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  #1  
Old 11-19-2018, 09:13 AM
Johnny K Johnny K is offline
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Default Yamaha MG16Xu.

Anyone here own a Yamaha mixer/interface? I've seen great reviews but they tend to be more costly than similar offerings from the others the Mackie, Alesis and PreSonus AR12

It seems to me it's worth if for the built in compressors on each channel strip.

I like that since I cannot sit statue still while playing it would seem that having this in the chain would help with minor movements near the mics where you would have drops in sounds when you move away from the mics.

Are they worth the extra money?
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Old 11-19-2018, 09:51 AM
jjbigfly jjbigfly is offline
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They are a good, solid, well built mixer. Had a couple of Yamahas myself. Quiet and problem free. Compression is nice.
I would certainly buy this brand again.....
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Old 11-20-2018, 10:38 AM
Joseph Hanna Joseph Hanna is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny K View Post
Anyone here own a Yamaha mixer/interface? I've seen great reviews but they tend to be more costly than similar offerings from the others the Mackie, Alesis and PreSonus AR12

It seems to me it's worth if for the built in compressors on each channel strip.

I like that since I cannot sit statue still while playing it would seem that having this in the chain would help with minor movements near the mics where you would have drops in sounds when you move away from the mics.

Are they worth the extra money?
Johnny K i’d definitely do a little research here. You seem to be entertaining the idea of a 16 channel mixer for a single channel of digital compression?! I’m not totally sure you can use the compression going in (if that’s your plan) and even then I’m betting 5 or 6 hundred dollars buys a really nice outboard compressor.

Assuming you’re recording to some digital platform a 16 channel analog board rarely makes sense unless, and this is a big unless, you’re planing on using a 16 channel converter to feed the 16 channel board. I’m one of those guys who’d dearly love to have some hybrid digital DAW feed to an analog console but when you start to add up the cost of a 16 channel converter and the cost of the board it’s starts to make almost no sense. The cost quickly rises to the multiple-thousands of dollars.

I dunno though maybe I missed your point?!?
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Old 11-20-2018, 12:37 PM
DukeX DukeX is offline
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The MG10Xu, significantly less $, might be all you need. It has the same features and converters only less channels--you still get 4 mic ins.
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  #5  
Old 11-20-2018, 01:14 PM
Johnny K Johnny K is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna View Post
Johnny K i’d definitely do a little research here. You seem to be entertaining the idea of a 16 channel mixer for a single channel of digital compression?! I’m not totally sure you can use the compression going in (if that’s your plan) and even then I’m betting 5 or 6 hundred dollars buys a really nice outboard compressor.

Assuming you’re recording to some digital platform a 16 channel analog board rarely makes sense unless, and this is a big unless, you’re planing on using a 16 channel converter to feed the 16 channel board. I’m one of those guys who’d dearly love to have some hybrid digital DAW feed to an analog console but when you start to add up the cost of a 16 channel converter and the cost of the board it’s starts to make almost no sense. The cost quickly rises to the multiple-thousands of dollars.

I dunno though maybe I missed your point?!?
You didn't, in fact you may have validated further research i have done since i posted the topic. Current standings in my research indicates that I might be better served by a modest outboard rack setup with multi-channel preamps and interfaces with some kind of desktop controller.

I need to keep researching. From what i've been kind of reading even the hybrid mixers dont do what I think I want them to do, which is to basically toss up 16 separate audio tracks (assuming i got the 16 chan mixer) as soon as I fire up Ableton. I liked the Yamaha because it has separate compression knobs on the first 8 channels. A very useful thing. But it's not gonna do me any good if I've got 8 mics on my drum kit and I cant see 8 separate channels on the screen. I like to process each channel with different effects to shape the overall kit sound. Like I do with my current interface and 4 mic set-up. Kick, Snare, 2 Overheads.

Same goes for guitar. If i got my 2 mics on my Deville, a D/O and a mic on the Loudbox and a 5th mic for the room while playing with my Sound on Sound set up, I want 5 separate tracks showing up in the DAW. I currently can only do 4 chans, so I dont mic the Loudbox and I keep the volume off it so it doesn't bleed into the Deville's mics. (And now that I said that out loud I see a fault in my setup. The Loudbox is not getting picked up by the room mic, so I need to isolate the two amps)

I can hear the whole mix fine thru my IEM. I'd to have even more channels if I got my wife playing her upright bass and I want to track that too while playing the guitar or drums at the same time. I got her a pickup for it so I can run it thru a bass amp with a kick drum mic and the bass amp's D/O for two more channels of fun.

I am asking for an awful lot I think?
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Last edited by Johnny K; 11-20-2018 at 01:26 PM.
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Old 11-21-2018, 12:50 PM
Joseph Hanna Joseph Hanna is offline
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You’re are asking a lot but there’s nothing wrong with that. This can be a pretty deep rabbit hole but I’ll throw some things out there from my perspective.

For me the only reason i’d incorporate an analog board would be for mixing. Going “to” tape (or hard drive) doesn’t get me much unless of course you’re summing 16 channels to one stereo in. But there are scenarios where one might wanna use that. More on that perhaps later.

Mixing is another story. There’s nothing like the tactile touch of good long throw analog faders. Nothing. The long, long gaggle of “control surfaces” that have been coming out over the years DO NOT in any way shape or form provide that feel. In the end the latency of those surfaces are (for me) worse than mixing with a mouse. The same thing goes for decent parametric eq of which it’s just impossible to not only reproduce the tactile feel (physical connection to the eq is magical) but even in the most budget minded bigger boards the sound of the eq is irreplaceable. I’ve yet to find a piece of software that is sonically as satisfying as a good analog parametric. The single big gotcha then of course becomes price. To stack 16 (or more) analog out via converters gets costly in a hurry. I don’t think you can get there for less than $1000.00 and that doesn’t factor in the board.

Going “in” is a whole other story but some facilities still favor this (usually for routing capabilities but sometimes because of prized pre-amp circuitry but now you’re looking for a board that covers both all your “in” needs simultaneously with all your “out” needs. This would include boards that have not only enough inputs and outputs but also a pretty robust channel insert capabilities.

In the end and no matter how many times I sit down with pencil and pad there’s just no way to do this very cost effectively especially when one considers that mixing in the box is still very easy, very cost effective and on the grand scale very, very capable.

Hope that helps some.
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  #7  
Old 11-24-2018, 10:57 AM
Johnny K Johnny K is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna View Post
You’re are asking a lot but there’s nothing wrong with that. This can be a pretty deep rabbit hole but I’ll throw some things out there from my perspective.


Mixing is another story. There’s nothing like the tactile touch of good long throw analog faders. Nothing. The long, long gaggle of “control surfaces” that have been coming out over the years DO NOT in any way shape or form provide that feel. In the end the latency of those surfaces are (for me) worse than mixing with a mouse. The same thing goes for decent parametric eq of which it’s just impossible to not only reproduce the tactile feel (physical connection to the eq is magical) but even in the most budget minded bigger boards the sound of the eq is irreplaceable. I’ve yet to find a piece of software that is sonically as satisfying as a good analog parametric. The single big gotcha then of course becomes price. To stack 16 (or more) analog out via converters gets costly in a hurry. I don’t think you can get there for less than $1000.00 and that doesn’t factor in the board.



Hope that helps some.
Thank you it did help. I think am more educated at this point.

I am going to un-stash the rack that's been my crawspace forever, clean it up and re-purpose it with rack mount recording gear.

I agree on the EQ but I'll have to live with plugins.

At this point, I am going to my upgrade my Behringer 4 channel interface to an 8 channel interface that I can add more channels later if I need them and get an controller like the Behinger X Touch to get that tactile feel of buttons and faders. I'll add stuff as I need it.
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  #8  
Old 12-02-2018, 01:46 PM
David MacNeill David MacNeill is offline
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My studio gear outputs are all patched through a Yamaha MG12XU and I have no complaints. The USB input/output can be finicky but I use an Apollo Twin Mk II Quad Thunderbolt interface anyway, so no big deal.
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  #9  
Old 12-04-2018, 10:05 PM
Johnny K Johnny K is offline
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I think I'll hold off buying anything right now. I did a session on Sunday. Mixed my session using my normal seat of the pants way of doing it. It sounded ok to me. Made a video and posted it to YouTube.

Then I watched a really good video on mixing drums yesterday. After watching it, I became fully aware that I still don't know jack. So I remixed it tonight and it came out much better.

Wow. I got a lot learn.

It needs some more tweeking but I think that video also helped me realize that my current gear is pretty good and I should learn the craft better before tossing more money.

Here is a link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W58HM9glF3M&t=215s

I've watched many videos on recording drums and I think that ,while simplistic It was so well explained that I was able to pickup and immediately improve a mix right away.

This approach will serve me for mixing guitars from multiple mics. I'm tempted to remix my sound on sound stuff with this approach.
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