Need suggestions for a mixer

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by guitarwebguy

I’ve never seen or used a digital mixer and would appreciate it if folks could say more about what a digital mixer is and why you would choose one - how do they compare cost wise? TIA

They tend to be more expensive. They can pack a lot more features and customizations into a smaller package, at the price of dealing with touchscreen menus that some find difficult to adjust on the fly while live. They can save settings for different venues, groups and instrumentations. They can be controlled remotely, so for example you can use an iPad to control everything, connected via WiFi. They're not all like that; for example the Bose T4S doesn't have that remote controllability and in some ways is best used with Bose systems, but is still a very small, light, handy mixer.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...-digital-mixer

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...-digital-mixer

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...onematch-mixer

[BT55]

+1 for the Yamaha MG10XU. The MG12XU is larger and a few dollars more but includes volume sliders instead of dials which I find much easier and repeatable to use.

[guitarwebguy]

Oh my .... digital mixers are indeed a bit more in $ and complexity but worth a look to be sure if this is the future! - thanks

[Irish Pennant]

I can't believe none have mentioned the good old A&H Zed 10fx, so I guess I will. It's reliable, quiet, solidly built, has what the OP is looking for, is reasonably priced and is easy to use. It has a switch at the main out (speaker line) to change the output signal to mic level, which makes it compatible to plugging into the XLR input channel on amps and other mixers.

I use one weekly at an open mic I host. I see a lot of different pickups and occasionally different mics, it's quick to dial in an acceptable sound.

[jjbigfly]

Only have experience with the Mackie digital mixer. To my simple mind you are able to change settings on things you did not know existed 😄. You are able to change, well, most everything. Compression? How much do you want? Where do you want it to come in? EQ in just about any situation. Feed back is something you can SEE in real time. Room acoustics can be sorted out by watching the Output in the graph view. Monitor mix that is adjustable by each band member, but only what you allow to be changed. Remove the iPad and walk around the venue and adjust everything on the fly. Save any settings you like and go back them at the push of a button. On and on......
Not nearly as easy to use as an analog mixer, but if you bother to learn the system it works very well. Very easy to plug in and use basic settings, but beyond that, if you know the terminology, not too difficult to use. If you are under 50 years old.......

[TheJackal]

Originally Posted by lkingston

I like everything about the Behringer XR series except for their crappy built in routers! 2.4GHz only, and worse than that it won’t automatically change channels if you run into interference! That leads to the scenario where it doesn’t work because there is interference on a channel, but you can’t log onto it to change the channel either so you are just screwed! Then, you kind of need a WiFi scanning app to see the available channels, but these only run on android phones because Apple locks developers out of channel scanning access.

When I started using my XR mixer with an Apple Airport Express router though it was outstanding!

I have read that this is a weak spot with the Behringer units before I bought mine. I solved it the same way you did by using an old dual-band wifi router I had on hand. It was easy to set up a private network on that router that is more robust. The router plugs in to the mixer using a cat-5 cable and wireless connections are to the external router. I've actually never tried the built in wifi in an actual live situation. I use the built in wifi at home when setting things up and messing around with various features.