Mixers

Guitarse

Can anyone recommend a quality mixer for live sound to go with powered speakers? Got up to £200 to spare.

Cheers

Al

Phil_aka_Pip

for that price I'd look for a 2nd hand yamaha

maltingsaudio

For that money second hand is the way and anything with Allen and heath Yamaha Spirit should do however would be nice to know how many channels you need and whether you need FX,

Guitarse

Yeah second hand all the way! Not arsed with effects. 12 channel.

IanSavage

Through personal experience Studiomaster Trilogy, a GOOD Peavey (ideally US-made, although some of the Far Eastern RQs are alright) or anything Allen and Heath-badged (as Maltings says); through reputation a decent Yamaha or Soundcraft (I'd go slightly against his recommendation here though - 'Soundcraft' yes, 'Spirit by Soundcraft' no; they're very easy to break and very hard to repair when they do). I'd warn off Behringer for the same reason unless you can budget for a flightcase for it as well - they're good bang-for-buck but if they get dropped hard / something dropped on them / drink spilled into them you can pretty much chuck it in the bin, they're REALLY not designed to be repaired.

 

In the 'wouldn't touch one with yours' camp, Phonic / Alto / Skytec (are they even still making mixers?) / pretty much any cheap-looking Chinese knockoff; you'll know 'em when you see 'em

Phil_aka_Pip

I paid £150 for a used Studiomaster Series 5 16:8:2 desk a few years ago. Whether such an ageing beast would survive the rigours of the road these days I couldn't say, but performance wise and ease-of-use wise it's good kit.

spacecadet

I have a Peavey PV14USB thats going pretty soon. Gonna get me one of them there Presonus thingys.

ESBlonde

Allen and Heath Mixwiz

They are robust, sound transparant, excellent Eq with 2 swept mids, treble and bass good Aux send, 16 Ch, rack mountable. Importantly they are built in such a way that they can be readily repaired or serviced if they ever need it. These were (still often are) the workhorse of small PA hire rigs for a decade or so.

Similarly the soundcraft spirit LX7 which possibly sound even more transparant but are not in a rack mount format although they have assignable sub groups which can be nice for some mix jobs.

Contact a few Pro Hire shops because they may well have one in a case out back they no longer use.

maltingsaudio

If you find  a16 channel  mixwiz for less than £200 give me a shout! 

johnnyurq

Soundcraft M8 or M12, I got an M12 on EBay for £200 posted. Great desk with great functions including 4 auxes (2 pre & 2 post fader) and direct outs for recording.

SPDIF out for recording the mix handy for live.