M12 or CFX-16?

[JonathanRay]

I'm looking for a mixer to use live and in my home studio. Would you go with a Soundcraft M12 or Mackie CFX-16? Or something else($750 budget)? Why? Thanks for any opinions!

 

[deepwater]

M12 all the way or A&H Mixwizard

 

[ssscientist]

A second vote for the Soundcraft M-12.

 

[alwayslearnin]

Vote number 3 for the Soundcraft

 

[JonathanRay]

But why? We've got a CFX-16 at our school and my band director swears by it. It seems nice, but I've never seen or used a M-12.

 

[ssscientist]

The CFX16 has good-to-fair quality built in effects and that's what your band director probably likes about it. He/she has probably never heard or seen an M12 either. Once you get a look at and listen to the M12 you'll appreciate the sweet sounding mic pre's and solid construction.

It's a mixer that will last a decade if properly cared for.

 

[JonathanRay]

With the M12, can you group just the drum mics and send them out as one line seperate from others. Because I'd be using it with my Lexicon Omega, and I'd want to do multitracking. Is that possible with the M12?

 

[ssscientist]

Check it out here. Your question is about bussing on the M12 and it has 4 busses that can be configured anyway you need them to be --- 2 stereo L+R, 1 stereo L+R and 2 mono, or 4 mono. Any track can be routed to any bus. There's a 3 band EQ with a sweepable mid and 2 pre and 2 post aux sends.

So the short answer is 'yes'.

 

[noisedude]

I used to use a CFX-16 all the time but when it came to buying I took an M12.

But you have a couple of questions to ask yourself:

1) Do you need groups? If so, get the Mackie.
2) Do you need built in FX? If so, get the Mackie.

But for preamps and EQ, I took the Soundcraft and would a dozen times again.

 

[JonathanRay]

1) Do you need groups? If so, get the Mackie.

What are groups? Is this like bussing? (New to mixers )

I would need to be able to send 4 seperate channels out to my Lexicon Omega at the same time, for recording - this is bussing right? So I could group all my drums mics and send them out one, and my guitar out one, and bass player out one, and singer out one. For multitracking.

I'm just getting started, so I probably won't mess with the EQ to much, but it's good to have a nice one there for when I become more experienced.

Preamps, - I'm still learning the terms - this is what amplies the signal coming from the mics? Is it that the M12 preamps are nicer than the CFX-12s because they give the mics a better sound quality/tone/etc.?

Thanks for putting up with my questions.

 

[noisedude]

Ok there are two main ways you get a signal out from a mixer to an interface. One is straight from the channel itself, either from the insert point or from a dedicated direct out (which the Soundcrafts have). The other is to send it through a buss of some type and output from there. Only works if the groups have their own direct outputs (which I can't remember right now on the CFX-16) and not if they are locked into going to the main stereo buss.

There are advantages to each - the big one with groups is that if you've got a channel all set up but now you want to record to a different channel or two a different input on your recorder you can just change what group or groups the channel on the desk feeds to.

Is it that the M12 preamps are nicer than the CFX-12s because they give the mics a better sound quality/tone/etc.?

Correct! The preamp turns a low mic signal into a 'line level' signal which is basically a stronger one (+4dBu in pro gear). How much noise it adds, how transparent or flattering or really horrible-sounding it is are some of the factors you choose your preamps on.

Does that help?

 

[JonathanRay]

Thanks for the help!

It looks like the M12 might be the way to go.

 

[noisedude]

If I was only doing live stuff, I think I'd take the Mackie for the functionality of the grouping and the FX ... but with a requirement for half-decent musical sounds in the recording setting you can't ignore the Soundcraft.