#1961249 - 06/22/08 04:53 AM
Looking for mixer recommendation
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leethal
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Registered: 06/22/08
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Hello there,
I got two keyboards and a rhodes I wanna hook up to my own mixer, in order to make the sound engineers day a bit better. Any recommendations? No built-in effects please, bleh =P
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#1961253 - 06/22/08 05:16 AM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: leethal]
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GregC
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Registered: 10/26/03
Posts: 2009
Loc: Dublin, California
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does the search key work ?
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#1961254 - 06/22/08 05:25 AM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: GregC]
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bloodyMary
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Registered: 12/22/04
Posts: 731
Loc: Southern Israel
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Mackie stuff is loved here. I use Tapco mixer,and like it. For your purpose any decent mixer with enough outputs will do. Even a Behringer.
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Korg Karma, Roland FP4, Yamaha S03 (retired), Korg K25, IBM laptop, Yamaha HS80M monitors - the new toy.
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#1961256 - 06/22/08 05:35 AM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: GregC]
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leethal
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Registered: 06/22/08
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does the search key work ?
Been googling around for an hour or so, haven't found anything I _really_ like yet.
Oh, and the thought "trolls are only in gaming forums" was definately foolsih =P
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#1961257 - 06/22/08 05:36 AM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: bloodyMary]
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leethal
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Registered: 06/22/08
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Mackie stuff is loved here. I use Tapco mixer,and like it. For your purpose any decent mixer with enough outputs will do. Even a Behringer.
What about the preamps? The rhodes will need to get gained up quite a lot (or not?), so having a nice preamp for the gains is a must, I guess. But I'm not the expert around here, dunno if that matters at all. Behringer + rhodes feels uncopable, though =/
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#1961278 - 06/22/08 06:45 AM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: leethal]
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Griffinator
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Registered: 03/28/02
Posts: 10001
Loc: Lynchburg, VA, USA
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Mackie stuff is loved here. I use Tapco mixer,and like it. For your purpose any decent mixer with enough outputs will do. Even a Behringer. What about the preamps? The rhodes will need to get gained up quite a lot (or not?), so having a nice preamp for the gains is a must, I guess. But I'm not the expert around here, dunno if that matters at all. Behringer + rhodes feels uncopable, though =/
http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMMG102C
4 preamps with 60dB gain stage on each. Should be plenty for your application.
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#1961297 - 06/22/08 08:06 AM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: leethal]
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Mr. Nightime
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Registered: 03/03/05
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Loc: Melbourne, FL
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Tapco has been around a long time. It was originally started out of a garage by Greg Mackie, who sold the company and formed Mackie.
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#1961392 - 06/22/08 01:11 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: Mr. Nightime]
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Mark Schmieder
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Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 1746
Loc: San Francisco Bay Area
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Tapco is OK (we were using one for awhile as a splitter for backing tracks click/audio at the drummer's station), but has very few bussing options and a noisy gain stage. You can actually do better these days for similar price (not necessarily true four years ago).
The Behringer mini-units are best bang-for-buck in terms of bussing/etc. but are noisy if you need the gain stage (which you do, for the Rhodes) and many here have ethical issues with that company.
I highly recommend the Yamaha MG-series mixers. I've owned a lot of mixers at different sizes over the years, and this is the best under-$1000 mixer I have ever used. Preamps are clean, bussing is adequate (though could be better, such as with Allen & Heath mixers), and most of the channels take balanced inputs.
You can find them used on the cheap, if money is a concern. You might be better off with the previous revs, as the latest revs remove a few features and some of the routing options in order to provide built-in channel compression for most channels.
Mackie themselves afre also now self-competing with small form factor mixers that look an awful lot like the Tapco mixers. Maybe they're phasing out the Tapco brand and feel the VLZ brand has more cachet?
There are also some brand-new nano-mixers from several manufacturers, including Yamaha (and I think Korg, and maybe Roland/Edirol).
A line mixer might be just what you need though, if EQ isn't needed. I use an Ashley LX308B and it is super-high quality but a bit pricey (though not when one considers the routing and connectivity options, and that it provides eight stereo pairs).
Alesis just announced a new affordable one-unit line mixer at Summer NAMM last week. Not sure when it's expected to be available. Alesis reliability didn't used to be the best, but has improved, and they tend to be good bang-for-buck in terms of audio quality for the price, vs. other manufacturers.
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#1961400 - 06/22/08 01:45 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: Mark Schmieder]
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mate_stubb
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Registered: 10/26/03
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I like rack mounted line mixers.
Roland M120 - not made anymore, but great, worth seeking out used.
Rane SM82 - clean, but had fairly low output gain which I didn't care for in my live rig, and uses a funky telephone jack for the wall wart.
Ashly LX 308B - my current mixer, great sound, lots of gain, no FX busses.
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#1961420 - 06/22/08 02:35 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: mate_stubb]
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Mark Schmieder
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Registered: 09/08/05
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Yes, the Ashly has the most gain of any, and might be enough for your Fender Rhodes. I've been scratching my head regarding where the zero point is on that line mixer (I don't have a voltmeter or other measurement devices currently), but it appears to be near the 7 o'clock position.
In other words, the Ashly line mixer is almost all gain and very little trim. This is implicit and not explicitly stated in the design specs or the user docs (both of which are downloadable and aren't quite the same as the user manual that ships with the unit).
I like that it has a standard IEC cable. I tried the Rolls first, which I borrowed from a friend, and it noticeably degraded the signal (though I should qualify that I have what are called "Golden Ears" and so YMMV). I had considered the Rane as its specs were similar quality to the Ashly, but it's 50/50 in terms of which features are better than the Ashly and vice-versa. I didn't realise it takes a wall wart -- that's lame, as it is priced closer to the high end (if it's the model I'm thinking of -- they make several).
The Roland M120 was very good and I did first seek one on eBay but no luck, so bought the Ashly new (from Pro Sound Solutions on-line, who have the best prices for Ashly gear usually). Roland carries too much cachet as a brand-name, so tends to not be a very affordable brand on the used market.
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#1961525 - 06/22/08 08:28 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: Mark Schmieder]
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Griffinator
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Registered: 03/28/02
Posts: 10001
Loc: Lynchburg, VA, USA
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Mark:
1) It's good to know that others with sharper ears than most recognize the bang for the buck in the Yammy MG's - really, they are the ultimate low-budget mixer.
2) Rolls has that nasty habit of promising long and delivering short. They did it with all their inexpensive tube gear, I'm not surprised to discover they did it with basic functional stuff like line mixers.
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#1961886 - 06/23/08 02:39 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: mate_stubb]
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TJ Cornish
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Registered: 03/26/08
Posts: 54
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I like rack mounted line mixers.
Roland M120 - not made anymore, but great, worth seeking out used.
I have a couple Roland M120s. I like them, but they can't handle the hot outputs of some of my boards - the inputs distort even with the mixer knob down most of the way and the output meter well below clipping. They were designed when a -20dB level was the norm.
+1 on the Ashley LX308-B. I love mine. It sounds perfectly clean, and has enough headroom to take whatever I throw at it. I wish it had a couple of aux sends so I could use it as my monitor mixer too, but that hasn't slowed me down too much.
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#1961890 - 06/23/08 02:45 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: TJ Cornish]
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KenElevenShadows
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Registered: 12/20/00
Posts: 8586
Loc: Los Angeles,CA,UNITED STATES
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Generally speaking, Mackie's not bad and they keep getting better. I personally like Soundcraft and Allen and Health (nice preamps and EQ for the price). You can get mini-mixers by any of these brands for not too much cash.
For numerous reasons, I think Behringer sucks. I wouldn't use their mini-mixers if they came free in a box of Cracker Jacks.
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#1961932 - 06/23/08 04:21 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: KenElevenShadows]
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grockvt
Senior Member
Registered: 03/13/08
Posts: 89
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if you ever find an old toa d3 buy it
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#1961934 - 06/23/08 04:24 PM
Re: Looking for mixer recommendation
[Re: grockvt]
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grockvt
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Registered: 03/13/08
Posts: 89
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also - a speakeasy pre would rock the rhodes - saw one on ebay last week
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