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[Mike Caldwell]

I've heard the little Midas mixers get a good rep, 10yr warranty too. The DM12 is under $400 CAD

http://www.musictribe.com/Categories/Midas/Mixers/Analog/DM12/p/P0BGA

At least on the exterior those look like a knock off of the  Soundcraft EPM series.

For small compact analog I have a couple older Mackie 1202VLZ  mixers, a 1402VLZ and a ZED 10.

[Tim Hite]

Actually the mini-Midas stuff is the old DDA line. Not Behringer.

For my money, the Soundcraft Signature is a nice product set for analog.

For small digital the MR12 is my current go to. Changed out the antenna and the built-in wifi works fine.

Looks like a Behringer with a blue paint job.

Maybe there's some better parts in there, but given the engineering that went into the original for it's price point, about all they could likely do is swap out some pin compatible op amps.

Have used the little B-easts, and they sound like analog Behringer products.  Have heard Mackies and Zeds substituted into the same system in the same venue and the A&H wins for sound quality.  One day I'm going to run my 6ch Yamaha MG in there and see if it sounds any better than the A&H.

[Brian Jojade]

In your $500 price range, you can easily find a Presonus 16.0.2.  They are nice and compact and work beautifully for these little events.  It works pretty much like an analog board would, and doesn't need any external hardware to function.

For a digital board, it's fairly limited, but miles ahead of anything analog.  For the few times I have to use small analog boards, even for the most simple events, I find the limitations very frustrating, now that I've been spoiled with the power of digital!

For most work I use the Behringer X32 Rack.  I love that I CAN control it right on the unit with no external hardware or anything to configure.  I really wish someone would make a tiny digital system like the XR12 that had capabilities to work right on the unit with no external bits to worry about.  That's why I sold off my XR stuff.  Extra pieces isn't what I want in a mixer. That's just one more thing to go wrong at the most inopportune time.

[Scott Holtzman]

In your $500 price range, you can easily find a Presonus 16.0.2.  They are nice and compact and work beautifully for these little events.  It works pretty much like an analog board would, and doesn't need any external hardware to function.

For a digital board, it's fairly limited, but miles ahead of anything analog.  For the few times I have to use small analog boards, even for the most simple events, I find the limitations very frustrating, now that I've been spoiled with the power of digital!

For most work I use the Behringer X32 Rack.  I love that I CAN control it right on the unit with no external hardware or anything to configure.  I really wish someone would make a tiny digital system like the XR12 that had capabilities to work right on the unit with no external bits to worry about.  That's why I sold off my XR stuff.  Extra pieces isn't what I want in a mixer. That's just one more thing to go wrong at the most inopportune time.

If the Presonus can be had for $500 that would be a great way to go too.

I really wasn't kidding the Tascam D1000 has 8 inputs and four mic preamps.  It is a simple 1:1 surface with rotary controls for eq and dynamics.

Sent from my VS996 using Tapatalk

[Jay Marr]

I really wasn't kidding the Tascam D1000 has 8 inputs and four mic preamps.  It is a simple 1:1 surface with rotary controls for eq and dynamics.

I used to have one of these back in the day. 
I agree, if you only need a few channels, it may be heavier than a notepad mixer...but it's a decent option.
Can be had for $150 on the used market.

[Stephen Beatty]

I love my Presonus 16.0.2. I use it with VMix to bring audio into the livestream. I also have a 16.4.2 I used for live bands. They are great to transition from pure analog to the digital world.

The new little Presonus is USB. My older Presonus's  use IEEE P1394.

[Paul Archambault]

I use a soundcraft EPM8 for gigs like you have mentioned...good little mixer. Have modified a small road case to fix mixer, 4 sm58, couple of radial DI and half a dozen 25' XLR...pretty close to grab and go.

Couple of things as a heads up on the EPM though... no HPF on the channels and no aux bus master volumes

[Alec Spence]

Couple of things as a heads up on the EPM though... no HPF on the channels and no aux bus master volumes

Reminds you what we all now take for granted with the ubiquity of digital mixing these days!

Then again, it never stopped us mixing and doing a decent job with the old kit - albeit frustrating at times...

[Wayne Smith2]

Yeah...thanks guys. Sounds like I'll head the Mackie route. Any opinion on the profx vs the vlz4? I like that there are faders on the profx 8 chan vs knobs unless I go all the way up to the 12 chan vlz4...but not sure build quality is as good?

Don't know if this is too little-to late..
For grab and go small sound gigs run from the stage, I like having at least one geq up on the mixer. One for front one for monitor is better.
I just picked up -a fairly dated but decent sounding Carvin C844 for 250 bucks.
About the only thing sucky would be the reverb ain't that great.

Last, I've seen too many troubles with Mackies over the years. My own (3 out of 4 I'd guess ...!), and in the field.

[Bob Stone]

So just to finish this off...I went with a Mackie ProFx8v2 for now. I can see myself in the next year or so getting a bigger digital desk, so went the inexpensive analog route rather than spending $500+ on a soundcraft or allen&heath analog board. This will be good enough for little gigs for now, is ok if it doesn't last forever due to price and can serve as a backup down the road.

[ProSoundWeb Community]