Hi

I posted recently to ask a question on the Nexo system. Well I decided not to buy that, and instead I travelled down to Chatham last night and picked up a second hand Fohhn experience 3 active system, which I need to buy a quality mixer for. I am looking for a 16 channel mixer, and I basically would like the best one available within a budget of 1,300 ish

The two I mention in the topic title are the ones that have been recommended to me, but it would be great to get some feedback from you lot as to what you would buy, .

The maximum it will ever have to cope with is a 6 piece band which I will mike up individually.


Many Thanks

Barry

The Allen and Heath, hands down. Somebody else (I wish it had been me) summed it up perfectly recently: the mix Wizard is a small professional mixer; the other is an amateur mixer pretending to be large.

Bob

Agree with Bobbsy, Allen and Heath and think no more about it.

P.S, Is Fohnn stuff any good??

The Fohnn sounds absolutely magnificent to me, I cannot stop singing and playing through it, and I've only got a cheep Alto mixer at the moment.

Can't wait to test it on a gig.

Looks like Allen & Heath is favourite at the moment, which is good news as it is a few hundred pounds cheaper.

Thanks

Barry

Which Mix Wizard are you considering (there are several of them)?

The 14:4:2 has the advantage of 4 sub groups but only 14 inputs (and no built in effects) while the 16:2 has a full 16 inputs plus included digital effects, making it a better comparison to the CMS1600.

Bob

I've used the Mixwizard 16:2 and love it! I want one.

It was the 16-2 Bob.
Although I own TC Helicons voicelive which is fantastic, I still want the effects.
I know of two people who own the CMS1600 and they rave about the effects, but the Allen & Heath appears to be favourite hear.

Thanks Barry

Indeed.

Reading back, I realise that most of us have been extolling the virtues of A&H without actually saying WHY we think it's the better mixer. Just for the record:

-A&H has lovely warm sounding mic pre-amps with lots of headroom.

-The EQ section is 4 band with two swept mids as opposed to 3 band/1 swept on the Dynacord. It is also an extremely "musical" EQ, making it easy to get a good sound.

-A&H has 100mm faders opposed to (I believe) 60mm on the Dynacord...much nice to mix with

-The Mix Wizard has 6 auxes; I believe the Dynacord only has 4

-The summing amp also has a goodly amount of headroom.

-A&H has an excellent reputation for reliability and has an internal construction that makes maintenance easier.

-A&H offer excellent customer support at the end of the phone, here in this country.

I'm sure others will have other reasons, but that's what jumps out at me.

Bob

The A&H is my choice too.. (and the 'small professional desk' probably was my quote Bobbsy;-) !)

However, the sacrifice you have to make for the MixWiz 16:2's size is a lack of full stereo inputs.

If you can stretch to £1300, consider one of the small A&H GL series - it should just be affordable.

Hi Simon

I have just taken a look at the GL series, the smallest one looks huge. I will mostly be playing by myself, or maybe one other, and only occasionally with a band. That size of mixer will look a little silly.

Thanks anyway

Barry

You'd be surprised how fast 16 inputs get used up on a six piece band though! The GLs are lovely mixers for the money!

However, the other consideration, from what you said, would be the effects since the GL series doesn't have any built in.

Bob

Good as the mixwiz is, the GL is available as a 16 channel, though most are 24 or 32s, but I like the GLs a lot. The 2200 is discontinued, so you should be able to pick them up almost for free and then get an external effect unit or two.

I have no experience of the dynacord mixer so cant compare, but from a disctance I'd echo all of the above, except to say that Dynacord are in the effects business whereas A&H haven't traditionally been (but their digital business may be rubbing off there into the mixwiz, I dunno), I dont know what the effects in the mixwiz are like, they may be brilliant, they may be mediocre. Listen before comitting!

I know the GL mixer would be a good option but I really want to keep it compact.

I have thought more about the true stereo option though, and that would be nice to have, maybe I should look along the lines of the 14-4-2 with an effects unit.

How much is a good effects unit?

And at the risk of asking to many questions does anyone have any views on what cables to connect between mixer and speakers, is it worth spending the extra for something like the van den hull?

Sorry for all the questions, but it does really help me.

Barry

if you want to stick with the TC Electronic brand, to match your Voicelive, then may I suggest something like the M-One or the D-Two.
My M-One cost me £280 new. IIRC

and it's a dual FX unit

I don't know what the "van den hull " costs, but all you need is a large cross sectional area, and flexible. Look at mains flex, 1.5 - 2.5mm sq will do for most applications in your sort of scale. High spec cable is usually supplied packed in snake-oil.

Okay, this is where you need to sit down, take a deep breath and work out a list of input and output routings to see exactly what your mixer needs to have now and would be nice to have in the future. Warning: it is a truism of mixing that you always need two more inputs and outputs than you have, so don't skimp. Your need for stereo depends entirely on the range of instruments and playback devices you have/may have in the future. Remember, you can always use two mono inputs for a stereo source, but it's less easy to go the other way around! It's easy for us to tell you that A&H make great mixers for the money; it's less easy to give good advice on the detailed configuration that's best for you without knowing your situation.



What effects do you need? How many channels of them? As per a previous poster, the TC Electronics M-One is one (pun intended) I often recommend, but this can vary depending what you want to do with it.



Since you've not mentioned amps I assume the Fohhn cabinets you've purchased are active? If so, any decent quality cable will be fine...there's no need or advantage in going for exotic "audiophile" stuff. I don't know van den hull but if they make any special claims for their cables then it's probably snake oil. On the other hand, if I've missed something and you have separate amps, the the most important things for amp to speaker cabling is an adequate cross sectional size for the power they have to handle. Again, audiophile exotica will do nothing for you.

Bob

Edited to fix messed up quotes. It's still before noon and I'm lacking caffeine.

Barry mentioned that the speakers were active in his initial post so he just needs good quality two core screened cable to the speakers. I seem to remember Van Den Hul was a hifi brand where you will almost certainly be spending more money supporting the advertising hype rather than the product itself. Maybe you were thinking of Van Damme who make more reasonably priced professional audio cables although I still feel that you are paying a premium for their brand. The longest lasting cables that I have are made from standard RS braided screen microphone cable which was available for around 50p per metre. These have lasted for around 25 years of gigging although they've tended to stay in the studio more recently.

Cheers

James.

You know, I re-read the OP twice this morning and missed the reference to active both times. I told you I needed more caffeine!

Decent quality 2 core screened it is! I had a look at the van den hul web site and it seems to be a funny mix...they "talk the hifi talk" but seem to have a range of more pro stuff like AES cables and so on. In any case, I'd I'd stick to decent...but ordinary...professional cable.

Bob

The Van den Hull site has enough Audiophile serpent lubricant present to ensure perpetual motion ;-)

I particularly liked the vehicle ignition cable that reduces the need for oil changes and makes the engine smoother....

Doh! Yeah, what they said... Good balanced cable can be had from all sorts of places at considerably less that £1/m.

Hi

I have read and taken in everything, made my decision, and now brought a Allen & heath 16:2 mixer with all the necessary standard cables from a blue room member, Mark Payne, who did a very good price for me.

I am also just about to book to go on his course so I can learn how to use it, I only have basic mixing skills.


Thanks for all the info, what a great site.


Barry

Enjoy yourself! The difficult part is handing over the money (all those moths flying out of my wallet are annoying). Mixing, on the other hand, is fun!

Bob

HI barry,
I`m about to purchase a Fohhn experience 3 system ( 2 xt 33`s and a xs 30) Can you tell me how you`ve been getting on with your system please?