Mixers

[unclefu]

Hi everyone!

I found some used mixers and I'd like to hear your opinion about them, I'm a bit suspicious, because they seem really cheap, are they worth the buy? The mixers are the following:

Electro Voice BK 1232 (150$)
Peavey Unity 2002 (175$)
Focus FX 1602 (200$)

The most important thing for me is the number of mic channels, i don't really care about the effects. The Focus has 16 mic channels, and for that, it's suspiciously cheap, the other two have 12. What do you guys think? Any help or previous experience would be useful!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Lasse Lammert]

I'd rather have one good sounding channel than 16 crappy ones.
If it's just for some rehearsalroom to amplify growls from an sm58 copy those will do, but forget about using them for recordings

 

[unclefu]

Thanks, there are smaller ones with good quality, maybe I'll take one of those instead. I just wasn't aware of the quality of the 3 mentioned above.

 

[DanLights]

what do you want one for? that´s what´s most important, rehearsal, live shows, etc.

 

[sawtooth]

Why is it that everyone who wants to get into recording thinks they need a mixer? I've lost track of the times I've said to friends who want to record their own demos.

 

[John_C]

Why is it that everyone who wants to get into recording thinks they need a mixer? I've lost track of the times I've said to friends who want to record their own demos.

I guess it makes sense if you look at it from an outside perspective.... It's a familiar thing to me as well, people always think their first port of call has to have physical faders

 

[JoergieN]

Don't DAW controllers and a few good preamps make more sense nowadays?

 

[ahjteam]

Don't DAW controllers and a few good preamps make more sense nowadays?

...which I think was sawtooth's point

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Why is it that everyone who wants to get into recording thinks they need a mixer? I've lost track of the times I've said to friends who want to record their own demos.

I guess it's just the mental image. When people think about a mixing engineer, they first see a huge mixer and figure that's where the magic happens

Don't DAW controllers and a few good preamps make more sense nowadays?

In a rational sense probably yeah, but it's largely a matter of preference. I know a lot of engineers who still love working on old workhorse prosumer consoles (Ghost, 8Bus etc.) rather than completely ITB, because that's how they're used to work LFC's are a whole another deal, of course.

 

[sawtooth]

I guess it's just the mental image. When people think about a mixing engineer, they first see a huge mixer and figure that's where the magic happens



In a rational sense probably yeah, but it's largely a matter of preference. I know a lot of engineers who still love working on old workhorse prosumer consoles (Ghost, 8Bus etc.) rather than completely ITB, because that's how they're used to work LFC's are a whole another deal, of course.

Yeah that must be it. I had a friend by a cheap Behringer mixer then think, "umm how do I get the music into the pc then?". And I've had arguments with people who think they MUST have a mixer, and that audio interfaces are the devil's work hehe

 

[JoergieN]

...which I think was sawtooth's point

Sorry I had just gotten home and I was piss slammed drunk while lurking the the thread

 

[sawtooth]

So unclefu, if you want to record DO NOT get a mixer. Get an audio interface like: Saffire PRO 40, M Audio 2626, Motu 8 pre etc... I use the Saffire PRO 40 and it's rock solid with good converters and 8 clean preamps. If you only want to mix a live performance a mixer is fine.

 

[unclefu]

Thanks for the answers. I'm just planning to use it on rehearsals, so good quality is not that much of a requirement, but for that, neither are a lot of channels. I was just thinking if I did ever wanted to record with it, more channels would be better, but if these 3 are not as good, I'll just get one which serves the original purpose.

 

[DanLights]

Thanks for the answers. I'm just planning to use it on rehearsals, so good quality is not that much of a requirement, but for that, neither are a lot of channels. I was just thinking if I did ever wanted to record with it, more channels would be better, but if these 3 are not as good, I'll just get one which serves the original purpose.

for rehearsals, obviously you need a mixer, honestly if you´re going cheap there are some Behringer mixers with effects (reverb for the vocals for example) that are very decently priced and honestly they´re not bad at all.

I use one like this in my rehearsal room and also for live gigs with my cover band (cause we play pubs/bars with no PA, so we take everything)
http://www.thomann.de/es/behringer_xenyx_1222_fx.htm