song, keeping everything aligned in this way makes it easy to remember, and easy to play, and it's this thoughtfulness that abounds throughout PM MKII.
Each channel has a Pan or X-Fade toggle. Since each channel is stereo, with two different inputs, say, two kicks, in X-Fade mode you can blend them together to create one distinct kick, like you would a sub-mix. Pan mode is just as powerful for one channel as you can get true stereo movement but also go fully L or R where one channel could have two flavors. In conjunction with the two auxiliary channels, as well as CV control for every L and R input, the mixing capabilities are pretty vast.
I've always viewed mixing as a utility, something you home in on AFTER you've perfected the parts of a track, whether that be more of a rock band-type of structure, a dance track, or something more free form. Other than getting the correct gain structure for a track, changing levels, doing some muting, and finding the perfect location in the stereo spectrum, for me, mixing was something that, for the most part, was end-of-chain, set-ish-and forget (ish). I would never say that, other than doing "final" mixes on an old Tascam 388, I'd never really played a mixer as an instrument, but I was determined to try this with PM MKII; and after a short time, I found myself using, and thinking of it as more of a controller than a mixer. Playing with it in the stereo field pushed me into using more true stereo tracks than before, giving my tracks more depth and dimension.
As a tactile controller, I love the light up faders. They felt excellent and sturdy, as did the knobs and the overall build, though the Gain and Aux controls for each are of the trimpot variety and not quite as robust as the more used Pan/X-Fade or Master controls, which I'm guessing is a space consideration.
We're seeing more and more "performance-based" modules, and it makes sense; showing up to gig, or hanging out in your basement even, we're in an era where not only is anything possible, but everything is tweakable, bringing incredible depth to a performance.
WMD also sent the Returns expansion module, which offers three more Aux channels with attenuation, and the Direct Outs module, for sending out each stereo track to another destination. I put them all in a row in a skiff in front of my main rig, and it brought my live set up a notch (or two). For a hands-on performance mixer built for Eurorack, PM MKII is the top of the heap. It does come with a boutique price, and for sure it takes up a lot of space, but if you're serious about having a versatile, well laid out, excellent sounding and thoughtfully constructed mixer for live (or not), then look no further. I’m surprised at just how much this mixer has changed my live game, and that’s not hyperbole.
As an aside, WMD, I'm sure this is something you've heard since your announcement about coming back a while ago, but really, can you ever hear it enough? We're glad you're here/back!

Price: Mixer $1499, Returns $139, Direct Outs $99  

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