New Yamaha MG-series of mixers?

[regebro]

Cheap, and it's Yamaha! Any opinions? Have anybody fiddled with them already?

Sure means I'm happy I didn't get that second hand Tascam 2524 for 1000 euro (unseen), when I can get a new 24 ch Yamaha for 900 euro.

[Rimshot]

I just picked up the MG 16/4. I originally had the MG 16/6 and realized for my purposes it wasn't necessary to have all of the effects so I brought it back and saved myself $100.00. I wanted a good clean board with good pre-amps and good EQ. This one gives me what I need and it's very inexpensive. I'll be using it primarily as a live mixer and occassionally to do some simple analog recording. So far, I'm very impressed. Maybe I just really want it to be that good, but to my ears, the pre-amps and EQ will rival a much more expensive studio board, and it provides many options, such as I/O inputs on all channels, switchable phantom power, function switches and it looks like it was thought out, not just thrown together out of cheap parts.
The manual is a bit bizarre though. It's written for a complete novice, but I guess that can be good. It's cheaper than a new Behringer UB board of as many channels and is quiet, and it's a Yamaha. It's certainly not a Neve, but it is making this poor drummer very happy. I paid $250.00(US) for it at Guitar Center.

[regebro]

Cool! Good to hear.

The mixers seem quite similar to the Yamaha RM800 mixers, which all owners seem to be very happy with (although the MG boards aren't "inline" and hence has less channels on mixdown than the RM800s).

[djc]

I've been looking at these myself. I would like to have a Mackie, but they are so damn expensive. I will most likely get the MG 16/4 when I can save up enough money. According to everything I have read and been told, the preamps are pretty good on these mixers. Not as good as a Mackie, but better than the Behringer's.

[Garry Sharp]

Got the 12/4 last week. Very impressed. HUGE step up from the Behri. No frills or gimmickry, very well built - I mean it's solid, apart from the track faders which give the price away. Excellent VFM, IMHO.

[Swede]

Garry. Did you own a behringer before or have you compared them side to side? I'm very curious about this mixer.

[Garry Sharp]

Hiya Swede. Yes, I upgraded after three years with a behri Eurorack 802, so it's not a fair comparison. Nevertheless, the Yamaha impressed us so much that even the guitarist stopped drinking lager for long enough to comment on the improvement in sound.

It feels very solid, well built, absent of stupid gimmickry and doesn't fall over like the behri did if you fill up most of the inputs. And for a newbie like me it's a revelation to hear something so clean. I think it's designed more as a live mixer, with no direct outs (the mono channels have inserts though); you can get I think five separate channels out for recording by using aux sends and the group bus hard panned, (need to get my head around that a bit better) but what can you expect at that price? I think it is well worth going to look at one.

Garry

[Swede]

Nice!

[Rimshot]

Originally posted by Swede
Nice!

Actually the pre-amps in a Behringer UB series are the same pre-amps as in a Mackie. The Mackie is an excellent mixing board, but the pre-amps in it are
mediocre say the most. Most everyone that I now that is in the business that uses a Mackie mixer uses outboard pre-amps. I have worked with a Mackie VLS series that I borrowed for a while and I am finding that the pre-amps in my new Yamaha MG 16/4 are giving me a fuller sound than the Mackie. I just recorded an additional analog track onto a tape that I had used the Mackie on and got a chance to compare.
When I didn't have a mixer, a friend loaned me his old Behringer MX 1002 for which I was very grateful, but it's a real noisy little board with a real shallow and tinny sound.
The new Yamaha MG seies is really goig to give everyone else a run for the money.
Oh, BTW I re-read my first post and I made a typo. I meant to say that the Yamaha had inserts on all channels not inputs. Of course it also has inputs, it'd be pretty damn useless if it didn't.