Members Zeromus-X Posted February 11, 2007 Members Share Posted February 11, 2007 I know it's asked all the time but I haven't found anything that's really specific enough on here for me to decide on what to buy. Our mixer, an old EV 4224, isn't working. Doesn't turn on at all, gets no power. It's a giant beast and it's got a few dead channels, so rather than fix it, we're looking at maybe replacing it with something new and reliable. We've only got about a week and a half to do it, which makes things kinda tough. The rest of the guys in the band don't work, which means I'm going to end up buying it, being paid back out of part of the gig money, and then the guy who owns the rest of the PA is gonna buy it off "the band" over another month or two. Confusing and irrelavent, so anyway: We're a 4-piece band doing covers with no real desire to add to our current setup player-wise. We have three singers (though we'd like all four to be able to have mics to at least talk to each other). Right now we mic the two guitar amps, the bassist runs direct, and I'm mic'ing the kick drum. I've also got a sampler that can plug in via 1/4" (stereo). So right now we're using 7 mic channels and a stereo channel. Ideally, as I mentioned, I'd like to be able to add a vocal mic for the drummer, as well as adding full drum mics for the kit (only a four-piece... so a rack tom, floor tom, and an overhead to cover the hats, snare, and crashes/ride should be plenty). I'd like to move to an in-ear system, so having an ambient mic input might be kinda nice too. That brings us to 12 mic channels and a stereo channel. Right now we're using two monitor mixes -- one for drums, one for all the guys up front. Ideally we'd like to all have our own mix and have one mix to send to a laptop for recording the shows, but I'm sure at this price point five aux sends is unreasonable. I was looking at the Mackie 1642-VLZ3 board, which has four aux sends, but it's not really enough channels if we fully expand to what we want. The 1604-VLZ3 has enough channels (first board I've looked at that says "16 channel" and really has 16 channels!!), no stereo channels but that's not a huge issue... but it's at the upper end of what I'd like to spend. I can spend whatever it's going to take, relatively speaking... but the more it costs, the longer it's going to take to get my money back from these guys, and I make in a year what a lot of you guys make in two months!! Anyway, those are the "requirements" I'm looking for. I don't want Behringer if I can help it. We don't need a powered mixer, already got all the other stuff. I know nothing else about mixers, so is there anything I might be forgetting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unsound Practices Posted February 11, 2007 Members Share Posted February 11, 2007 Allen & Heath MixWiz3 16:2. $999 adverstised, though you can get them for less than $900 if you shop around. 16 "real" mic channels. 6 auxes (4 for monitors plus one for effects plus one for subs if you want), etc etc etc. Rack format if you want to rack it. It's a well-respected small-format mixer that gets solid reviews. I'm (finally) getting mine next month. I've looked at a LOT of other options and the only other one that came close to meeting my needs in a rack format (for a five piece cover band) was the Yamaha 01V96 plus an external IO box. That's more than twice the cost of the MW3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted February 11, 2007 Members Share Posted February 11, 2007 Get the MixWiz, enjoy it and be done with worrying. IMO, it's worth the decrease in hassle to pay just a little bit more and get a vastly superior (IMO of course) product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members W. M. Hellinger Posted February 11, 2007 Members Share Posted February 11, 2007 The Mixwiz is a solid recommendation. Don Boomer sold me on the Peavey 16FX for a "handy sized" rack mount mixer. http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/116191/number/00512400/cat/310/begin/1/16FX%3F.cfm One virtue of the 16FX Don explained to me at Namm was something trick about how the summing amps are designed and built to address clipping at various gain stages in the board. Anyway... seems like a good solid board. Oh yea, and: Don's power distro looks real good too. Not to derail the thread, but here's a pic of Don showing off the back side of his distro: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members burdizzos Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 My band uses one of these and I am quite happy with it. For $350 shipped, it's a damned nice mixer. Assuming, of course, that no one bids on it. I got mine for about $400. It only has two monitor outputs, but you guys could get by with two monitor mixes with better monitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members prosigna Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 One virtue of the 16FX Don explained to me at Namm was something trick about how the summing amps are designed and built to address clipping at various gain stages in the board. But does it have that "British Sound"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 The 16FX is another good contender too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Singin' Dave Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 My band uses one of these and I am quite happy with it. For $350 shipped, it's a damned nice mixer. Assuming, of course, that no one bids on it. I got mine for about $400. It only has two monitor outputs, but you guys could get by with two monitor mixes with better monitors. At $300-400 used, the RQ2318 is a very solid mixer. We got ours used for $320 with a flight case about a year and half ago and it performs flawlessly. Based on the OP's needs and situation (particularly the "pay back" part), this is a good recommendation. But......it isn't even in the same league as the MixWiz due to no onboard fx (we bought and racked T.C. Electronics M300 = another $120 or so), only 2 monitor mixes, not rackmountable, shorter faders and not as "musical" as the MixWiz to my ears. And buying such a delicate piece of electronics used and w/ no warranty is risky. Again, though, if I was fronting a band purchase, I might want to limit my outlay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dboomer Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 But does it have that "British Sound"? I've always loved that. When you don't have any real features to talk about you can always say it has that "British Sound" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members prosigna Posted February 12, 2007 Members Share Posted February 12, 2007 What distro is that? I am out of the pro sound game and playing bass in bands again. It was nice using someone else's 200,000-1 million dollar PA but now I have to get used to MI gear again. Our rig uses all of (3) 15-amp circuits at the moment. If we add any lights we will be into the market for one of those 120-Amp (6x20) Units. I have seen the Furman and the ETA units. Is Peavey making one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.