The Oracle has 16 line inputs via two DB25 connectors that include Inserts with lighted, front panel hardwired bypass switches. You may have stereo signal processing chains setup for each the eight stereo stems connected to the rear panel's two sets of Send and Return DB25 connectors.

I liked the luxury of selecting either hardwired mono or full stereo stems at the touch of lighted front panel button--I used these to check the phase/polarity of each of the eight stereo stems I ran into the Oracle for my tests. Another big "plus" I've not seen on any of the other summing systems I've reviewed so far are the two separate stereo bus insert paths with lighted, front panel In/Out buttons. This is awesome for auditioning two different limiter/compressor/EQ chains easily and without re-patching. Music producers have a wonderful option here to compare radically different equalizer/compressor combinations across the stereo bus.

To check the stereo output bus level are a pair of large vintage-looking Sifam AL20 VU meters. Also old school looking is the large control knob to set final output level easily; in the signal chain, it is place last after the stereo insert points so any change here does not affect the threshold settings of your stereo bus compressor/limiter.

On the rear panel, the Oracle Summing Mixer finishes with two sets of XLR output connectors--identical stereo line level outputs--one could go directly to an analog recorder or analog-to-digital converter input (for recording back into your DAW) and the other pair could go to a monitor controller. In my testing, I used my Class-A Cranesong Avocet.

Also on the rear panel are two sets of TRS jacks (four jacks each) for the stereo Send/Return paths for each of the stereo bus inserts plus four more TRS jacks for cascading additional Oracle Summing Mixers for more inputs but without sacrificing any summing channels.

Let's Go See The Oracle!

I set up a Pro Tools session to output stems--eight stereo stems for the Oracle Summing Mixer called Stem 1 through 8 in my session's I/O. All 32-channels of my Pro Tools analog I/O are exactly calibrated for +4dBu output and I found that the Oracle's VU meters read 0dB with a +4dB tone coming in on both the left and right channels of each stem--a very good thing!

After I calibrated the stereo analog monitor inputs of my Cranesong Avocet, I found the Oracle to do everything I wanted when summing "out of the box." Compared to my "in the box" mixes, the Oracle changes the whole mix "picture" to analog sounding with a full and rich sound stage. Being able to use analog processing either via the inserts or across the entire stereo bus makes it every bit the same sound as a Firlotte analog console but without the large console footprint.