what is a good mixer for the money?

[gilscales]

I am new to live sound so i need all the help i can get, i am going to build 4 dr-200's and 4 t-39's with the premium drivers, i already posted under amps asking what to use and would also like to ask what board would be good for a reasonable price, need at least 8 mic pre amps, i am going to learn how to do the sound for my sons band and i want something that will not be too difficult to operate, i am consistently put off by all the other sound systems i hear and i know with the right equipment and my good ear i can do better, at least thats what i think, am i wrong?

[Chris_Allen]

Where are you located and what is your budget?

[gilscales]

In the Los Angeles area and I would like to keep under $1000 but would also ask about the higher end alternative of under $2000 and it's benefits

[SoundInMotionDJ]

Look for a used Yamaha 01V. $600-ish delivered.

Not hard to use, but LOTS of options. There is no substitute for reading the manual & experimenting. The power of this mixer is awesome!

For $2400-ish, you can get a new Yamaha 01v96. That mixer is even more awesome than the 01v.

--Stan Graves

[DrDoug018]

I am new to live sound so i need all the help i can get, i am going to build 4 dr-200's and 4 t-39's with the premium drivers, i already posted under amps asking what to use and would also like to ask what board would be good for a reasonable price, need at least 8 mic pre amps, i am going to learn how to do the sound for my sons band and i want something that will not be too difficult to operate, i am consistently put off by all the other sound systems i hear and i know with the right equipment and my good ear i can do better, at least thats what i think, am i wrong?

If you are comfortable with computers and are a little adventurous, then it is at least worth taking a look at a SAC (Software Audio Console) approach.

http://www.softwareaudioconsole.com/

For somewhere around $1000 - $2000 you can put together a fairly sophisticated system depending on what pieces/parts you may already have available. We used an existing PC, bought a used sound card, got a great deal on the I/O (thanks to Brent's advice) and just about have the system ready for use.

For the DIYer, it is a match made in heaven. Well ... almost.

Doug

[Ron K]

I am new to live sound

That said I would not be to quick to jump into a digital board or computer based rig unless you have oddles of time to experiment with live sound to get it right! It's going to be a rather steep learning curve coming from nothing but a "good" ear!

Get a decent analog board and work into things slowly.

For beginners I'd look at Allen and Heath or the Yamaha analog series. An Allen Heath Mix Wiz is a great starter board with a very nice EQ section. Nice sounding preamps and gets most operators where they need to go in a hurry. Not hard at all to learn. The Yamahas also sound pretty good and get you there quickly.Preamps not as good but more then acceptable and easy to use.Peavey ,Mackie etc. also make good boards but their cheap lines can be troublesome and often not sonically what a lot of live guys look for in a decent board.Their more expensive ones are ok but if your dropping that kind of coin you might as well get an Allen/Heath or a Yamaha.

Good luck with your live sound quest.Often times the systems you hear are not the fault of the system but the operators or the deployment of said systems. Sometimes is just the band too so dont say we didn't warn ya! LOL! Welcome aboard!

[gilscales]

Thanks, sounds like good advice, will stick with an analog board, i have seen the mixwiz units regularly on ebay, craiglist so it should not be hard to find a decent deal

[Haysus]

If you are new to the sound game an easy analog board is the Yamaha MG166CXUSB 16 Channel USB Mixer. Good bang for the buck or a used Allen & Heath mixwiz. I would go for the yamaha if you want to keep it simple. The compression and effects are very usable especially for wild singers. I have had no complaints for the past 2 years, but I am upgrading to SAC.

[moo]

If you are new to the sound game an easy analog board is the Yamaha MG166CXUSB 16 Channel USB Mixer. Good bang for the buck or a used Allen & Heath mixwiz. I would go for the yamaha if you want to keep it simple. The compression and effects are very usable especially for wild singers. I have had no complaints for the past 2 years, but I am upgrading to SAC.

I have just finished engineering for a school tonight which had an Alan Heath Zed 24. Frustrating because it has much less features than My yamaha MG20C and costs more. What is the point of building a 24channel mixer with only 2 Pre fade Auxes and no subgroups.
I will be taking my mixer next time.

Yamaha offer unbeatable features and Quality at the sub £500 price point BTW.
The peavey mixer I got for free with a used amp is a hissy beast, but they may not all be like that. In the U.K new ones are expensive for what they are.

Moo.

[bzb]

^ Agreed with the Yamaha tip. When it comes to portable use on a budget, I've used a variety of 19" mixers from Behringer, Mackie, Rolls, Alesis, and now Yamaha. It's been my favorite, by far.

I've also used Gemini and Pyle Pro, but let's not dig up that past.

[quaizywabbit]

I am new to live sound so i need all the help i can get, i am going to build 4 dr-200's and 4 t-39's with the premium drivers, i already posted under amps asking what to use and would also like to ask what board would be good for a reasonable price, need at least 8 mic pre amps, i am going to learn how to do the sound for my sons band and i want something that will not be too difficult to operate, i am consistently put off by all the other sound systems i hear and i know with the right equipment and my good ear i can do better, at least thats what i think, am i wrong?

If you are comfortable with computers and are a little adventurous, then it is at least worth taking a look at a SAC (Software Audio Console) approach.

http://www.softwareaudioconsole.com/

For somewhere around $1000 - $2000 you can put together a fairly sophisticated system depending on what pieces/parts you may already have available. We used an existing PC, bought a used sound card, got a great deal on the I/O (thanks to Brent's advice) and just about have the system ready for use.

For the DIYer, it is a match made in heaven. Well ... almost.

Doug

+1 considering the type of system you're building.........and if you must deal with a learning curve, do it on SAC and be ahead of the game when you inevitably need more I/O, racks of processers, etc.....

[BrentEvans]

+1 considering the type of system you're building.........and if you must deal with a learning curve, do it on SAC and be ahead of the game when you inevitably need more I/O, racks of processers, etc.....

+1 to this. SAC is not hard to learn, and if you're a computer type person, it will be very natural to you. We have a great forum at http://www.sawstudiouser.com which is very much like this one, full of helpful people. There's a free downloadable demo that runs on any windows PC, the help file/manual (which is great) is also available freely.

Do give it some serious consideration, it will sound a lot better than any entry level analog setup you buy, and it can all live in a smallish rack.

[Ron K]

I firmly believe in cutting your mixing teeth and systems design and setup in a simpler format. I too am moving towards a SAC rig.

While it's a pretty nice tool I still dont think it's for the novice sound dude.

Here's where I depart from the everyday guy mixing live:

Quick story....Just last evening I had a tough job in a very nasty venue from an acoustics point of view. My brother who is my monitor tech got called to work so I was without a monitor tech. Well we have a young roadie who is cutting his teeth.

Solution: basic 4 wedges on a single mix. Bass player runs through the wedges (no backline).Kick and 4 vocals.Let the young guy have a stab at mixing wedges.

Dial in the wedges before hand and show new guy the board and the 6 channels he needs to worry about. Explain the basic things on each strip,low cut,phase,4 band sweeps EQ,etc.Now for you guys who have been around the block a time or two this would be very easy....yes??? Well put that mix on a loud rock stage with a cracking snare drum and keep the wedges from going over and clashing with the FOH it's not always an easy task.Within one set (and he plays guitar and mixes his own band in the garage BTW) the whole monitor mix is a mess and the singer can no longer hear. Cant blame the kid as I basically threw him to the wolves. These situations "will" arrive from time to time and a digital set-up would most likely cause more trouble under the heat of the battle then a simple analog setup.

The lead singer motioned to me and I had to jump on stage and redo the wedge mix during the last few songs in the first set. Reset everything and all was fine. Initial problem was a standing low wave around 120HZ kept feeding back from time to time and the bass player was motioning to the monitor tech to get rid of it.He didn't realize it was a feedback loop between the bass player turning up so he began lowering all the vocal mixes.Rookie mistake and the bass player didn't help much in the matter.All I did was look at the input LEDs and see the bass channel was already clipping the input and I knew that's where the problem was located.When I initially set it up I had asked the bass player to give me his max level so I guess he sandbagged a bit!

Point is a digital mixer can really get you in hot water since navigation is a bit harder and channel access a bit slower.Simpler is better until you develop the chops to handle mixing in a few different venues.System design and set-up plays such a huge roll most rookies do a lot of the wrong things because that's what they see others doing!!!Hell even some experienced guys still do those same things.

FOH was acceptable given the room and how loud the band plays on stage but a bit loud for my tastes. Such is rock and roll! LOL.

I will let the young guy dial in a few instruments on the next few jobs so he gets a better understanding of instruments in different environments.This all new guys will be learning and that in itself can be a huge curve for anyone who has never mixed live.

[Ron K]

Do give it some serious consideration, it will sound a lot better than any entry level analog setup you buy, and it can all live in a smallish rack.

Ever hear digital clipping??? Nastiest sound on the planet! Sounding better would be subjective and I'd bet there are guys that can shine on an entry level analog such as a mixwiz as good as others on a fully digital setup.

It's all in the deployment of the gear and this is where being a newb can really hurt you! Learning a digital rig is doable but I still think you get in the game faster with a simpler setup.I also think your confidence level will grow faster with analog as well due to the fact that you spend less time learning the system and more time actually mixing.

[SeisTres]

+1 on the yamaha mixers.

They seem to put everything that you will need and nothing that you dont. The mic preamps are some of my favorites(which I actually use for alot of my home recordings). The effects are basic but they do their job. And to top it off, it's ease of use is straightforward.

Now, if you want a whole bunch of bells and whistles, noisy preamps, mediocre eq's, and questionable reliability get the behringer mixers

But seriously, I use alot of behringer stuff and the mixers are the only thing I really cant stand about them, they do have some REAL gems out there. Look at their discontinued multi-reverb effect processor, for the price, it is amazing.

PS. I would start with just a basic mixer and move up from there, I think going digital right away is totally overkill. Just getting the hang of live/recording takes quite a bit. Like this you can learn what you need with your set up, and who knows, you might not need anymore than that. ALSO I would get something with more than 8 micpre's, believe me, you might not think you'll need them, but you will. I think the sweet spot is 12(not channels, 12 mic pre's) since it keep a reasonable price and give you plenty to work with.