Need help with a couple mic/recording questions...

Matt105

Junior Member
Ok, so I'm gonna mic my drums at church. Currently, I have an old version equivalent to a Behringer XENYX 502. I believe it has 5 inputs. The issue is that I need to run at least 7 mics(snare, 3 toms, kick, and 2 condensers). I've noticed the Behringer XENYX 802 which says it has 8 inputs. Does this mean that I can hook 8 mics to it? Also, I will be hooking this mixer to a larger board which has phantom power; is that an issue? I will also need to be running in-ear monitors through it(ran from the main musician's monitors, to the small mixer, and into head phones I suppose). In addition, it would be great to also have the ability to run click tracks and drum loops through it via my laptop.
Sorry for all the small details, but any help and advice would be greatly appriciated. Also, if anyone has a suggestion for a better mixer that would fulfill my needs affordably, feel free to chime in.
 
For what you want to do, you'll need a considerably more complex mixer. The two that you mention will not work for the amount of microphones that you intend to use. The 502 has 1 microphone input and the 802 has only two microphone inputs. When buying a mixer, it doesn't matter how many channels that it states that it has, what matters is the amount of microphone inputs that are available. These microphone inputs have pre-amplifiers built in to amplify the extremely low levels that originate from a microphone. As in the 802, it may have 8 channels, but only two are balanced microphone channels and the rest are for high level inputs.

I really don't have a lot of experience using Behringer products, buy I do have some knowledge repairing them. In other words, they would never be my "go to" mixer, but being inexpensive, many people use them. There are a lot of 8 and 12 channel microphone mixers available, but be prepared to spend considerably more money than what you're seeing with the Behringer products that you listed.

When running a small mixer into a main unit, the sound tech should run cables from your outputs into the main mixers high level "line" inputs. Phantom power never shows up on line inputs, so not to worry. Phantom power is usually 48 volts dc and is only used with a microphones low level balanced input ( three wire, hot, cold and ground).

If I personally needed a small portable mixer, I would look into products such as Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, Yamaha or Mackie. Maybe someone else might have other options for you, but keep the channel information in mind when comparing mixers.

Dennis
 
Thanks for the info. I just thought of something; we have an old mixer that isn't in use. If I find it, I'll post the info to see if it'll work.
 
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