Trying to choose a mixer sollution

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XTREEMMAK

XTREEMMAK

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So I've been looking at a couple of mixers and would like some of you guys opinions on the best choice or the best sound for the lowest dollar. Currently I have a Mackie Onyx 1220 w/ Firewire option. It's nice and all but my master left channel is dieing and I need additional outputs. Plus there's no way to return any effects to the firewire card unless you run the effect through an open channel which just plain sucks. I'd need something with reasonably good to really good pre's out the box, direct out on every channel, decent amount of aux sends with bypasable pre's for all channels (light pipe I guess), Aux and Sends pre post firewire, trying to stay within a $2000.00 bracket with. Dont need anymore than 16 channels. So what I've found are:

1. Allen & Heath ZED420 w/ Internal USB Interface
2. Yamaha N12 w/ Internal Firewire Interface
3. PreSonus StudioLive 16.4.2
4. Toft Audio ATB-16 (worst case scenario)
 
Soundcraft Spirit FX16II.

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16 inputs, inserts and direct outs, 3 auxes.

-edit- Oh, you want firewire. :P

Please bear in mind that the mixers with USB options only send the stereo tracks to your pc. What you could do is by 2 8pre's or firepods/fp10's and hook those up.
 
For me it's a tossup betw the Yamaha and the Presonus:

The Yamaha is really nice. It does everything you'll likely want. Plenty of pre's, which sound good imo, inserts, fw which you can tap the channel pre or post fader, and the DAW transport is really slick. It has RCA inputs which are handy. And it costs 1/3 of the Toft. I have a smaller yamaha mixer that I have been perfectly happy with for years.

I haven't seen that presonus mixer before, it looks really sweet. Presonus pre's sound good, you get 16 inline channels, 4 subgroups, 6 aux, nice meters, etc. It has a little more than the Yamaha, but costs a little more too.

The A&H is USB, so you won't get all channels at once to your PC. Total dealbreaker.

The Toft is a little out of your price range, if you can afford it and wanna throw down for it, more power to ya!
 
CasB said:
What you could do is by 2 8pre's or firepods/fp10's and hook those up.
Click to expand...

Then if he ever needs a mixer for a PA for his band or something, he's screwed. I require a mixer with fw, I figure the OP does too. Otherwise else he'd be asking about rack type interfaces like firepod, and have a LOT more much cheaper options. AND save a lot of space on his desk!
 
Well

Well,
The original idea was to go with an RME Fireface 800 but also given the fact that I also would like my AUX sends, and a way to implement a patch bay later (I never had the chance in setting up a patch bay. I've used one though but never set one up so I don't know how the connections on each point would work).

Also with the RME I'd need to buy 2 for 16 channels. I was also looking into the Presonous devices and the Digimax for extended channels but not sure how that'd work with the RME. Also never done a pre amp bypass via lightpipe so the thought process is still a bit new to me :p.
 
suprstar said:
Then if he ever needs a mixer for a PA for his band or something, he's screwed. I require a mixer with fw, I figure the OP does too. Otherwise else he'd be asking about rack type interfaces like firepod, and have a LOT more much cheaper options. AND save a lot of space on his desk!
Click to expand...

Sorry, wasn't quite clear, I meant that he could buy a mixer with direct-outs, and hook those up to a firewire interface (or 2...or 3).
 
CasB said:
Sorry, wasn't quite clear, I meant that he could buy a mixer with direct-outs, and hook those up to a firewire interface (or 2...or 3).
Click to expand...

OK,
So you mean going via direct out of the analog console into the channel ins of a firewire interface. Question though is how do I bypass my mix board pres if I wanted to? Like say I wanted to use the pre's off the firewire interface and nothing from the board, or an external pre altogether?
 
Yeah, that's what he means, you can do that, sure. Then what do you need the mixer for? Plug mics into the interface pre's, and that's it, it's on your computer. Or plug mics into outboard pre's, and run the pre outs to your interface. With what he's suggesting, you're using the mixer strictly as a set of outboard pre's, with some extra monitoring capabilities that your PC won't see, because mixer direct outs are pre-fader.. That's assuming the mixer has direct outs (or inserts), a lot don't. It's just extra hardware to buy.
 
One of our setups, the mini-mobile is an rme ff800 with two presonus digimax f/s's it works great with either of our dell core2 duo laptops. At our education center there is a MOTU 8pre with a behringer ada8k. It works great, but unlike the rme doesnt like the ricoh FW chipset much so make sure you get a TI if you go this way.

MOTU alleges that the 8pre's can be ganged as a paid for a total of 32 ins, but I havent tried this yet.
 
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