Mixers designed for keyboards?

[JamPro]

Thank you Mr. Lupowitz - it is helpful for me to hear your experience.

(Bad Pun Aficionado - My doctor diagnosed me as a Bad Pun Aficionado.  I told him he must be wrong because I only know funny jokes.  He then challenged to tell him a funny joke.  So I wrote out ten of my favorite word-plays to see if I could make him laugh, but no pun in ten did.)

 

Thank you Mr. Gauss.  I assume the A+H digital mixer has an onboard limiter that can be applied to the headphone output.  Is that correct?  If so, that is a good solution.

[cassdad]

1 hour ago, JamPro said:

Thank you Mr. Lupowitz - it is helpful for me to hear your experience.

(Bad Pun Aficionado - My doctor diagnosed me as a Bad Pun Aficionado.  I told him he must be wrong because I only know funny jokes.  He then challenged to tell him a funny joke.  So I wrote out ten of my favorite word-plays to see if I could make him laugh, but no pun in ten did.)

 

Thank you Mr. Gauss.  I assume the A+H digital mixer has an onboard limiter that can be applied to the headphone output.  Is that correct?  If so, that is a good solution.

 

Rather than the Allen & Heath, I would recommend the Behringer XR-18 / Midas MR-18 as it costs 1/3rd less with outstanding sonic specs and features.  And, yes, it does have a limiter as one of its many effects (they call it a “Precision Limiter”).

[jazzpiano88]

My A&H Zed10 got taken out in a lightening storm.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I assume that it has something do do with its $25 US Raw Parts Cost.

 

I'm planning to replace it with an SSL SiX or Big SiX.

 

 

[D. Gauss]

3 hours ago, JamPro said:

 Thank you Mr. Gauss.  I assume the A+H digital mixer has an onboard limiter that can be applied to the headphone output.  Is that correct?  If so, that is a good solution.

 

Yes, PEQ, compression, and limiting on every channel and the outputs, and any output can be assigned to the headphone out. (the learning curve is a bit steep, but once you get it, you're good).  FWIW, the QU should not be compared to the ZED line. I've done hundreds of shows with my QU-Pac, recorded 3 or 4 remote location albums with it, and never had a single hiccup. It paid for itself on the first location recording job as there was much sooo less gear to schelp and more flexibility. Also, fwiw, the A&H is twice the price of the Behringer, NOT 3 times as mentioned above.

 

BTW, even if you do get the Behringer over the A&H, either way, you're gonna want this 3rd party app and not any app made by either brand. (controls either mixer, easily, and wonderfully as well as several others) https://mixingstation.app/

I do sound at a couple different NYC clubs that have different brand digital consoles (Behringer & A&H), and i just walk in with my ipad or android phone with mixingstation installed, select which console in the app, pull up my presets/configs with the push of a button and i'm good to go.

 

[kenheeter]

I use the XR12 for my keyboard mixer.  It is great. Small, does everything I need and more.  I can take a feed from   the monitor mix   and have it show up in my stage monitors or IEMs and I can send my keyboard mix to FOH without the monitor feed included. Built in stereo DI, tons of ins and outs and effects.  I set it up at home in my studio and if I need to tweak it on the gig I can use my ipad or iphone. Wonderful.  Sound guys love it.

 

 

[The Real MC]

Tried and true Rane SM82.  No EQ, no mic gain, no problem.  Just a simple line mixer.  I have five of them in my system.

[RDM]

5 hours ago, kenheeter said:

I use the XR12 for my keyboard mixer.  It is great. Small, does everything I need and more.  I can take a feed from   the monitor mix   and have it show up in my stage monitors or IEMs and I can send my keyboard mix to FOH without the monitor feed included. Built in stereo DI, tons of ins and outs and effects.  I set it up at home in my studio and if I need to tweak it on the gig I can use my ipad or iphone. Wonderful.  Sound guys love it.

 

 

Just recently bought an XR12 with a very good deal, I will try this one out. Thanks.

[M_G]

 

Tascam LM8-ST

 

 

[drawbars]

I've been using a Behringer XR12 for a couple years now.  While not specifically a 'keyboard mixer,' it ticks off a lot of boxes:

 

• 12 physical channels + 4 virtual channels
• Each channel can be set to pre/post, fader bypass, etc.
• Pairs of adjacent channels can be linked as stereo pairs
• Built in EQ, compression, noise gate, and effects
• Separate aux outputs, which can mirror the main L+R if desired
• Just about every channel/effect/output has EQ available
• 64 (?) presets that can be selected via MIDI

One of the interesting things that can be done is that one physical input can be mapped to more than one channel.  The Leslie sim of my Stage 3 is OK, but not fantastic, IMHO.  But I map it to separate outputs, then bring L+R into *two pairs* of channels.  One pair is high-passed to create a 'horn mix,' while the other pair is low-passed creates a 'rotor mix.'  I use different effect mixes, L-R blending, etc. for each set to better simulate my idea of a perfect mic'ed Leslie.  A similar approach can be used to create an output specifically EQ'd for a keyboard's monitor mix.  I don't know of any keyboard mixer that can do this.

 

Before that, I used a Behringer RX16, which was really good for what it is -- with the caveat that the headroom was only so-so.

 

[drawbars]

On 6/22/2023 at 6:23 PM, cassdad said:

 

Rather than the Allen & Heath, I would recommend the Behringer XR-18 / Midas MR-18 as it costs 1/3rd less with outstanding sonic specs and features.  And, yes, it does have a limiter as one of its many effects (they call it a “Precision Limiter”).

I own both the XR-12 and MR-12.  For keyboards, the XR is the sweet spot:  not as nice mic preamps, but identical otherwise, and usually much lower price.  (The Midas and Behringer control software are interchangeable, and one can even create presets on one and load them on the other.)  I've seen dealers asking a 50% premium for the MR-12, although others charge a more appropriate 15-20%.  (FWIW, the Midas dealer cost is -- was? -- 10-20% higher than a comparable Behringer model, but the difference in SRP is much larger.)

[ProfD]

On 6/22/2023 at 4:38 AM, Adam Burgess said:

At home, I've got an X32 Rack which is a bit overkill, for sure - but 22 analog ins and 14 outs, plus the 32x32 digital over USB is so good.

Agreed.  The only reason I sold my X32 Rack is because I wanted faders so I switched over to a QSC TouchMix 16.😎

[zukskywalker]

Another vote for the Tascam LM8-ST.

1RU  dirt simple, does the job.

[kenheeter]

I have to admit that with my new YC73 I'm not sure I'll need a mixer any more.  So far it seems to cover all of the ground I need for my gigs and I can feed my stage monitors from the 1/4" outputs and send to FOH from the XLRs. If I need more sounds I can patch in my ipad and mix its sounds onboard the YC73.  As long as I can live with only one board with 73 notes I might be there.  In which case I may have an XR12 to sell - we'll see.

 

[SteveNathan]

On 6/22/2023 at 3:38 AM, Adam Burgess said:

I've got an old Roland M120 line mixer. Still sounds fine, and not too noisy. Needs a couple of new pots. Always lusted after the old Roland M480 (not the digital mixer by the same name!).  Those were the days when the great Roland catalogues were an inspiration to go find some gigs to find many many synths to fill up the unaffordable M480!

At home, I've got an X32 Rack which is a bit overkill, for sure - but 22 analog ins and 14 outs, plus the 32x32 digital over USB is so good.

Used the Key Largo a couple of times, and being Radial, it's excellent.

I ran through a Roland 480 for years, & loved it. Admittedly, I wouldn’t have used all those inputs if I hadn’t had Cartage to carry my gear 😆 

[TJ Cornish]

MOTU makes a number of rack devices that do this. I have an 828X that allows me to have a full-blown mixer including things like the ability to send click tracks out the monitor and click busses, but not the mains. These work standalone but can be controlled by PC or IPad.

 

There are lots of digital mixers, but I like the 1U rack format as it fits into my stage rack with my IEM transmitter and some other IO junk.

[obxa]

I've used a couple variations  Mackie  stuff because I wanted the option to do a pre-send mix of stereo keys for IEMs that also included house mix and ambient mic.  I was curious about the Key Largo.

 

On 6/29/2023 at 12:43 PM, kenheeter said:

I have to admit that with my new YC73 I'm not sure I'll need a mixer any more. 

 

In an effort to streamline gig stuff, I mostly just use the Numa Xpiano's built in mixer. Between its 4 inputs,  It can do 2 stereo,  or a combination of stereo  & mono plus fx. 

 

 Based on excellent  previous recommendations from some folks above, (thanks Samuel and Stokely...)   pair that with a Rolls P55 to mix stereo keys from  Numa & house mix to my IEMs . Rolls also takes care of  limiting and replaced two Behringer boxes I was using to accomplish the same task.  Already had a Radial stereo DI;   but most sound companies usually provide them,  so often just stays in my gig box.  

 

For most  gigs I do, usually have no more than 3 sources:  Numa Piano,  Mojo organ or Nord Stage, and/or Mainstage.  Sometimes Melodica and Harmonica rig. 

 

It's taken a little bit to get used to, but the Numa mixer and Rolls have handled everything great and love not bringing a mixer anymore...at least on gigs  I'm main keys.

Only thing I really miss is option to have an ambient mic for stage conversation and audience bleed in the IEMs.   I also do 2nd/aux keys gigs just on organ, usually along with Nord or Mainstage,  I'll have to bring a mixer for those. 

 

I have friends that use Maintage's mixer to do advanced monitoring and control, and listen through the laptop.  I'm afraid to go there. 

 

For those using Nords: been shopping for a new Electro,  noticed the 1/8 inch  aux input now routes to the main outputs?   That's different from when aux audio only went to the headphone output on previous models (e.g stage 2). . So in theory, you could use that as a low-rent mix input from another keyboard. 

 

 

Actually hoping we get rained out for the 4th LOL.  At least load-ins are getting simpler. 

[Werno]

Not sure if this fits the OPs needs, but for those who Behringer, I picked up a Flow8 a few months back to use at rehearsals and have been extremely impressed. It has:

 

* Two mic inputs with 48v phantom power;
* Two mic/line neutrik inputs with no 48v phantom;
* Two pairs of 1/4” TRS line inputs;
* Bluetooth link for music playback into the system
* Two individually configurable or stereo linkable monitor outputs
* Two XLR balanced line-level outputs
* one-knob limiters on main and monitor outputs, controlled via app

* App also adds bluetooth remote control of eqs, faders, routing, saving scenes, more.
* Two effects engines, one for reverbs and the other for delays (with a little overlap)
* USB output for multitrack recording- all 8 input channels plus stereo mix, 4 channels return from computer.

At practice I park it on my Kurzweil SP-6 and put myself, the vocalist and sax player through it, adding effects to the mics and sending the results through a pair of powered speakers to simulate entertainment occurring. I mixed some friends’ 4-piece acoustic gig with it, all were impressed. 
 

Lots of videos on YouTube if anyone’s interested, SW was selling them for $300 when I got mine. 

[D. Gauss]

flow 8 is a really good, compact, powerful, flexible mixer, but i think the OP needed more inputs. also the micro USB jack for power is kind of an achilles heel just waiting to break.

[ShadowMan]

I guess I must be in the minority, but I have to say that I wasn’t overly impressed during my brief time with a KeyLargo.  It didn’t provide anywhere near enough gain for my low output  Nords and Yamaha  feed into my amplification, and the lack of a headphone monitor meant I needed to bring my Rolls for my IEMs anyway.  

 

In comparison to my original Mackie 1202 (thru a Radial DI),  I didn’t really see a major difference.  Of course, 35+ years of too loud gigs may have influenced that.  But with a few Rolls mini-mixers (love them!), a Yamaha MG06, a Roland M120 and a Behringer laying around, I didn’t think it was worth keeping. 

 

Let the flaming begin…

[Werno]

4 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

flow 8 is a really good, compact, powerful, flexible mixer, but i think the OP needed more inputs. also the micro USB jack for power is kind of an achilles heel just waiting to break.

The micro USB power jack isn’t ideal, but does mean the unit can be powered by a USB battery pack. There are 8 analog inputs and 4 returns via USB, which I believe can be used to bring software instruments running on a phone, tablet, or laptop into the mixer- six stereo pairs in all, but as you say short of the OP’s required 10. All four outputs have a one-knob limiter available in the app, so it might be suitable for driving in-ear monitors, although I have neither tried it myself nor seen any reviewer try it for that application. 

[Losendoskeys]

SM10 here, used one for 10 years - the nice thing is the ability to input a mike as well as the keys in stereo and adjust headphone and output levels.

Great piece of kit