What mixer do you use?

sixsinisters · Post by **sixsinisters** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:13 pm

And also I would like to hear your suggestion on good, reliable yet inexpensive mixer for your rigs (to be used at home and gigs) and why?

And I know maybe it's a stupid question ( newbie

), but can we use multitrack recorder as a mixer also? Considering I can use both functions at the price of one if it could.

Thanks guys!

Cole Gaskins · Post by **Cole Gaskins** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 1:10 am

Mackie 1202! Small,built like a tank, Made in USA!

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:09 am

Cole Gaskins wrote:Mackie 1202! Small,built like a tank, Made in USA!

It's got four stereo line inputs?! FOUR!? That's awesome! Needs an amp, though. Does Mackie make a powered mixer you can recommend?

DeFrag · Post by **DeFrag** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:08 am

I love my Mackie CFX-12!

I don't really need the EFX but the 4-bus design comes in handy.
For me, I route instruments in stereo using 2 buses & misc audio sources (computer, CD player, video games, etc) with the other 2 buses.

In a live setting, a multi-bus mixer can be used for assigning all your drum-mic'd tracks to one bus so you can "turn the whole kit down at once", while all your vocals & guitars route to the other buses respectively so you can adjust their "respective" levels independently... very cool.

I'm gassing for a Mackie upgrade though with more routing options & I'll give my CFX-12 to my son.

r05c03 · Post by **r05c03** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:03 pm

I use a TOA-D4 and D-4E. This mixer was made by TOA in the 1980s. It is F'ing awesome of synth rigs. This mixer and its extension unit are rack mountable taking up 4 RU. It has ten channels, 1 Effect send, 1 Aux send, Main stereo outs, a Sum out and each channel insert AND and a direct out. It is very hard to find a rack mount mixer with all those features. In addition the most exciting thing is that it has an 8 channel MIDI thru port....it takes one MIDI in and distributes that signal through 8 MIDI thru jacks, greatly decreasing the amount of serial cabling that you have to do. These mixers can be found on Craigslist, Ebay and Musicgoround for $100-200 dollars.

What don't I like about the TOA D4 / D4E? Two main things 1) It is heavy 2) The direct outs and inserts are RCA jacks which is not as convenient as 1/4'' jacks.

CTRLSHFT · Post by **CTRLSHFT** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:18 am

Mackie 1202-vlz here. It's a very well made, affordable, great sounding analog mixer. 2 aux sends and 4 mic pres. I used to own an Onyx in the same input range, those are lovely as well, although I really think the VLZs sound just as good, you're really mostly paying for better pres and eq with the onyx.

Gord Newman · Post by **Gord Newman** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:36 am

I've been using a little ART 4-channel mono mixer that replaced a Behringer RM 1602. The Behrenger was nothing but trouble; the infamous "cold solders".The ART has worked well, but I've juse ordered an Alesis MultiMix Line 8. We'll see how that works.

Cheers
Gord

impact studios · Post by **impact studios** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 11:24 am

Yamaha 02r and 2 x MOTU 2408 sound cards

Roetsj · Post by **Roetsj** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 12:19 pm

Mackie 1202VLZ and Boss Km-60,like them both,nice eq on both,very quiet designs.

Amos · Post by **Amos** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:11 pm

funny, I have a Mackie 1202 and a TOA D4. Two awesome little mixers! This is my second Toa D4, the first one disappeared with a friend and I had to find another one... took a while to track one down but I'm glad I did. Truly an underrated gem.

Brian G · Post by **Brian G** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:35 pm

How many inputs do you need ? How many do you think you’ll need down the road ?

For my Studio I use a Mackie 1604VLA Pro. All of the synths go to it then I use sub 1,2,3,4 L/R routed to theVS2480. While the 2480 has 16 analog inouts, I like the flexibility of doing sub mixes of things on the 1604 and routing them to the 24 I also use a Mackie 1202VLZ Pro to feed studio as a monitor mixer( Event APS

. Yamaha also have several nice mixers that are affordable I’ve also used the 1202 for some live performances and recording over the years. Live you can use the aux send to feed MoogerFoogers or any other effects processor. With the ALT 3 / 4 you can send select inputs to a different destination. You could then take the output from the mixer to any keyboard amp. Or any other powered speakers or amp speaker combo. It all depends on what you want to do.

Depending on which DAW you have, yes you can use it as a mixer for live gigs or monitoring in the studio. While I can do this with the 2480, I chose to use the 1604 to mix the synths and send it to multiple tracks on the 2480, for me it offers more flexility.

Mackie( and Yamaha) has powered amp/mixers that are also very nice. You have plenty of options though with the 1202 ( or any other mixer ) Yamaha, Mackie and JBL all make very nice powered speakers, or you could buy a pair (if you need to run in stereo( of Yamaha SV12 or SC15 non powered speakers then buy a power amp like the Crown XTi1000. The XTI is a VERY nice sounding amp.
An alternative could be the Yamaha Stagepas mixer amp combos.
Should you need more inputs the Mackie 1402VLZ is also a very nice mixer, I use it in the video edit suite and occasionally pull it out to mixer audio for events.
There are many options out there .

Christopher Winkels · Post by **Christopher Winkels** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:21 am

Brian G wrote:How many inputs do you need ? How many do you think you’ll need down the road ?

A good point. I always figure one input (or pair of inputs if running in stereo) for each synth you're running, plus 25% for "future acquisitions". Of course, if you're running a lot of mics for vocals it'll increase again, but I'm thinking solely of a mixer for synths.

r05c03 · Post by **r05c03** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 8:22 am

Amos wrote:funny, I have a Mackie 1202 and a TOA D4. Two awesome little mixers! This is my second Toa D4, the first one disappeared with a friend and I had to find another one... took a while to track one down but I'm glad I did. Truly an underrated gem.

Damn, we DO have a lot of the same gear, Amos.

It took me forever to find out about the TOA D4/D4E. I has been searching the web and researching rack mount mixers for 2 weeks before I even heard on mention of them. A Rugged, versatile, MIDI routing rack mount mixer...I think I need to buy a back up set...

MichaelA · Post by **MichaelA** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:53 pm

I use an Alesis Studio 12R rack mount with a Samson servo 120a amp.
The Alesis has been very reliable and low-noise.

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:34 am

For me personally, I see myself using no fewer than six stereo channels and ten mono channels. Anyone know of a mixer that fits this description? I'd prefer a powered one, but I can always get a used amp somewhere if need be. I've been looking around, and it seems to me I might need two powered mixers...but I don't want to do that unless absolutely necessary. So can anyone help?