12 track mixer for PA

Gottliver

Senior Member
Hi Guys, not sure where to post this, but here goes.

Our band is starting to play some shows where we are responsible for bringing the PA and running sound. We’ve decided to go with a passive mixer and powered speakers. We don’t need too much, 4 mics in, basic eq’ing and no effects. I won’t be mic’ing my drums, so only vocals will be going through the board. I’m leaning towards the Yamaha MG12 (I’m paying for it so it’s my decision).

Would there be any other products I should look at? I have looked at Mackie and prefer the Yammy.

Thanks for your help!!
 
Hi Guys, not sure where to post this, but here goes.

Our band is starting to play some shows where we are responsible for bringing the PA and running sound. We’ve decided to go with a passive mixer and powered speakers. We don’t need too much, 4 mics in, basic eq’ing and no effects. I won’t be mic’ing my drums, so only vocals will be going through the board. I’m leaning towards the Yamaha MG12 (I’m paying for it so it’s my decision).

Would there be any other products I should look at? I have looked at Mackie and prefer the Yammy.

Thanks for your help!!

I own a Yamaha MG10C, from the previous generation. Great little mixers and sound quality is excellent. I would, however, urge you to save up a little and get more channels from the start. You can always use fewer channels on a larger mixer, but if you need to put another instrument into the PA and don't have an input, you'll kick yourself for not spending the extra $50 or so. I would say six to eight XLR inputs is the minimum needed.

I believe the MG12 comes with USB, so it's useful for recording demos as well. You wouldn't need to mike or patch everything, a room mic or two might suffice.
 
It is a bit more but I'd check out something like the Behringer X Air. It comes in 12, 16, and 18 channels I believe. I'd probably go ahead and spring for more channels personally.

Anyway it is iPad controlled so you can easily make adjustments on the fly, since I'm guessing your not going to really have a dedicated sound guy running your stuff.
 
I agree, having owned both low-end Mackie and Yamaha mixers, the circuitry of the Yamaha's is far better. The circuitry on the Mackie's are good when you get into the VLZ Pro range (I'd avoid anything below those as they're quite noisy). Behringer is also not big on my list because of the noise factor - although a lot of people like the price. Maybe that big digital Behringer X32 would be good, but I wanna see how those consoles are doing a few years down the road from other users.

But Yamaha's MG boards are cool. I've used the MG10's, and the one I owned was the 16-channel version that had built-in effects - very handy. I would definitely get more channels than you think you need though, it will afford you more flexibility down the road.

If you are really thinking down the road, you can't go wrong with a Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro though. 16-channels of clean circuitry, no effects, but plenty of routing options with lots of inputs and outputs. That mixer has become my swiss army knife of mixers. You can mix a fairly large production with that console.

If you wanted digital, and had more money, the Yamaha O1v96 is awesome. Sometimes going digital is good because I know this console will give you dynamics processors for each channel (compression, limiting) as well as good effects and nice routing options, and it's all re-callable too, but at $2900, it's probably more than you want to spend.

I would recommend getting non-powered speakers and a separate power amp though. Again, it's the built-in circuitry - some powered speakers are better than others and you pay for clean sound. Sometimes it is cheaper to get a nice solid power amp, like a Crown, going into solid passive speakers, like Yamaha's. I've done well with a Crown power amp (I forget which one) and two Peavey 15" cabinets that I installed EV 15" speakers into. The passive speaker/power amp combo will also be lighter to handle. Big powered speakers are a lot heavier to load in the truck and to get up on speaker stands.
 
If you wanted digital, and had more money, the Yamaha O1v96 is awesome. Sometimes going digital is good because I know this console will give you dynamics processors for each channel (compression, limiting) as well as good effects and nice routing options, and it's all re-callable too, but at $2900, it's probably more than you want to spend.
Personally the 01v96 is one of the worst digital mixers I've ever used in my life. In my opinion there are a lot better digital options out now for a lot less money.
 
Thank you all for your input.

The MG16 may be the way to go. As for speakers, I’m looking at the Yamaha DBR12s. 2 on poles and 2 on the floor. I like the ease of the plug and play with this setup.

Again, thank you all for your help.
 
I have a Yamaha MG 16XU, I like the board, and the Yamaha quality. It seems like their selling more of them too. Like Bo suggested below, I am also using Crown amplifiers and passive speakers. I sacrifice portability, but I am not doing a lot gigs. What I gain with separate amps is the ability to swap out the speakers or amps if there are problems.
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I'd tend to agree in general that I'd slightly favor the Yamaha MG boards, but the Mackie VLZ are fine. Ultimately it depends on what kind of features and routing options you're going to want.


I'm using a Behringer X Air 18 for most everything these days. There is no problem with noise; do not confuse the X series with the cheaper Xenyx models. Unless you absolutely need to have a physical control surface, the 12-18 channel X series are really impossible to beat for features in their price range. I suppose you could also add a controller, but then your price point is completely changing.


Every channel has it's own gate, compressor, and para EQ options. You can drop FX on individual channels or use up to 4 busses, there's a lot of options there you aren't going to find in the analog controlled models at the same price point, but there are certainly some pros and cons, but I find the pros to far outweigh the cons.



They operate via PC, MacOS, iOS, Android, pretty much anything... and simultaneously. In my rehearsal space, I keep it hooked up to the Mac for recording and making most of my changes, and tweak via the iPad or Android phones. Local gigs, I bring up the stored settings on the iPad and use that for the 'desk', and anybody I trust can tweak via their mobile device.


It can also function as a multitrack recording interface and live mixer separately and concurrently, which is super cool.


I personally still favor separate power amps with passive speakers, but that's basically because I find it easier to diagnose and repair/replace faulty components in that setup. I don't find weight to be a problem much either way, modern class D power sections have virtually negligible weight. I have 1000 watt Crown units with built in crossovers and limiting and all that fun stuff (yay for not needing any outboard gear since it's all covered by the mixer and amps) that weigh less than 10 pounds, and I'd imagine stuffing that into a speaker enclosure would further reduce that since you don't need the rack enclosure any longer.


For example, my relatively ancient Peavey mains are over 75 pounds apiece. Equivalent modern powered units are more than likely going to be in the area of 40-50 pounds per. There is also certainly some flexibility and convenience in the powered speaker world that you don't get with the component pieces, but I have yet to find that inconvenience or need great enough to make me shell out the money to make the change.
 
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