Analog mixers in the 600-800$ range..suggestions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kapo_Polenton
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Kapo_Polenton

Kapo_Polenton

Well-known member
Hey guys, our band has about 1k to drop on some gear and we'd like to start with a mixer. We'll rent monitors for a while but would like a good quality mixer for live and recording. I have a presonus firewire 8input unit which is great for home recording but i'll have to record everyone first then drum over everything after. ( I drum in this band ) I'll be doing that anyway but admit that a real mixer with knobs i can tweak will be very useful when recording drums. I've had a look around on musicians friend to get an idea of prices but are there things i should look out for? I would like atleast 16 line/mic inputs. I think that will be more than enough for our needs. I found a used MAckie 16 channel mixer for 400$ but when i read reviews on the unit, they seemed to have reliability issues. The current owner let me know he had a tech go through and take care of cold solder joints :aww: ..not exactly glowing reviews for Mackie... I was thinking Yamaha is tried tested and true. Any other suggestions?
 
Thanks, reading up on the soundcraft.. gets really good reviews from what I am reading soo far.
 
Greetings :)
I've been doing research on the same topic. All of the FOH engineers I spoke with to get recommendations said the newer (built over-seas) Mackie's and Soundcraft's have reliability problems. Even a guy at a local music store told me that if I wanted Mackie or Soundcraft, to look for a good used one - and he sells the new ones. He said that the Mackies in his store have had a 30% or higher return rate. He also said the less-expensive lines from Yamaha are built over-seas, but that they seem to have the quality control issues figured out and are solid. He even recommended the Peavey gear over the new Mackie and Soundcraft stuff. I'm a long-time believer in Peavey durability, but that surprised me...

We need a minimum of 20 mic pre's (my drummer has a ridiculous number of mic's...), so we are looking at the Yamaha MG32/14FX or the Carvin C3248 for the "live" board and a Yamaha MG206C for the rehearsal space. We currently have the Yamaha MG166CX-USB mixer at the rehearsal space but need a few more mic imputs...
:rock:
 
My Mackie Onyx had to be sent in twice for warranty service. It is now out of warranty, and has one dead channel and dead main outputs.

AVOID!
 
moltenmetalburn":wxiu1hin said:
Allen and heath zed 14 was one of my best purchases fir th practice space. $449 when i got it.
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I have heard mixed reviews on the A&H ZED, but that is probably since it is built in China.

I love my A&H Mixwiz 16:2DX, great board. In the $600-800 range used....
 
Surprised at the Bad Mackie rap, too bad, decent sounding boards. I have used a bigger Allen & Heath and thought it sounded pretty good. I also had a small peavy at one point, and that also was surprisingly good.
 
blackba":3noxo3rb said:
moltenmetalburn":3noxo3rb said:
Allen and heath zed 14 was one of my best purchases fir th practice space. $449 when i got it.
Click to expand...

I have heard mixed reviews on the A&H ZED, but that is probably since it is built in China.

I love my A&H Mixwiz 16:2DX, great board. In the $600-800 range used....
Click to expand...

I don't know? We have used it for three years with no problems and it sounds great!
 
Audioholic":1hi1zp5s said:
Surprised at the Bad Mackie rap, too bad, decent sounding boards. I have used a bigger Allen & Heath and thought it sounded pretty good. I also had a small peavy at one point, and that also was surprisingly good.
Click to expand...

We almost exclusively sold Mackie boards a few years back. As soon as the production went overseas, the quality took a noticeable hit. We had three larger boards all have issues in the first year of service. And then they screwed up their service system. It was like pulling teeth. It's better now, but we still have a bad taste in our mouthes from that initial shock.

On the other hand, we sell a lot of the Zed boards, and the smaller Soundcraft boards. They're all pretty solid from our experience.
 
Thanks for the info guys.. the last thing i need is to be sending back a mixer and waiting for it to be fixed under warranty.. i imagine they don't exactly put warranties before new sales so I could just see myself waiting a month plus to get anything back. I think i might pass on the Mackie stuff then. Yamaha and Peavey do have reputations of building stuff that lasts. Best sounding maybe not, but great features and reliable are what we are going for in a live situation. I'm already setup to record at home so no problems there. Our live mix is really the important thing. I'm keeping mics down to 3 for my kit right now but add in vocals and instruments and you can run out quick. At the very least I am looking for 16.

Does anyone have any tips on what i should look for or ask about mixers i can find used on Ebay? What models are still touted as being really good? Which ones are total dogs?
 
unless it went to shit too, the live sound used to have some pretty solid guys at HC.


Allen & Heath is pretty much the top of the heap for cheaper boards, or was a few years ago.
 
I went to the music store to price some mixers out at lunch. Peavey, Yamaha, Allen and Heath and MAckie all compete at that 1k range. The Peavey looked interesting as it was also a power amp built into it. The ZED series from Allen and Heath i am going to look into.. i think those are the units with the reliability issues from what i have read.
 
Kapo_Polenton":1nxeozpf said:
I went to the music store to price some mixers out at lunch. Peavey, Yamaha, Allen and Heath and MAckie all compete at that 1k range. The Peavey looked interesting as it was also a power amp built into it. The ZED series from Allen and Heath i am going to look into.. i think those are the units with the reliability issues from what i have read.
Click to expand...

I would not get a powered mixer. It's extra heavy, and if the amp goes out in it, your down your mixer too.

$.02
 
mboogman":12qsxzxh said:
Kapo_Polenton":12qsxzxh said:
I went to the music store to price some mixers out at lunch. Peavey, Yamaha, Allen and Heath and MAckie all compete at that 1k range. The Peavey looked interesting as it was also a power amp built into it. The ZED series from Allen and Heath i am going to look into.. i think those are the units with the reliability issues from what i have read.
Click to expand...

I would not get a powered mixer. It's extra heavy, and if the amp goes out in it, your down your mixer too.

$.02
Click to expand...

+1 on the powered mixer. Not a fan either. Many don't have a input gain control on the channel, only a level control. That is a key knob to have, IMO...
 
Good point guys.. didn't think of the weight and the fact that i am putting all my eggs in one basket should that basket go to shit :confused:
 
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