200-400 quids to spend on mixer. suggestions?

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ACIDBANDIT

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awhile a go, i went down to the HOG (house of guitars) and had a good chat with the dude about mixers. he told me alot of things, but one key thing he kept saying was: if it sounds good, thats all that matters =) he also told me that behringers are cheap and have subpar preamps (i've heard that from more than one person so i tend to believe it) and even if you buy a nice, good mixer it won't make a damn difference if you can't mix for sh** . so that was about a month ago, and here i am, knowing that my previous tracks sounded kinda crappy mainly 1) because they were all mixed on headphones and i know now you need a good set of studio monitors to properly mix/master anything and 2) the preamps on my fostex mr8 are cheap and not to great, therefore mic'ing my cab with it sounds flat and uninspired (however i have extracted an amazing amount from it already). with this knowledge in hand, i'm searching for some kind of inbetween good and super great mixer. the dude @ HOG told me the yamaha MG12 mixer is a good deal for the buck. anyone have any other suggestions?

thanks for your time,
-dave- :confused:
 
I'd go for monitors first.

I'm guessing the preamps on your MR 8 won't be much worse than on any mixer within your price range. The comparison I can make from personal experience is between the preamps in a Zoom all in one recorder and the preamps in the Yamaha MG12/4 mixer you mentioned. To me the difference in audio quality is negligible. I think all those budget recorders and mixers will have pretty similar sounding pres.


Try some other stuff (if you haven't already) with your mic'd cab sound, mic placement for starters.
 
What's your setup Acid? If you are recording onto an MR8 then you're only taking two tracks at a time. Mixing on a PC? Not sure why you need a mixer for recording (though appreciate you might for the band). A good two channel pre amp would be a big step forward, otherwise if you definitely need a mixer then the mg12/4 is a great buy for the money.
 
Garry Sharp said:
What's your setup Acid? If you are recording onto an MR8 then you're only taking two tracks at a time. Mixing on a PC? Not sure why you need a mixer for recording (though appreciate you might for the band). A good two channel pre amp would be a big step forward, otherwise if you definitely need a mixer then the mg12/4 is a great buy for the money.

my setup consists of an mr8, a shure sm57 and a 58, a marshall vsl100 head /w 4x12 cab, squire affinity strat and a couple of synths, drum machines etc. the mr8 has no eq, so that would be one advantage of a mixer and from what i've read in the fostex forum the preamps really do suck on this thing (althou it is a budget tracker, so you get what you pay for) so any kind of preamp or mixer i bought would increase the quality of the recording i guess. i also do not want to mix on a pc, mainly because i spend enough time in front of a comp already and i like the feel of sitting down in front of my gear and tweaking with the knobs, makes me feel like i'm actually doing something. but maybe that's just me i suppose :p what would you reccommend for a quality mixer with good pre's? how much would i have to spend? when it comes down to it, i will save up for months to get what i want :)
 
OK. Are you recording everything track by track yourself, or will you be tracking a whole band simulltaneously and recording a stereo mix into the MR8? If it's the former, then you'll be mixing down inside the Fostex (understand why you don't want to go the PC route). You could certainly use an external mixer but you'd only be using 2 channels at a time, and would have wasted your money on all the others you don't need. In this case you'd be better off spending the money on a two track channel strip which offers preamps, EQ and often some compression. The Focusrite Twin Trak Pro is one low/mid priced example, (say about $400 used?) but there are plenty of others.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TwinTrakPro/

You'd use it fully, and you'd probably always find a use for it in the future. Or alternatively separate pre-amps and EQ boxes.

Hope that helps - I understand the need for better pre's and EQ, just don't think a mixer is the most cost effective solution unless you're recording a whole band live.
 
Garry, most likely at this point I will be tracking everything either 1 track at a time or 2 tracks at a time. I see your point in wasted money on the mixer unless i'm recording a full band, although at some point I am probably going to do that as well. i will definately check out those rackmount preamps, i also hear ART makes some good preamps as well, although i'm not sure if they have any EQ on those little boxes :confused: do those preamp boxes\racks offer phantom power supply as well? thanks again, dave
 
Just about every pre-amp I know of includes 48v. There's a wealth of knowledge in here (much greater than mine) and the topic of choosing pre-amps etc. has been discussed exhaustively. A couple of hours with the search function will point you exactly where you need to go.
 
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