Early this past January, I placed an order with Musician’s Friend for an Alesis MultiMix 8USB mixer. This mixer was a nice standalone mixer, but could also function as a 2-in/2-out audio device through a USB connection. The price was right: $149
Although it was backordered, Musician’s Friend claimed that more would arrive in a week. Well, when that week went by, the “More Expected” date was advanced another week. This went on for a month, so I cancelled my order with them. I went in search for a reseller who had one to sell. One by one, the online retailers I searched came up empty handed. All were expecting more soon…
Another month went by, with at least 4 online retailers updating their “More Expected” date each week. This seemed strange. I wrote Alesis.
A representative from Alesis claimed that Alesis had not anticipated demand, and they were shipping some out soon to resolve this issue. That response came over 2 months ago, and online retailers are still selling it although “more are expected soon”. Yeah, right.
Through my conversations with Alesis, I discovered that mid-April (next month) their new MultiMix Firewire mixers are coming out. These mixers will offer 8-in/8-out over a Firewire connection and only cost $100 more than their USB counterparts that Alesis makes.
I feel sorry for the folks who are still waiting in line to get their MultiMix 8USB when the Firewire version is coming out so soon, for just a little bit more money.
One reseller told me over the phone that the MultiMix 8USB had been discontinued. They said that they learned this at a recent Alesis product conference. If this is true, it is disturbing. Why are online retailers still taking orders for a product that seems like it is never going to materialize?
My advice, to anyone who is thinking about “buying” an Alesis MultiMix 8USB, is to either 1)wait for the MultiMix Firewire mixers to come out or 2)look into an alternative product by a different vendor. I couldn’t find anything online regarding this shortage, so I hope this post is informative and helps at least one person out there who is wondering what’s going on.