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I need a small, compact PA

editor said:
The Mackie has some digital effects and I never thought I'd use them, but the band on Saturday wanted echo on their lead vox and I felt quite chuffed being able to deliver it!
yeah I hear you on that, it can be useful to have the ability to do that upon request, though personally I don't really like it so quite like being able to say 'no sorry' and keep a nice clean sound.;)

editor said:
But you reckon the Behringer is decent enough gear, yes?
well I've not used this version with the effects and stuff on it, so can't actually vouch for this specific version, but I'd imagine the basics of the thing are pretty much the same... so yes I'd say it's good kit, and in my experience was actually surprisingly rugged.

We used it on a 12 volt rig that we bought in 1999ish, that went round multiple festivals, raves, houseparties and the like, and is now being used regularly for gigs in a social centre up here as far as I'm aware. I also had another mate who also had one for use with his dj rig that worked fine for years, and I'm pretty sure the Baghdaddies have one that they take out on tour with them. None of this was flight cased, though it it was mostly taken reasonable care of, and no particular problems.

It is a tiny bit limited in the number of inputs as you only have 8 xlr channels, but for what you're doing it'd be pretty rare that this would be an issue, and you can always use your other mixer in addition to this one if needed.

BEst thing really is that it's dead compact and lightweight, and just does the job without too much fuss, plus if some pissed arsehole knocks a pint over onto it and fucks it, it's not too expensive to replace (the old version would probably have survived this reasonably intact, not sure about this version)
 
free spirit said:
yeah I hear you on that, it can be useful to have the ability to do that upon request, though personally I don't really like it so quite like being able to say 'no sorry' and keep a nice clean sound.
Keep it to yourself, but I turned it off after a few songs!

:D
 
Bellringer has a reputation that has spread over the whole range of their products ...BUT they do make a few good things ( Ultradrive , Da`s etc etc ) it`s just having the faith to road test something! We`ve had a few thing of theirs and the better ones have lastest , the crap ones have died within months! I`ve used one of their digital mixers and TBH it was OK! Not sure if it`s still alive in the club where it was but it had lasted 6 months.

My opinion tho would be to go for reliability in the Yamaha. The lack of output eq is usually a bonus in my view? You`d be looking at an external 31 band rather than internal 15 band? I`ve used numerous Yamaha mixers and they have all been very rugged and well thought out ( hmmm PM1d might not fall into that one!)

BUT! ( throws another spanner in the works) have a look at one of these...

http://www.allen-heath.com/zed/zed-14.asp

Very cheap for what looks like a well sturdy future proof mixer? Not sure of the price as it`s brand new ( had a quick trawl) but it looks under £400?

.p.
 
sherriff rosco said:
http://www.allen-heath.com/zed/zed-14.asp

Very cheap for what looks like a well sturdy future proof mixer? Not sure of the price as it`s brand new ( had a quick trawl) but it looks under £400?
Now I can see that the A&H is a lovely mixer, but it's only got 10 inputs and no FX and is only a little bit less than the Mackie.

I had another look at the Behringer today and it's certainly got all of the features I'm looking for....

But this Yamaha looks nice: http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Yamaha-MG166CX~ID~6418.asp Are the built in compressors worth getting getting excited about?

*goes off to scratch head again
 
that yamaha looks nice, the built in compression should be useful once you sus out how to get the best from it (though it's possibly a bit basic? hard to tell really).

The real clincher for me though is that it's got a low pass filter on each channel which I don't think you have on the beringer (?). You may well not need this most of the time, but when you've got some bizarre low range feedback thing going on that you can't quite put your finger on (eg. sub-base reverberating through the stage and feeding back through the mics), you'll be well fucking glad of the low pass filter. That particular feature saved my life at glasto on night when the sub bass from the back stage bar was reverberating through the stage feeding back through the tabla mics, giving this fucking bizarre sub bass feedback - I was incredibly glad when I spotted the low pass filter setting (weren't my rig) and suddenly it all sounded nice again.
 
free spirit said:
The real clincher for me though is that it's got a low pass filter on each channel which I don't think you have on the beringer (?).
The Behringer's got a low pass ("low cut") filter, as has my current Mackie.
 
yeah, surely in those situations you mention, fspirit, you want a low cut not a low pass filter...
 
Crispy said:
yeah, surely in those situations you mention, fspirit, you want a low cut not a low pass filter...
erm yeah, it did feel a bit wrong when I wrote it, but the description on the yamaha site is a bit confusing as it titles the section 'high pass filter', then talks about a low pass filter 'that can be used to eliminate subsonic noise'.

whatever it's called, it looks like the yamaha has it, but then according to ed, so does the behringer, so it's a bit irrelevant anyway I guess.
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
Buy the bloody Soundcraft desk I told you to weeks ago :p
Funny thing is that bloke in my local music store really isn't impressed at all with Soundcraft decks.

I'm not sure if I can afford/justify anything over £300 right now.
 
editor said:
Funny thing is that bloke in my local music store really isn't impressed at all with Soundcraft decks
I'll only spec two brands of mixer on any show technical rider I do - Midas (which you certainly can't afford, unless you have a spare 10 grand) or Soundcraft.

Make of that what you will :p
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
I'll only spec two brands of mixer on any show technical rider I do - Midas (which you certainly can't afford, unless you have a spare 10 grand) or Soundcraft.

Make of that what you will :p

What no Digico, Yamaha or Digidesign on the rider...??? Or are you saving up for an XL8?

Our Soundcraft desks have been pretty reliable but quite average sounding?

.p.
 
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