Small desks

[berry120]

Hi,

 

I'm looking at getting a small desk at some point, mainly for personal recording work. Looking at around 4 mic channels and 1 or 2 stereo channels. I've had a look around and seen lots of topics relating to desks a bit bigger, but haven't really found one related to a desk this small. At the moment, the two options I'm looking at are probably either the smaller end of the Behringer Xenyx range, or a secondhand soundcraft spirit notepad. My old school used to have a fair few of the latter and the quality from them seemed decent, but I never used them on anything other than computer outputs or small PAs so it's a bit difficult to judge. All apart from one power supply stood up to a fair few years of school abuse as well, which in my mind is a good sign! As for the Behringer Xenyx range, I must admit I'm not a fan of most Behringer desks I've used, they've all seemed a bit cold, and one my friend used to have died completely in a very loud hiss after about a year of occasional usage. But I've never used the Xenyx range, and after looking around a bit they seem to have mixed reviews - some people like them, and the soundonsound site gave one a good review, whereas others don't seem as keen.

 

Any thoughts / guidance would be appreciated.

 

Thanks :)

[Rob_Beech]

I would recommend the notepad over the Behringers if they contain the features you require.

 

One thing to watch on them though, and on alot of the other smaller soundcraft range, the power connector is bloody awful. It is very small and flimsy, and can easily break. Consider replacing this with something like a 4pin XLR or another connector not used for anything else.

 

A handy tip, if you buy the powered notepad, the powerpad IIRC, this has an IEC socket.

[berry120]

Yeh thanks for that, I'd forgotten how crap / non standard those power connectors were. It should be ok though - I don't plan to haul it around much, it's more of a plug in and leave alone job than setting up in different places. But I'll bear it in mind, and if I get one I'll probably grab a 4 pin male / female XLR connector to replace it with in case it goes!

[Bobbsy]

We used to use some of the Spirit notepads at the TV facility where I worked in the suite where we prepped material for our video streaming service. Aside from the power connector issue already noted, they worked well and sounded fine. However, before you buy it might be worth sitting down with pencil and paper to sketch out your required signal flow to make sure it gives you the facilities you need in terms of inputs, main outputs and (most important) monitoring. The other thing I'd point out is that I assume (as this is for home recording) you intend to do any EQ "in the box" since the notepad's facilities in this area are limited to say the least.

 

Those caveats aside, it was an impressive unit for the money.

 

Bob

[mac.calder]

I would go Powerpad over Notepad... The powerpad has the internal amp - and whilst you may not need the amp, the power power input is IEC and it just feels sturdier.

[Doug Siddons]

I use an Alesis multimix 8 which is quite good depending on the quality you want speech can be a bit noisy music is fine but certainly equal to the behringer, would suggest you look at the firewire version http://www.alesis.com/multimix8firewire or the usb version as this might quieten things down a bit

[berry120]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll probably go the soundcraft route. Just one more thing with the powerpads, how do they compare to their unpowered cousins in terms of availability / price? I've seen quite a few notepads pop up on ebay at around the £40-50 mark over time, but hadn't actually come across a powerpad before. If they're not too much more expensive and they're not too hard to find, I'll probably go for one of them. I probably won't use the amp much but it's a useful extra if I do ever need it, and it eliminates the power connector problem.

 

Thanks for the suggestions :** laughs out loud **:

[backwater]

For small gigs I've been using a Mackie DFX6 mixer. 4 Mic, 2 stereo, built in effects and built in PSU. Sounds pretty good and seems to have good build quality.

 

Sound control are doing them at £159

Mercury AV are doing them at £119 (Mercury AV)

 

Have a search around as there may be better deals (I paid £99 for mine about a year ago)

 

Andy :** laughs out loud **: