Dangerous Music 2-Bus+

Dangerous Music invented the stand-alone analog summing mixer with the ground-breaking 2-BUS back in 1999, and now we’re redefining mixing yet again with the Dangerous Music 2-Bus+. With a redesigned analog summing circuit that exceeds previous specifications, the 2-BUS+ delivers unsurpassed imaging, dimensionality, punch and headroom. While the 2-BUS+ active summing sounds incredible on its own, it now includes three innovative custom color circuits that provide a vast array of flexibly routed tonal options.

Harmonics is a euphoric odd- and even-order distortion generator; Paralimit is a hard-hitting FET-style limiter; and X-Former is a pair of custom wound Cinemag output transformers with an exclusive core-overdrive circuit. With its elegantly straightforward buttons and knobs, the 2-BUS+ puts endless combinations of robust analog sound at your fingertips. Meticulously developed by our hands-on team and brilliantly designed by the legendary Chris Muth, the Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ embodies our dedication to sacrificing nothing in order to deliver the very best analog products available.

Features

• 16 channels of the world’s best active analog summing, that even surpasses the original
• Three unique analog color circuits: Harmonics, Paralimit and X-Former
• Effortless routing and blending of analog color circuits via elegant user interface
• Switchable stereo analog inserts for easy outboard gear integration
• Massive sounds, sacrificing no detail
• Crystal clear sonic imaging and three-dimensionality
• Endless headroom for modern digital signal levels
• Stepped output gain control for exact recalls
• Both XLR and D-Sub input connectivity
• Audiophile-grade components throughout
• Hand-assembled in the USA

Analog summing is a vastly misunderstood topic, but it doesn’t need to be. First, when you use multiple channels from your converter to share the workload of getting your sounds from digital into analog, you’ll hear improved articulation and clarity across the mix. Once in the analog realm, these individual channels are electronically summed together with an “active analog summing circuit.”

Unlike passive summing boxes that require huge amounts of make-up gain to restore the lost audio, or line mixers masquerading as “summing mixers,” the active electronics in the Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ result in what Dangerous users describe as “a huge soundstage,” “holographic sound,” and “audible three-dimensionality.” Panning is wide and precise, reverbs spacious and deep, bass powerful and punchy, treble and mids articulate and engaging. The Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ unveils all the details that breathe your creations to life.

Many analog processors – from delays and reverbs to EQs, compressors and more – have been beautifully modeled in the digital realm, but analog summing remains impossible to emulate digitally. We’ve all experienced the frustration of a mix collapsing when relying on a single digital master fader to handle it all. The middle gets crowded, kick drum goes mushy, panning becomes blurry, reverbs lose dimension, and ultimately the mix just lacks the spark.

And despite promising ad campaigns, analog mix bus emulation plugins just add distortion to the master fader, actually making problems worse. By summing individual tracks or subgroups of tracks (often called “stems”) with the 2-BUS+, you get crystal clear sonic imaging and a wide-open soundstage. No matter how high your track count, all your recorded audio, software instruments, samplers, effects and plugins will sing with the detail, punch and clarity that only real analog summing can deliver.

When it comes to adding analog color to your mixes, the design team at Dangerous has developed three totally original all-analog circuits: Harmonics, Paralimit and X-Former. Because these circuits are physically built into the 2-BUS+, you get a versatile selection of analog colors while never leaving the lush, open analog mixing environment.

Add the euphoric sound of an analog circuit on the edge of distortion to your whole mix, or to individual channel pairs. Carefully tuned to generate the perfect mixture of odd- and even-order harmonics, this effect runs parallel with the unprocessed signal so you can dial in just the right amount of tone. For example, bring out female backgrounds without making them louder or sibilant. The top end subtly simmers, the bass gently growls, and the whole sonic image warms up in ways that only a real analog circuit can offer.

This is a FET Limiter set to stun. An original Chris Muth design inspired by the famous 1176 Limiting Amplifier “all buttons in” trick, you get an infinite ratio setting flooded with analog top-end. With its blend knob and assignment buttons, Paralimit gives you instant parallel compression, in stereo, in the analog domain, on the full mix or on a stereo stem – a flexible set-up that would otherwise require complex patching, careful level matching and significant amounts of analog outboard gear.

Last in line are a pair of custom loaded Cinemag transformers with Chris Muth’s alchemic approach to driving the core. Switch them in for the solid, punchy sound that makes older analog consoles so loved, then turn up the X-Former knob to drive the core of the transformer in a way that’s totally unique to the Dangerous Music 2-Bus+. X-former is all about dialing in just the right amount of classic analog console color whenever it’s called for.

Because you can effortlessly assign Harmonics and Paralimit to the whole mix or to individual channel pairs, instantly flip their patching order, and blend them in with the original signal at the twist of a knob, the Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ provides incredibly flexible parallel processing without any outboard gear or fussy patching.

With the ability to switch in the on-board customized Cinemag transformers, as well as any outboard processors you like on the switchable stereo insert, you’ve got nearly limitless options all accessed from the uncluttered front panel. Whether you choose to run it pure and clean, blend in just a hint of bold analog flavor, or push it into the red zone, we’ve put the choice back in your hands when mixing.

When you buy analog equipment, you’re making a real investment that will hold its value for decades. Analog technology is time-tested. It won’t need an expensive upgrade, become incompatible with your computer or DAW, or start crashing. No matter what music production system you’re using in ten, fifteen, twenty years, the superior summing capabilities and timeless analog tone processors of the Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ will always be a relevant, compatible and valuable centerpiece in your studio.