Digital mixers?? ..can you hear any difference?

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Joel76

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What are the big advantage(s) in using a digital mixers? I know the sound quality is probably a bit cleaner, but would it be something that you can actually hear? I have a HD24 Alesis and am about to buy something to mix with. I was going to just get a Mackie analog board but started thinking that maybe I am giving up some advantages by not going digital....
 
The pros might correct me on this one, but I'd prefer the Mackie board. Personally I don't hear any difference (forgive my ignorant ears), and to me there's nothing like feeling real knobs. I just don't like clicking on an animated knob with the mouse.

Do take this post with a grain of salt, I'm relatively new to HR and I'm an all analog guy, but hey, you asked someone's opinion so here it is... Good luck with whatever you decide, but IMHO there's nothing like a good Mackie Board... Whatever you do, don't fall in the deadly trap called "Behringer". They give a whole new meaning to the word "suck".

Dirk Demon
 
thx man,

Due to money constraints, I probably will go with an analog Mackie or something like that. Digital stuff is tooo expensive for any sonic gain that it might provide.
 
Recording and playing the kick drum separate..

Does anyone here do that? I am primarily a guitarist and by recording the kick drum separate, it seems I can concentrate better on my durmming, but wonder if I give up anything in sound?
 
mackie vs. behringer

dirk

i had a mackie 1604vlz pro. key word HAD. Although it was a good all around board, for studio it was somewhat limited. I sold it and bought a new mx3242x behringer. I can say for sure that the new behringer is a far better board for just studio work IMHO. Far more patching capabilities. No power supply built in. No heat. No more noise than the mackie which was pretty much non existant. 100mm faders. Level meters on every channel. 32 ins with mix b. More eq. More sends. Need I go on. I to thought mackie was the shit until I found the new 3242. I have had it since they came out and have had not one problem with it nor have I found it limit me with what I want to do. Not to forget, it also has built in effects. All this and it is a couple hundred less than the 1604. Don't get me wrong. Mackie is fine stuff. I just feel that behringer takes bad raps from people who may have had problems with their behringer equip. No company including mackie makes stuff that doesn't ever break down. I mean you might buy a mackie board that lasts you forever without ever needing any work and the next mackie sold might break out of the box. The other thing is, if behringer wasn't making good stuff why would mackie sue them not once but twice, that I know of over their boards. If they weren't any good, behnringer wouldn't be selling very many and mackie wouldn't be losing market share to behringer. Anyway, point is, both companies make good stuff. We all know there are way better boards out there than either of these if you want to spend the money.

Later

Peace,

Boardman
 
The main advantage of digital mixers is what you dont hear.

After the preamp if everything is at unity there isnt any more noise introduced to the path.

Their greatest attribute is flexibility. You can plug everthing into them and change routing in the software so you no longer need a patchbay.

Scene and automation memory is very handy if you jump around on different projects.

For mixdown you can route signals thru them without any additional DAC. Built in digital effects with no further DAC or plug in latency.

I've been pretty pleased with the Roland VM3100Pro. The downsides are fewer faders, more complicated routing, cheap pre-amps.
 
As TEXROADKILL stated, you have more to your advantage

onboard EQ's, EFFECTS, ROUTING is easier, AUTOMATION -saving mixes and eq' settings, MIC PRE (some are not that great, but if you dont have one at all, that'd be cool), MMC, internal PATCHBAYS I can go on and on

Though analog is still great you would have to purchase all of those other mentionables SEPERATE from the board, so you end up paying if not equivalent, but almost the same amount for a good digital mixer.

I have a Tascam DM24

But if you want the best of both worlds (STARTING OUT)
I have a FOSTEX VM200 8 digital/ 8 analog/adat I/O/spdif mixer for $300 and a ART TUBE MP for $50 totalling $350

just trying to help
 
boardman, you hit the subject totally right

the only problem with behringer (which some people argue) is the reliability.

I personally haven't heard a behringer board sound as bad as a lot of you guys make it out to be. personally, i think a lotof the behringer bashers are just clinging onto opinions made by other people with bad experiences.
 
longwave,

Couldn't agree more.

Thanks for the back up.

Later

Peace,

Boardman
 
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