Mixers - Good, bad, or ugly?? Which brand?

jjones1700

Learning, always learning
I'm not sure if this is even the appropriate section to ask this. If not, Dragon feel free to move it to the correct one.

I'm looking for a decent/good 14 track mixer for use in the home for a project. I used to have a Mackie 1402vlzpro and it worked great for what I needed. Then again, I wasn't as picky about my sound as I am now. I recently asked a guy about Mackie mixers and he said the only complaint he has heard about is a little bleed over between channels if the gain is too high. I figure that would happen with most mixers. Then again, I could be wrong. I was thinking of either a Mackie (1402vlz3) or a Yamaha (MG16/4 or similar). I wish something in this price range had sweepable mids in the EQ, but it's not a deal breaker.

Opinions? Experience with these?
 
I only have a behringer xeynx 2222. Yamaha and Mackie get thrown around a bit...i like mackies a bit more, and am thinking about a VLZ as my next mixer due to the direct out convinience. If it was me, i'd go mackie because ive heard some really nice sound out of them...cant say a ton about the yamahas, other then the fact ive seen a few home studios with them.
 
Well...I Guess it all depends on what you plan on doing with it. I've got the Yamaha 16/4 and I'm very pleased with my results when compared to the price tag. Would make a great live board on a budget and the pres do well enough for recording. I recently picked up a used Mackie 1202 off of eBay and the differences between it and the Yamaha are noticable. Seems to me that the Mackie has a little more ass than the Yamaha. Clean, in your face, ass. If you're down with the jive.

Again, it all depends on what you're going for, either would be an excellent choice for a PA. When it comes to recording and bang for buck, I'm leaning towards the Mackie.

Only two boards I really have in-depth, hands-on with so I won't speculate about anything else.
 
Well...I Guess it all depends on what you plan on doing with it. I've got the Yamaha 16/4 and I'm very pleased with my results when compared to the price tag. Would make a great live board on a budget and the pres do well enough for recording. I recently picked up a used Mackie 1202 off of eBay and the differences between it and the Yamaha are noticable. Seems to me that the Mackie has a little more ass than the Yamaha. Clean, in your face, ass. If you're down with the jive.

Again, it all depends on what you're going for, either would be an excellent choice for a PA. When it comes to recording and bang for buck, I'm leaning towards the Mackie.

Only two boards I really have in-depth, hands-on with so I won't speculate about anything else.

Good info. Most of what I need it for is mic preamp and a handful of connections for various equipment. I'll be doing podcasts, some home studio stuff, and every now and then a live gig for a friend of mine. I never had a problem out of my previous 1402, I just wanted to know how other brands compared.
 
I have the Behringer Xenyx 2442FX, which is a liiittle bit bigger than the 2222. I think the 2222 doesn't have direct outputs, which was why I chose the 2442. And I'm very satisfied with it, it has a shitload of features (including sweep mid eq, 4 submasters, 4 aux sends...
But I have heard some people saying that the only decent entry level mixer are the Mackie VLZ.
 
i've got a mackie SR 24*4 VLZ and it's fine. i got it for $450 used, so it's hard to beat the $18 per preamp.

i tap the inserts for direct outs. i don't use the eq (don't like the way it sounds), and tapping the inserts for direct outs gets the rest of the channel strip out of the way.

i would never dream of using it for mixdown, though. no thanks.


cheers,
wade
 
you might be able to find either a used mackie onyx mixer or one of the lower/mid level soundcraft mixers (e.g. spirit line) for a comparable price. i used to own a mackie onyx 1220 which had good sounding pres and eq, currently own a soundcraft spirit m8 which also sounds very good, and have owned several small behringer boards (2 smaller xenyx mixers bought for various reasons and an older 802 (not ub). the behringer boards generally sound fine, but i found them to be excessively noisy. that could've been a quality control issue rather than a design issue, but that's a problem as well.
 
After my bad experience with the Behringer Xenyx2442FX I would have to say stay away. The first one and it's replacement both had defective FX processors that would erupt into loud static at random intervals.

I also hated the fact that it was 10 and a half rack spaces high :confused:
My racks are ten spaces :mad:
 
"....due to the direct out convinience"

this has always confused me. how do you use it as a direct out? isn't it an 'input'?

thanks!
 
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