A guy in my band wants to buy his own mixer, but wants to spend under $600.00 for a new board with at least 12 channels. I started talking to him about my Mix Wiz, but he wants a NEW board!!!! My biggest fear is that he keeps looking at Behringer. Its scaring me.

Help!!!! What live sound boards are you using that you'd recommend and why?

The Soundcraft has much better pre's then even mackie IMO.

The Ghost pre's in this unit are incredible for the price, and are the same as in their $25,000 boards.

Here you go:
http://tradingpost.sweetwater.com/details.php?TP_ID=6223

Let me know how you made out.

For just a little bit more money (under $800), he can get a Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro. Its a sturdy, reliable workhorse, sounds good, has good routing, etc. Its certainly better than the Behringer mixers and although the pres sound different than the Soundcraft's, the build quality in the Mackie is much better than the Spirit Folio stuff. The faders and knobs in those things feel really cheap to me.

drbam

Souncraft or Allen & Heath, flat out!


For the love of god, don't let him get Behringer! (He wants a new board for what, warranty and longevity yes? And you don't stand a good chance of getting longevity OR customer service with Behringer so...why would he get Behringer? Show him this thread )

I'd think even a Mackie Onyx would be a decent alternative, though I haven't worked on one. It's got to be better...far as mixers go it doesn't get much worse than Behringer...


Have him check prices at Full Compass. They will beat any online retailer/GC handily. Also might check with FC or Audioeast on prices for MixWiz B-stock--all the warranty, double the QC, save some bucks!


As far as the why...better parts, better support, greater longevity, better overall sound, more peamp gain and headroom, often better metering, depending on what you get you might have more flexible routing (ALWAYS a good thing in live sound), smoother, more useable EQ, even the "feel" of the better boards is noticeable--the way the knobs turn and the faders move is very telling.

The Soundcrafts and A&H have a "better" sound, meaning that the eq is more musical and the pres tend to sound warmer. However, compared to the Mackies, the Soundcrafts don't hold up well even in a studio, much less traveling around for live gigs. I don't know a lot about A&H reliability and road worthyness, but I do know it is better than Soundcraft. In the price range that's being discussed here, I think a decent A&H is probably over budget (maybe not?). I'm not inviting a debate here – I was simply offering a viable option that is within the guy's budget and that has proven itself beyond question. For live gigs, especially at this budget level, I'd choose reliability over an eq preference every time.

drbam

These are the names I think of when I think mixers. Another local guy told me he's been real happy with his Peavey mixer. Anyone know anything about 'em?

quote:

These are the names I think of when I think mixers. Another local guy told me he's been real happy with his Peavey mixer. Anyone know anything about 'em?

Actually, I've heard good things about the Peavey RQ series...but I haven't worked on one and don't know how they hold up. They were all the rage on HC Live Sound forum when they came out a few years back. I'd think it would be a viable option. Those guys had a low BS tolerance.

used an A and H last night Wizmix 14-4 great board under a thousand just wish they would move the headphone jack. FOH for a real pain in the ass group too first time working with them and i had heard stories. But came out unscathed.

I have a Yorkville audio-pro sp8 powered mixer I have use for 15 years 2-5 shows per week almost EVERY week, never a problem!I replaced the faders once and now the pots are really bad so I upgraded to Mackie 808 6 months ago. I like em both, but I can definitely attest to the Yorkville reliability. Its a work-horse.