Budget Mixer recommendations

Am looking at purchasing a new mixer for multi use (studio and live situation). I have a budget of about £100. I probably don't need that many channels but am really struggling to come up with a decision. Started looking at USB mixers as the concept sounds quite tasty. Anyone had any experience with USB mixers and what's this I read about being able to transfering samples via usb back to the mixer? Can any USB mixers on the market double up as controllers too or are we talking firewire?

Anyways am looking at this mixer which has phonos as oppose to jack inputs on the stereo channels which I believe is better because they're grounded.

Soundcraft Compact 4 Mini Desktop Mixer £59.00

or

Soundcraft Compact 10 Mini Desktop Mixer @ £109.00

However with Compact 10 I'm not sure I'd really need 10 channels but for £40 extra seems like a bargain if I ever did decide to buy some equipment where by I'd need more than 4 channels.

What do you think folks as they're bit more pricey than the budget Behringers but certainly can't be as noisy.

for small mixing needs i use...

does me fine

i also have a 24/4/2 desk propping open a door.

  mosca said:

for small mixing needs i use...

 

 

 

does me fine

 

i also have a 24/4/2 desk propping open a door.

Thanks. I really like the look of that .... pretty much ticks all the boxers for this sort of mixer. Looks like they don't stock it at Turnkey though.

Mmm found this for £89!! which looks even better. Oddly it doesn't appear have mid range eq for channels 7/8 and 9/10.

the new yamahas are neat cause they have channel compressors. i'd like to have channel compressors on my mg24/14fx aswell.

are you sure you only need 8 channels? you know... once you go hardware there's no turning back :D

now i'm on 24 channel mixer and they're *all* used.

  kokoon said:

the new yamahas are neat cause they have channel compressors. i'd like to have channel compressors on my mg24/14fx aswell.

 

are you sure you only need 8 channels? you know... once you go hardware there's no turning back :D

now i'm on 24 channel mixer and they're *all* used.

Hardware. No I'm not going hardware. I use software but I just need a cheap mixer for a live situation in order that laptops can be plugged into it etc. Just concerned if unbalanced inputs could create some fuck up with a live sound system.

I think I'm gonna settle on this one below as its basically all thats required.

Anyone own any Tapco stuff? I've seen them alot lately here or there but don't know anything about them.

Spend £125 with Mr Behringer, and you get USB and faders.

Do not underestimate the power of faders!

So does USB mean it doubles as a MIDI controller for your applications, or functions as an external i/o interface for your DAW, or both. I never have really figured that out.

It says "ASIO" on the web page, so audio I suppose

  Drahken said:

Anyone own any Tapco stuff? I've seen them alot lately here or there but don't know anything about them.

tapcos pretty bottom of the line honestly, farther down than behringer

stay away from behringer

tapco's are good - we got them cheap

  analogue wings said:

Spend £125 with Mr Behringer, and you get USB and faders.

 

Do not underestimate the power of faders!

 

Ha ha. Yeah I've basically got a cut down 5 year old version of the same design without the darth faders and usb. But yeah I really just don't need all those free channels.

  Drahken said:

So does USB mean it doubles as a MIDI controller for your applications, or functions as an external i/o interface for your DAW, or both. I never have really figured that out.

Me either. I'm gonna pop into Turnkey and ask them tomorrow. So I'm gonna buy something but just don't know what yet. However they're not the most friendliest of staff in the world as I've found they can be pretty stuck up their ass.

EDIT: Am really guessing they don't double up as midi controllers as that'd be a huge selling point which they'd have to emphasize!!

I could use either or in my setup but Ive been too much of a lazy bloke to find the answer and actually go out and get one.

Sorry for being a noob but why are there hardly any mixers that have a good amount of stereo channels? Almost all of my equipment and any equipment I plan on buying in the future uses stereo output; where are some good mixers with plenty of stereo channels? This is one of the reasons why I'm looking toward DJ mixers, because the channels are always stereo.

Any help?

plug left channel into one channel, pan it hard left, plug right into the next channel and pan it hard right, thats what people have done for ages, ys, it takes 2 channels, but it gets you stereo.

  mosca said:

for small mixing needs i use...

 

 

 

does me fine

ditto

i bought this one today, for the gas-price of a 200 kilometer highway ride (+-50 euro)

it has analog bbd echo plus wooly fuzzy midrange eq, its nice to use as an effect unit (slightly overdrive it etc)

but for 100 pounds you can also get one of these, it'll sound lots better than low-end soundcraft, or any behringer:

TEAC M30

  jon124 said:

plug left channel into one channel, pan it hard left, plug right into the next channel and pan it hard right, thats what people have done for ages, ys, it takes 2 channels, but it gets you stereo.

Gee I never would have thought of that :omg: (sarcasm) Problem with that is it's still like I'm wasting money paying for pre-amps and extra channel controls that I don't need. ALSO, if I want to do live tweaking on the EQ or Aux. or changing the volume, I have to do both of them the same.

Thanks for trying to help anyway.

  Promo said:

EDIT: Am really guessing they don't double up as midi controllers as that'd be a huge selling point which they'd have to emphasize!!

Yeah, it would somewhat gut the market for these:

  Vegeta897 said:

  jon124 said:

plug left channel into one channel, pan it hard left, plug right into the next channel and pan it hard right, thats what people have done for ages, ys, it takes 2 channels, but it gets you stereo.

Gee I never would have thought of that :omg: (sarcasm) Problem with that is it's still like I'm wasting money paying for pre-amps and extra channel controls that I don't need. ALSO, if I want to do live tweaking on the EQ or Aux. or changing the volume, I have to do both of them the same.

 

Thanks for trying to help anyway.

yeah true, but you've gotta remember that mixers are sold for the task which they do the most, which is recording bands etc, or mixing down multitrack recorded projects. thing is, if you are recording you will most likely be doing instrument at a time, meaning the lack of stereo channels is not a problem. if you are mixing down then theres not really mch need for loads of stereo sounds.

the general consensus for mixing is that you have everything you possibly can in mono and pan on the mixer (hard or soft ware) which allows you to control the stereo field with ease. the one or two sounds that are stereo, and need to be to retain their effect, go to the stereo channels and the rest go to mono's. if you have loads of stereo sounds then you have to keep them petty much centered to retain their effect, and to many centered things results in a flat mix. so i guess they design mixers thinking that you probably only need a few channels for stereo sound.

I would imagine that they keep stereo tracks to a minimum because the resultant extra cost of having two preamps per channel would be more than most users, who only really need one for most cases, would pay.

to be honest though, having worked with loads of different sorts of music, including loads of crazy electronica, ive never needed more than 3 or 4 stereo tracks because once you get to the mix stage it quickly becomes counter intuitive. at most i'll have one or two sounds and one or two effects that HAVE to be stereo, and the rest can do fine with being mono...

I'm more in the business of having all my stuff hooked up and playing for epic jams.

Guess DJ mixers are the way to go.

no d00d i have all my stuff hooked up too, epic jams is all i do and that's why i never record anything :D

but stereo sources are really a pain, i have to agree on that. atm my only stereo synths are juno-106, jx-3p and a poly-800, but i only have juno-106 connected as stereo. i don't need the other 2 in stereo. why would you want a stereo lead sound? bass sound?? maybe some brass stabs... strings okay, sometimes you'd like strong stereo separation on a strings sound.

as for effects, that's another story. i always connect reverbs in stereo. having said that, currently 2 out of my 3 reverbs are mono reverbs :D (1 spring and one ancient digital yamaha)

if you really need lots of stereo channels, then there's allways a&h wz320s: http://www.allen-heath.com/UK/wz320s.asp

i guess that'd be eonugh stereo channels huh? ;)

Yeah I guess you are right about not needing a sound to be stereo, but most of my equipment I want to be midi syncable grooveboxes and drum machines, which are all stereo. But again I don't really need full stereo sound on all of them so I guess I can use the mono channels happily.

But the fact remains that I'm playing for mic preamps that I don't need.

that's a fact. i hate that too but what can you do