Allen & Heath Mixer

[jyetmanuswest.net]

I'm soon buying a new mixer for my Home studio and for live Gigs. I've been looking at the Allen & Heath "Mixwizard WZ16:2DC. I like the featured (six aux sends, 16 direct outs,low cut filters,etc.) BUT, I've been told that the Mixer will be in the shop more that in my studio or on the Gig. Would someone please comment on this mixer or on Allen & Heath? My second choice is a Mackie 1604. Thanks

[Uh Clem]

I have one - I traded a 1604 VLZPro in for it. I've had it well over a year - no problems (knock, knock). The pres sound much nicer that the 1604. Using them with the DO's to record will get you great sounding tracks.

 

I've only used it for live tracking and I don't know how great a recording mixer it would be, but at that price...

 

Here's a live piece I did with it and mixed on an O2R: http://chooser.mp3.com/cgi-bin/play/play.cgi/AAIBQkweBQDABG5vcm1QBAAAAFImDAEAUQEAAABDNkD0Obzh_Rr.OlmWSTBCood1dPI-/her_hair_a_highway_of_fire.m3u

 

 

It does not have the "Swiss army knife" character of the Mackie with a zillion double feature buttons and you might miss having subgroups, but it does what it does well.

 

The built-in effects are useless - almost any outboard gear is going to sound better - probably even an original Alesis Midiverb - but that's really no big deal - for $850 or so, it is not bad at all. Just hang on to your existing verb...

 

Watch out for the rack ears - sharp as a razor and completely exposed - rack it up and be careful!

[Anderton]

>>The built-in effects are useless - almost any outboard gear is going to sound better <<

 

When it comes to mixers, I really don't care for internal effects. You're not going to find a $1,000 reverb inside an $800 mixer. Most of the time the internal effects use a cheapo OEM chip, and you're right, just about anything external you hook up is going to sound better. Also, I don't like paying for something I don't use .