Looking for good portable mixer

[Eric Barker]

For my live setup, I use a single-channel combo amp to monitor my keyboard and microphone signals before it hits the board, so I can control my own monitoring levels. This has gotten kind of byzantine with using a combination of a line mixer, mic preamp, and DIs. I'm hoping to toss all these out with a good small mixer with a pre-fader aux out. I'm looking for something small enough to fit in my gig bag, and it doesn't need many channels (4 at most), but I'd be willing to pay for one with quality preamps.

Almost nothing on the market seems to fit my needs. Few low-channel mixers have aux sends, and most that do are post-fader for FX (no need), and usually have crappy preamps. I could move up to something like a small SoundCraft, which would be fine, but gets a little large to fit in my gig bag. I'd prefer pots to faders, because I can set them and not worry about them shifting between gigs... plus they make the unit smaller.

Anyone know of anything that fits this description? My price range is probably $100-$300... partially because I have yet to see anything above $300 that isn't way too big and overkill for my needs. If someone comes at me with a tiny box for $400 that does exactly what I want it to, I'd be down.

 

[happyrat1]

Perhaps Yamaha can suit your needs? I own the 16 channel monster big brother of this one and I have to say it's a gorgeous piece of kit. The preamps are absolutely noise free.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I2J4V5G/

Gary

 

[Eric Barker]

I believe I looked at the MG10, which looked PERFECT for my needs. The only problem is, and I'm having trouble confirming this, I believe the AUX send is post-fader, which is pretty much a deal breaker for me, since the whole reason I'd be using this would be to send an alternate mix to my monitor.

 

[happyrat1]

According to the MG10X manual, the AUX output is controlled by either the FX knob OR the AUX knob.

http://shopwl.com/content/MG10 Mixing Console - Manual.pdf

According to page 18 of the MG16XU manual you have four AUX channels of which Channel 1 can be controlled Pre-Fader with Knob 1.

http://shopwl.com/content/MG20 Mixing Console - Manual.pdf

Since this manual also applies to the 12 channel version you may want to up your game to the 12 channel version.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IBIVLKQ/

Mind you, if you're travelling light it's a bit of a stretch weighing in at 12.5 lbs and dimensions of 8x16x19 inches. Then again I can state that the power supply is internal so there's no extra wall wart to drag along. Instead it uses a standard three pronged computer style power cable.

It's up to you but I'd say you should try and definitively find out from Yamaha which models are pre and post fader.

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

BTW, just a minor tip. If you sink a lot of dough into a mixer you should spring for the extended warranty. They are complicated, nearly impossible beasts to repair properly and a 4 year extended warranty is cheap insurance.

Gary

 

[Eric Barker]

Yeah, the 12-channel version has pre-fader switches, but by that point, we're moving up into the small mid-sized mixer territory, it's a lot bigger, has long-throw faders, and 6 mic-pres... complete overkill in features and size for what I'm looking for. My main concern is getting just the features I need in a small portable package that can sit beside a few pedals in a very confined space. I've got gobs of Firewire interfaces and external preamps for recording use at home, and I just sold a 16-channel Mackie a few years back because I almost never used it. This mixer will have one specific purpose, I want it to do that purpose well (providing good signal from my keyboard and mic to the mains and my monitor), but it literally will only ever get 4 channels of signal, ever. If I ever need something for a different purpose, I'll happily plop down $800+ for a separate SoundCraft board that fits those needs.

 

[Eric Barker]

Update: I finally settled on the Allen & Heath ZEDi-10 Mixer. It's a little heavier, but smaller footprint than most out there, which is one of my biggest concerns. It has a master fader, unfortunately, but the rest are pots, so I can work with that, and has a dedicated pre-fader AUX. More inputs than I'll need for this purpose, but frankly, it's not much larger than other units with half the connectivity, and none of them have pre-fader auxes. A&H tends to have fairly clean preamps, too.

 

[happyrat1]

Glad to hear that you found a solution...

Gary