good cheap mixer

[justinhedrick]

i need a cheap mixer. maybe 4 xlr inputs, but definetly 2. i will probably never record anything more than vocals/guitar. if i did drums it would be for demo purposes only and could get by with 2 pre amps.

thoughts? i looked at the behringer onyxs or whatever they are called, but i had a REALLY bad experience with an old behringer mixer a few years ago, so i'm leary of it.

i'll be recording into my 8 channel interface.

anyone?

[LogicalFrank]

Behringer mixers will do what you buy them to do but they are little noisy for tracking in my opinion. I have used mine basically just as a means to turn the monitors off when doing overdub. It has worked perfectly for years for that. I am pretty curious to see what people have to say here myself.

[Hemisaurus]

Love my Behringer, it's been flung in the back of the wagon and dragged around the country as part of my live rig. Also dragged to countless practices, I think I've had it 8 years or so. Never used it for recording more than something into the 1/8" jack on a soundcard, for which it worked OK. I'd recommend it.

I've got a Peavey RQ 2318 going spare, more mixer than you need, but I take trades

http://peavey.com/assets/literature/manuals/rq2300.pdf

[justinhedrick]

Love my Behringer, it's been flung in the back of the wagon and dragged around the country as part of my live rig. Also dragged to countless practices, I think I've had it 8 years or so. Never used it for recording more than something into the 1/8" jack on a soundcard, for which it worked OK. I'd recommend it.

I've got a Peavey RQ 2318 going spare, more mixer than you need, but I take trades

http://peavey.com/assets/literature/manuals/rq2300.pdf

damn hems . . . i seriously can't take up that much real-estate at my house. with one of those.

i'm thinking of getting one of those soundcraft mixers. the little "notebook" ones. that would fit my needs quite nicely.

[Hemisaurus]

No man, that's my small mixer, it's only 24" wide, fits nicely I've run sound a couple of times with it for a friends band. The 16 mic (XLR) channels double as channel outs, using a regular 1/4" jack, so it's also a Reference Quality 16 channel out desk.

My big mixer, happens to be a Soundcraft too. I love Soundcraft, lusted for an 800B, settled for this puppy. It's about 5.5  - 6 ft wide, has dedicated channel outs on all 24 channels.

[db3jed]

I've had a little Mackie 1202 for decades now and it has never let me down.
I HIGHLY recommend this little bad boy if you run up on one.
I do not in any way endorse more recent generations of this mixer and have no personal experience with them and therefore can't comment on them.

I also work with a couple of Behringer mixers (at two different practice spaces. Other people own them.) that don't sound bad.
Each has issues (dead channels, scratchy faders, pan knob dead on one side).
I'm not gonna' knock 'em  cuz they do what they do for the price that you pay but caveat emptor if'n ya' know what I mean.
All that said I've also got a 1st gen. Mackie SR24 that has a dead channel and crosstalk that is effin' ridiculous so I suppose anything "newer" may well suffer from similar maladies.

Old Peavey mixers are hard to beat for ruggedness and cost effectiveness (i.e.; they're cheap on the used market).
Old Yamaha mixers are equally good deals often times with better specs overall (i.e.; cleaner overall sound) which may or may not be what you're looking for.

Basically any of the old shit can be worked on quite easily and most repair shops won't hesitate to take a stab at tightening them up.
The new shit, not so much.
Anyway, hope this helped in some way or another.