Mixer or preamp for more inputs?

  • Thread starter Thread starter eswan
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eswan

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Hello everyone,
I'm recording my jazz quartet live and I need more mic inputs (probably at least 8) to do some close micing (rather than the stereo micing I'm doing right now.)
Would my best bet be to just get an 8 channel mixer like a Soundcraft or Mackie? Instead of a mixer, I was thinking that the new 8 channel preamp by Studio projects might be better than the budget mixers, since you can mix the 8 channels to a stereo channel and the preamp quality would be better. Are there any other 8 channels preamps that have this feature?
Btw, I won't be using any EQ from the mixer or outboard effects.

Thanks for the advice,
Erik
 
i'll just throw out some ideas. you really have to demo the following to see what floats your boat.
no budget was mentioned by you.
in low budget mixers there is the altos series and the yamaha mg series.
i tried an altos a few months back. no neve , but for the price i was pleasantly surprised. dont know if it will stand up long term.
a lot of people on this bbs like the yamaha mg series.
for 320 bucks you could use 8 mic100's by behringer . they are 40 bucks each. you could use a line mixer to mix. the eight mics. will you like them ? i dont know !
moving on up in price you might want to try the rane ms1b preamps.
also if i remember rane make line mixers. or maybe an fmr mic pre.
rane preamps have a fine reputation.
moving on up further in price all sorts of options start appearing.
allan and heath, soundcraft mixers. maybe a used yamaha digital mixer ?
great river and hardy preamps, and many other exotic preamps and consoles.
if i win the lottery tonight i was thinking a midas venice might be nice or maybe a used trident upgraded console. or maybe a big ole harrison or mci console from years ago for laughs used from some studio.
i'll throw a relatively unknown brand out. check out alice.co.uk sometime.
not cheap.
just some ideas.
 
The Rane MS1B suggestion is good, but he'd have a stack of little un-rack-mountable boxes lying around! They are a decent preamp though.

I'd say go the Soundcraft route, maybe the Spirit series.

War
 
My personal preference, whether live or studio recording, would be to have a digital mixer and recording computer, or to have a multitrack box to record the whole band. That way you can capture separate tracks and remix/enhance them later, in a studio situation, rather then counting on getting the best possible mix at the show/during the performance.

I personally have two digital mixers in the studio...a Fostex VM88 and Fostex VM200. They work great for submixing live, as well as accepting 8 channels via XLR's and TRS inputs, and feeding that signal into the computer via ADAT. They both have decent built-in effects in my opinion. To capture live situations, though, you would have to be carrying a computer with you containing ADAT inputs....or....

This is what I typically do... I also have an old Roland VS840 recorder with a hard drive installed. I feed it analog audio via it's 4 inputs...thus up to 4 tracks of live recording. Our mixer for live shows is a Mackie with 4 subgroup channels. I feed Vocals to one, guitars to one, drums and bass to two, everything panned accordingly.
 
The Mackie Onyx mixers with the Firewire I/O look like a great option.
 
Soundcraft M series. Same pres as the Ghost sounds alot better than the new Onyx pres and with the best Eq you can buy on a mixer (Soundrcrafts eqs are very good). You also get direct outs which are pre/post Eq selectable. And digital out to boot.
 
Having recently used both a ghost and an onyx, I could not fairly reccomend one over the other. The ghost had a warmer sound, but the EQ was very soft, and the preamps a little "stuffy". None of the real detail I have come to expect as of late. As far as the Soundcraft having the "best EQ on a mixer", i really like the older TS24 EQ and even the EQ's on the older series 800 and 8000. However, in my opinion the newer offerings don't even come close to those. Nor do they come close to the EQ offered on the Midas consoles. This is not to speak badly of Soundcraft as a company, but I really feel like their offerings are starting to fall short. Also i guess my taste has changed since I used to have a higher opinion of the Ghost consoles as well. It wasn't bad, but just seemed very plain jane vanilla. Almost like it wasn't doing anything except warming things up a little, but at the expense of some air and clarity.

I hate to admit it, but the Mackie Onyx stuff really does sound and feel different than their prior offerings. It feels like it has better headroom, better noise floor, and sounds a little "cleaner" and less boxy than the old VLZ pro preamps. Also, it clips a little better (well a lot better) than the vlz X line. The Eq is also finally usable. Much more natural sound than previous Mackie EQ's, and at the same time far more responsive.

Not that I am going to go out and buy a Mackie, but the new Mackie's really sound nothing like the old ones, and thats a good thing. I don't see it as some magical new must have piece, but was pleasently surprised by the changes (that were definately needed) from the VLZ pro series crap.
 
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