live sound mixer?

[jobones]

I recently bought a mackie dfx12 mixer for homerecording, although it says for live sound on the box and in the manual. Is this mixer meant for live sound or should I have purchased a different mixer that is better fit for homerecording, is there a difference? Thanks.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...01032806804/search/g=rec/detail/base_id/59449

 

[Chibi Nappa]

Should work just fine for home recording. What are you using it for anyway? What are you recording onto?

 

[sonusman]

Dood, check out a Soundcraft Europa. Now THERE is a nice dual use console that will only set you back about $20k used!

If the console has the features your require, than it is suitable for what you are using it for. It is as simple as that. If you want to start getting into the subjective game of "is there something better", well indeed, there is always "something better" out there, but you may not be able to afford it. For what you are doing, the Mackie is probably just fine. About the only limitation I have found on Mackies for live sound use is the lack of pre fader Aux sends. If you only need 1 or 2 monitor mixes live, then usually a Mackie is okay. But if you need more than 2 monitor mixes, then you run into troubles with the smaller Mackies. Also, the preamps tend to not like hitting clipping, and that, combined with the poor summing amps on a Mackie means that you will need to have at least 150% of the power you will need to fill the sound out at a venue. I used to use a Mackie 32 channel 8 buss console at a club I worked at, and it wasn't very friendly when I needed to mix loud. The Master summing buss just doesn't have enough headroom to do the average rock band, UNLESS you are way over powered for the room, which you are not going to find that often. The preamps tend to be a bit harsh sounding for live use too. It was hard to make things sound full and warm. Of course, I have mostly found these same problems to be relevent to studio recording too. But, if you are budget minded, the Mackie probably offers decent enough sound quality, features, and durability. It isn't all that much better or worse than any other price/feature comparable mixer out there.

Hope this helps.

Ed

 

[muttley]

Starting out small is OK, as you develope your chops at this, you'll then realize what type of mixer you will want in the future to meet your specific needs.


da MUTT

 

[jobones]

Thanks for the feedback, as of now Im recording into an audiophile 2496 card and Im using a crate guitar amp and a fender bass amp as monitors... until I can afford some real ones...