Must buy a mixer for play my machines, need suggestions.

[ganchan]

As the topic, i'm quite out of the new brands and models of mixer, but i need to buy one to mix live my synths, elektron, waldorf, sid etc.

I had a behringer but i was not so happy with it, i've sell it 2 years agò. Mackie seems good but expensive, soudcraft seems good too..

any suggestion?

TNX!

G.

[taximan]

Hiya,

I am in the same position myself......I was thinking along the lines of a behringer ..........this one or larger.................btw,what don't you like about the behringer?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/B-Stock-Behringer-XENYX-1622FX-1622-FX-Premium-/170531667399?pt=UK_Mixers&hash=item27b47abdc7#ht_2159wt_1137

also the alesis looks interesting

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Alesis-Multimix-8-USB-2-0-Mixer-Multi-Mix8-/190438093261?pt=UK_Mixers&hash=item2c56feb1cd#h

and it seems the guy has some decently priced mackies

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/B-STOCK-Mackie-802-VLZ3-Compact-Mixer-802VLZ3-/190441652136?pt=UK_Mixers&hash=item2c5734ffa8#ht_3156wt_1137

I have bought from the guy before with no problems but I am not in a position to recommend one mixer over another as I am still looking myself.

cheers

Paul

[Hawkeye]

Hehe, I also am in the same position as you two, and need a mixer with as many as possible aux sends (for using fx units).

After doing some research and reading lots of reviews, what stayed on top of my list (I have not fully decided yet) was the Mackie 1642 VLZ3 for ~500EUR, which is a lot of money, but will be sufficient as your midibox machine park grows :).

Also, it offers quite good value for the money, lots of channels, quite compact design, the equalizer section is very good, has 4 aux sends, very decent overall sound quality...

16 channels may sound like overkill, but when you have a MB-6582, you have 8 input channels alone (if you do not passively mix them together), add one or two stereo synths and one or two fx machines and you need them all...

Greets!

Edited September 13, 2010 by Hawkeye

[Smithy]

16 channels may sound like overkill, but when you have a MB-6582, you have 8 input channels alone (if you do not passively mix them together), add one or two stereo synths and one or two fx machines and you need them all...

Yep, 16 channels is what seemed logical to me when i was considering buying a mixer recently.

This mixer is cheap and supposively has excellent eq and mic pre's:

http://www.dv247.com/mixers/allen-and-heath-zed-14-live-recording-mixer--48358

Its 14 channel though.

I was thinking about going down the midi controllable digital mixer route also,

Automation of eq, and loading of "scenes" at the start of each track would help do the work of one man in a live situation.

The older yamaha 01v mixer seems ideal, but it has no inserts so you'd have to use the internal eq and effects.

The newer yamaha 01v96 looks nice, but its too expensive for me.

[reboot]

for me the best small desk i used is the mackie ms1202 (the old one)

i made a test with 8 outputs from sp1200 with the ms and vlz series and there's a big difference .

the ms1202 is cheaper and the 1604 hasn't got the sound benefit of the 1202.

it's just my experience .

[philetaylor]

I have used many "small" desks over the years but for a recording or small live situation, I always take my Yamaha O1v96v2

It is small enough to carry with relative ease and with external pre-amps (and a bit of creativity) will support up to 40 inputs!

My personal favourite very small desk (because I have had it for many many years) is a Mackie 1402 (again not VLZ). Built like a tank and sounds fine for a small desk.

Cheers

Phil

[Hawkeye]

Would love to own a O1V96 but its way over the budget :).

phileyator, as you said "again, not VLZ", is there any problem with VLZ mackies?

Also thanks for suggesting that Allen&Heath Smithy, it sure looks nice, but I would not like to "pay" for that USB port, which I don´t need...

[Altitude]

+1 for for a digital mixer. I use an Old TM-D1000 16 channel and the flexibility of it compare to an analog one is amazing. I can set up my routing, eq, dynamics, save it as a patch, unplug it from the computer and I am off to the show! You can get the fabulous DM-24 for under a grand used.

Edited September 14, 2010 by Altitude

[philetaylor]

Hi Attitude, yes I have a Tascam TM-D1000 as well (with the external TDIF to ADAT convertor). I still love that desk but whenever I use it I miss the motorized faders of the 01v96 :)

Hawkeye, my personal take is that the Mackie construction started to be a bit "cheaper" with the newer desks. I have no real evidence to back that up, just my opinion!

Another digital option is the Behringer DDX3216. It was basically a copy of the 01v and each XLR input includes a TRS insert, they seem to fetch about £300 on Ebay, they received some pretty good reports back in the day, SOS did a review back in 2002 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr02/articles/behringerddx3216.asp

Cheers

phil

[Smithy]

Ah so it was you phile who I was talking to about the 01V in the chat!

I was trying to remember/figure that out recently, asking everyone! hehe

Man i didnt know the Behringer DDX3216 existed, i must look into that.

And it has LED indicators on every channel! NICE!

£300 is about the price of the old 01v also.

Edited September 14, 2010 by Smithy

[JRock]

I Love my Mackie CR 1604. Analog Baby! The old ones should go for around $100 bucks. It's built like a tank, a managable size and sounds great! (maybe a little old school noise) Plenty of aux send ands returns. There is an issue with the main outputs (try google and RTFM!) if you are using balanced outputs the tip and the ring are reversed so you have to switch them on your cables, but that is not a problem for any of you tech savvy midi boxers :sorcerer:

The VLZ and the VLZ Pro don't have this problem though. Good Luck!

I should mention the problem with the behringer is no headroom. I can't speak for all of them but I have the Xenyx 802 (that is my submixer for the MB6582) and there is absolutely no headroom. Not to mention crappy sounding Eq compared to my Mackie. I didn't notice it when I didn't have anything else, but after I brought it out of retirement to submix for my SID synth, I notice a big difference.

Edited September 18, 2010 by JRock

[reboot]

to get a good sound with a digital mixer is more effort than with an analog desk.

[ganchan]

thankyou for the infos. the 1604 was one of my past thought..

my problem with the bheringer was the mute button and the sound, compared to a mackie with a good speaker you can ear the difference in my opinion. the button mute problem was the click that this generate when you push it during liveset :\

[latigid on]

I have a Mackie LM-3204, sixteen stereo channels in 5U rackspace.

Great for when you need lots of channels in a small amount of space and don't need 50 dB mic preamps.

I also have a couple of Samson line mixers (PL-2404, 1602) which aren't as "loud" as the Mackie, but are good for proper +4 dBu line level signals. And have faders for each subgroup.

[Smithy]

Another digital option is the Behringer DDX3216. It was basically a copy of the 01v and each XLR input includes a TRS insert, they seem to fetch about £300 on Ebay, they received some pretty good reports back in the day, SOS did a review back in 2002 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr02/articles/behringerddx3216.asp

*cough!*

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/X32.aspx

I actually bought a ddx3216 this weekend, but on closer inspection afterwards there is a crackle coming from the output - any output,

regardless of what input is used, even the built in tone generator has a crackly sound coming through the output.

I'm hoping its just a PSU issue (and not a dreaded DAC issue), and speaking of PSU that is primarily where the corners have been cut to make it affordable.

There are many reports online of PSU's failing.

This thread is a beautiful resource though, on upgrading the op amps, and later on in the thread; re-capping all caps in the PSU:

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/diy/index.php?topic=29157.0

Also it appears Phonic have entered the lower price range of Digital Mixers:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--PHOSUMMIT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9RIDzT2NTA

Edited November 30, 2010 by Smithy

[philetaylor]

If the X32 lives up to the hype then it does look like a great desk, I had better start saving :) Judging by the picture, they obviously haven't quite finalized the design yet.....

Sorry to hear that your DDX3216 is poorly, from what I have heard, they are usually pretty reliable so hopefully it is just a simple PSU issue?

Cheers

Phil

[Smithy]

If the X32 lives up to the hype then it does look like a great desk, I had better start saving :) Judging by the picture, they obviously haven't quite finalized the design yet.....

Sorry to hear that your DDX3216 is poorly, from what I have heard, they are usually pretty reliable so hopefully it is just a simple PSU issue?

Cheers

Phil

After a while of messing around, the crackle seemed to disappear.

The only real notable changes i made was changing the sample rate from 44.1khz to 48khz, and rebooted.

Edit: I can confirm that it must be a warm up issue - the crackle totally disappears after about 20 mins after the mixer is on.

Still a great mixer though, well worth the money,

i almost payed the same price for a new DJX-700 way back when they came out, and this is a lot more mixer!

The headphone output can be noisey also, the desk is well worth buying and spending the money saved on upgrading caps and op-amps.

Edited December 1, 2010 by Smithy

[Hawkeye]

Mhm, i keep asking myself... not having resolved my mixer issue and using software digital mixing and 4x2 channels of my m-audio usb interface...

Can we build a MIDIBox audio mixer? I mean MIDI-controlled and digital for motorfaders and total recall, bundled with a purely analogue mixing engine?

Edit: I haz made new topic for this:

Bye,

Peter

Edited December 3, 2010 by Hawkeye

[flip]

I use this one because it looks super cool :)