What kind of mixing boards do you use/what would you recommend to someone who has plenty of mixing board experience, but doesn't own one himself and is on a tight budget?
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People whine about them, but I personally love my Behringer xenix 802. It was cheap, it's loud, sounds great, and in my experience, durable. I'd go with one from their Xenyx line 
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Matthew Joseph Payne
I'm assuming you're talking small format for onstage use? How tight of a budget?
Soundcraft makes boards not quite as cheap as the Behringer stuff, but close, and much better sounding.
Last edited by kineticturtle (Feb 22, 2012 7:49 pm)
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Medina, Ohio
I agree with Frostbyte, I have a xenyx 1202FX and I haven't had a problem. It has quite a few inputs too, which I look at as a good thing, because you never know what you will be doing later on down the road 
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Costa Mesa
I'm thinking at the moment if someone can find me something around the $50 dollar range, I'd consider them a smaller diety, but a little more wouldn't hurt. I do have my tax return coming in after all.
The purpose of the mixing board would be general, but with decent applications both live and in a hobbyist-like studio. Which at the moment is my desk, a laptop (macbook pro 13'' dual boot windows 7 and mas osx), a casio mt-68 and a roland sh-201. I would typically need around 4-5 channels, my live set up will be two mics (which the only kind i have are 3.55mm output mics), a guitar, a master DMG, a slave DMG, and hopefully eventually a roland sh-404 or something to add to the gameboys. The studio application would just be to hold the sound while i get a .25'' to usb to allow me to do decent recordings, while live I would be outputting through an old amplifier.
So basically what I'm looking for is 4-6 channels, a phones and output port, and a decent amount of things I can do to tweak the sound live.
Frostbyte- I actually saw one on ebay for a decent price, I'm just drained until paychecks/federal tax return, so I decided to take the time to see what else is being used or if there was some sort of hidden distaste of toward certain mixers due to terrible features or whatnot.
Thanks all for the input though, any other suggestions out there?
And thanks for the thread move, I looked around for a better place to put this post but for some reason i missed this section, sorry about that.
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reject of nintendoage
try to get a used mx802a, it's got the same amount of channels as the 1202FX, but TWO FX sends (pre/post, the manual even tells you how to mod it for pre/pre) and they are cheap as fuck, got mine for 30 bucks years ago. No seperate control over left/right though on the stereo channels.
bigger behringer mixers from the "eurorack" era are also dead cheap!
never noticed the bad sound behringer products are said to have, in fact i feel it even improves the sound compared to plugging stuff directly into my amp...
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Yuma, AZ
I'm using a xenyx802, and loving every minute of it. Plenty of control, but live simplicity.
6 channels, aux send, tape out. Everything I need.
edit: and only $50
Last edited by 10spd (Feb 22, 2012 9:46 pm)
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Wait, you also want a usb out? I haven't looked at Behringer stuff recently, not sure if they have one with that option.
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Costa Mesa
Nonono, I already have a .25'' to usb that essentially works like a USB microphone, just plugs into your typical stereo port. However there may be issues with it, but these chords are like 10-15 bucks so I'm not worried about it.
10spd wrote:
I'm using a xenyx802, and loving every minute of it. Plenty of control, but live simplicity.
6 channels, aux send, tape out. Everything I need.edit: and only $50
is this the new one you have or the one you had been using?
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Madison, Alabama
I've used cheapo Behringer mixers for years, never had a problem, sound is good, plenty of inputs.
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Matthew Joseph Payne
So weird - I used to use Behringer mixers all the time, and had multiple failures. Power supplies, master audio outs, input channels, all failed on me. Mostly with their midsize format mixers, but also with a smaller tabletop model.
The thing that really drove me nuts was an uneven frequency response, resulting in a hard, glassy and brittle sound and accentuated feedback issues with microphones.
Maybe their designs have changed in the last 5+ years, but I've just had a general policy of staying away since then.
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Godzilladelph
Among other mixers (I've got way too many now) this http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/502 has worked fine for smaller applications. I have a soundcraft mixer, and it's complete shit (good for no input mixing though hehe). Though idk, it could have been their worst model. However, I have picked up a 12 channel mixer made by Helios when I was first starting out, and it's been with me ever since.
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sweden
kineticturtle wrote:
So weird - I used to use Behringer mixers all the time, and had multiple failures. Power supplies, master audio outs, input channels, all failed on me. Mostly with their midsize format mixers, but also with a smaller tabletop model.
The thing that really drove me nuts was an uneven frequency response, resulting in a hard, glassy and brittle sound and accentuated feedback issues with microphones.
Maybe their designs have changed in the last 5+ years, but I've just had a general policy of staying away since then.
Ive had many problems with the midsize ones but never with the small ones. Ive had a UB802 plugged in 24/7 for 6 years now, and a mx602 that has survived so many things (beer, being dropped etc).
Like night and day.
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Matthew Joseph Payne
SKGB wrote:
I have a soundcraft mixer, and it's complete shit
I'm curious about your experiences, as mine have been opposite.
nordloef wrote:
Ive had many problems with the midsize ones but never with the small ones. Ive had a UB802 plugged in 24/7 for 6 years now, and a mx602 that has survived so many things (beer, being dropped etc).
Like night and day.
That's good to hear actually. I think a lot of the smaller stuff is based more closely on Mackie designs, that may have something to do with it. I know my Soundcraft has pretty much the same external form as some of Behringer's small format mixers.
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Costa Mesa
Nice listings all, and thanks for the help all! I appreciate it ever so much. I believe I owe a smaller diety classification towards some of you, although I already figured 10spd to be some sort of divine creature... Thanks for the input though, it will definitely help when I go shopping for a mixer pretty soon!