allen and heath gls220 or the mackie 24:8 ?

[ollyb]

I need to buy a pro desk for my studio, it will be used to mix my 8 outputs from sound card and enable me to get my mixes out of the digital domain and use some outboard gear and analogue eq's etc to breathe some reality into my tracks, and a more hands on approach in the creative stage.

 

I like the look of the allen and heath gls 220-with 24 tracks. from what I read it looks like a good pro desk, with good eqs , monitoring features , am I right in thinking the configuration of 24 tracks with 4 groups and 8 buss makes it more flexible for routing than the mackie which only has 24 track and the 8 buss.

I can afford a new mackie 24:8 but it would seriously dent my funds(for a long while!) , and if the gls 220 is as good as it sounds spending the extra on mackie isn't worth it.

My main reservation of the gls is that the mackie was designed primarily for studio use and th allen and heath looks like it was made mainly for live applications.

any ideas?

[Mr.Si]

As far as I'm aware, the Mackie is more of a "Recording" desk and the A&H more a "Live Sound Reinforcement" desk.

 

Alhough I wouldn't mind having an A&H in my studio setup!

[Just Some Bloke]

On the whole Mackie desks are renouned for having excellent mic pre-amps, giving low-noise recording and A&H are renouned for making good touring desks that don't fall apart too soon and are relatively easy to fix if anything goes wrong. Thus, Mackie good for recording, Allen and Heath good for live work. However, that is a huge generalisation and it all depends what you're after in a desk.

 

The Mackie desk has 8 groups with 24 tape outputs (Group 1 goes to ch1, 9 and 17, group 2 goes to ch 2, 10 and 18 etc.), has 2 x mono auxiliary sends and 2 x stereo aux sends, plus tape returns.

 

According, both to a Google search and to the Allen & Heath website, there is no such thing as a GLS220. Do you mean the GL2200? This has 4 groups, 6 mono aux sends, no tape returns and 2 stereo (effects) returns.

 

Both have 4-band EQ, but the A&H is much more of a live desk, being switchable to a monitor desk if you wish and the Mackie is much more of a studio desk with its tape outputs and tape returns.

 

Look at the Mackie desk here and the Allen and Heath desk here