Mixer advice for Bose

[Woodchoppersbal]

Been looking for a small mixer (8 channels) for Bose compact. Have read alot of great things about the sound quality of soundcraft. Kinda eyeballing the EFX8 or MXI8. Anyone had any experience with the two?*

We mostly play inside small to mid sized churches. 50-200 people. All acoustic instruments and 4 vocal. We don't plug in any instruments other than the bass. Main focus is on the vocals we do alot of accapella. Thanks

[gfa]

The soundcrafts are both analog, right? Any particular reason you are not looking at digital? For our all-acoustic band, I moved from a small Yamaha analog board to a QSC Touchmix 8. Very pleased with the TM8. Don't have any basis to compare it to any other mixers.

(BTW, howdy from a WV native! Born and raised there, did most of my years in Huntington.)

[MikeTX]

+1 for the QSC TM8 - my bandmate has been using it with fine results with original L1 Classic

[buzzardwhiskey]

Our band uses the Soundcraft EFX8. It sounds great, is super easy, and very reliable.

We just did a gig where a semi-pro sound guy brought his Behringer XR18 digital mixer (absolutely requires an iPad or computer). It took him four times longer to setup than we take with my analogue unit, and when problems arose it took far far longer to find and fix them. Without a dedicated FOH guy, there's simply no way for me to justify something like this for my 8-channel band... even though I LOVE THE IDEA OF IT.

[gfa]

Originally Posted by buzzardwhiskey

Our band uses the Soundcraft EFX8. It sounds great, is super easy, and very reliable.

We just did a gig where a semi-pro sound guy brought his Behringer XR18 digital mixer (absolutely requires an iPad or computer). It took him four times longer to setup than we take with my analogue unit, and when problems arose it took far far longer to find and fix them. Without a dedicated FOH guy, there's simply no way for me to justify something like this for my 8-channel band... even though I LOVE THE IDEA OF IT.

You can't reasonably draw any conclusions from that one experience. I think digital mixers do tend to be more complicated than comparably-sized analogue boards, but that's because they have many more features built in. There's a steep learning curve, compounded by the fact that you can't always just look at the board and see what is what the way you can with an analogue board. Once you've done the work to get familiar with the board, it's not difficult. Since you love the idea of it, I'd encourage you to take a closer look. BTW, the TM series does not require an iPad or other external controller, which is one of the reasons I chose it. That said, it's pretty cool to walk around FOH and tweak things!

[Woodchoppersbal]

Originally Posted by gfa

The soundcrafts are both analog, right? Any particular reason you are not looking at digital? For our all-acoustic band, I moved from a small Yamaha analog board to a QSC Touchmix 8. Very pleased with the TM8. Don't have any basis to compare it to any other mixers.

(BTW, howdy from a WV native! Born and raised there, did most of my years in Huntington.)

Hey thx for the info. Yea im about 2 hours from Huntington. I had better stick with analog. I don't want to have to worry about a tablet,Wi-Fi, and the time to learn how to use it really. I know that sounds bad and lazy but I need quick n easy. Most of the time we only get about 5 or 15 minutes to setup because nobody shows up early enough to let us in at the different churches we sing at. Almost always the case everytime.

[buzzardwhiskey]

Originally Posted by gfa

You can't reasonably draw any conclusions from that one experience. I think digital mixers do tend to be more complicated than comparably-sized analogue boards, but that's because they have many more features built in. There's a steep learning curve, compounded by the fact that you can't always just look at the board and see what is what the way you can with an analogue board. Once you've done the work to get familiar with the board, it's not difficult. Since you love the idea of it, I'd encourage you to take a closer look. BTW, the TM series does not require an iPad or other external controller, which is one of the reasons I chose it. That said, it's pretty cool to walk around FOH and tweak things!

I think the key here is that your digital mixer actually has knobs and sliders. You can, with a quick peek, often "see" the problem.

[Marty C]

Originally Posted by Woodchoppersbal

Been looking for a small mixer (8 channels) for Bose compact. Have read alot of great things about the sound quality of soundcraft. Kinda eyeballing the EFX8 or MXI8. Anyone had any experience with the two?*

We mostly play inside small to mid sized churches. 50-200 people. All acoustic instruments and 4 vocal. We don't plug in any instruments other than the bass. Main focus is on the vocals we do alot of accapella. Thanks

Thanks for this post. I will be ordering a Bose Compact next month when they go on sale. I will be curious to see how this goes. I have both analog and digital mixers. I play In churches often and are often joined by another Acoustic, playing singers. I usually need 4-6 channels, some effects and at least 3 band eq. I assume that’s what you are looking for as well?

[benderman57]

After using a Yamaha MX mixer for years to add a small drum kit mix to the Tonematch mixer I just upgraded to a Soundcraft Signature 10 with Lexicon effects.

This is a really nice small mixer with big mixer features. I went up in size a little bit but got a lot more EQ, better effects and super quiet operation. Been using it now for about 2 months and am super happy with it

[zhunter]

I use an EFX8. We put everything in the PA, guitar, 3 vocals, congas/percussion and bass. The mixer has a good sound and has been 100% for a lot of gigs. Effects are modest but I found a canned FX setting that works for vocals. I have never done any FX edits so there may be more functionality than I know. The mixer has a decent feature set and good input/output selections. Only 1 aux buss for monitoring so individual monitor mix capabilities not available.

Digital is tempting and I will look when it becomes necessary, but the EFX8 is getting the job done so I'll keep using it. FWIW one of the clubs we play uses an EFX8 as their house mixer meaning it sees a lot of use and probably some abuse. Every time we use it is works fine.

hunter

[Mking]

I use an Allen & Heath Zed10X non powered and it works great for my duo.

www.medicinecreekband.com

Originally Posted by gfa

Any particular reason you are not looking at digital?

Have not worked with a digital mixer. What advantages does it offer?

[gfa]

Originally Posted by buzzardwhiskey

I think the key here is that your digital mixer actually has knobs and sliders. You can, with a quick peek, often "see" the problem.

The only physical knobs on the TM8 are for gain (there's also a separate digital gain setting). I'd actually prefer physical faders. Some digital boards have physical faders, some don't.

[gfa]

Originally Posted by A-Mac

Have not worked with a digital mixer. What advantages does it offer?

In general, digital mixers have a lot more features than comparably-sized analogue mixers. My little TM8 has GEQ, PEQ, highly tweakable FX, highly tweakable compression, AFS ... the list goes on. Save all the settings from a gig so that next time we play that venue, mix-in is minimal. Plug a USB drive into the board and record, then either mix down on the board or take those files to a DAW for mixing. Play and record a sound check, then go out to FOH with my tablet and tweak the mix. I'll never use all that it has to offer. I used to bring my analogue board plus a GEQ plus a DBX processor. Now I just bring the board. I'm liking it. CAVEAT - I don't have any training and not much experience, just relating what I've experienced so far. I'm diggin' it.

[Stratcat77]

Originally Posted by Mking

I use an Allen & Heath Zed10X non powered and it works great for my duo.

www.medicinecreekband.com

I also use the ZED10fx for my solo gigs.

For my trio or where I need more, I use it's bigger brother, the ZED14fx.

http://www.samash.com/zed60-14fx-usb-mixer--azed6014f-p

Great sounding simple mixers.