I love the flow of a recording console. This has really become apparent when doing all of my wife's voiceover auditions. Also, it's great for doing overdubs. I don't have to monitor though an on-screen interface mixer or deal with the latency of monitoring through a DAW. I hate those things. Plus, when playing around with musical ideas, it's great to be able to plug into a mixer that is connected to studio monitors. The mixer as the control center is amazing. I want that. I do not want to go back to just a 2x2 or 4x4 interface on my desk.

I've had both a 16x4x2 Soundcraft 200B (from TIm/Silkworm) and a Presonus 16.4.2 Studiolive firewire mixerface in my little studio. The Soundcraft had a lot of noise, crackly, and channel issues. I may fix it up one day, but not today. The Presonus is my interface, but it takes up a lot of desk space, the firewire is sometimes a bit flakey, and it technically belongs to my work. It's getting near end of life as an interface. I'd rather have a nice, smaller interface, and then a high quality, separate mixer.

I'm also realizing that I don't really need 16 channels. I maybe need 4 full featured mic channels, and maybe 4 stereo line level channels. But I really want a good "control room" section. I love having a talkback mic and being able to do separate headphone and control room mixes. I want some big console features in a small mixer. I'd love an SSL SiX, but have not found the right deal yet. I'm open to many options. I'd really like to avoid budget mixers or modern utility mixers. They'd be fine, but I want something better than fine.

So, recording nerds, I know there are "secret weapon" mixers from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I just rarely hear of them. I know there are broadcast consoles, maybe edit suite mixers. Tell me your favorite small to mid sized mixers that may be outdated but good quality. Do such things exist?

A lot of people shit on them but I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a Carvin 1608MX 16 channel mixer from the early 80s. I got it for about $350 and I regularly use it to track drums or other funky things. Its the same as those Tascam M series mixers - it sounds good as long as you don't push it too hard.

Ramsa WR consoles are good if you find them in decent condition.

I've seen people run hot and cold on TLA small format mixers.

A good 90s Mackie that hasn't been run hard is also a great solution.

Aren't you in so cal? I'd just look on Craigslist or local Reverb listings and see if someone has something decent for sale or might give you ideas. Only because there's still some remnants of music/film/sound industry around there no?

Other than that I got nothin'. What's your budget?

For interfaces: Focusrite Scarlett series in the amount of channels you ultimately want. If you want to splurge, Antelope Zen Tour has converters with the best of 'em along with some nifty compressor and EQ models.

For mixers, Midas Venice all the way. The very out of style "Chumbawaumba" styling and short throw faders makes it look cheap and lightweight, but sonically these punch above Toft (without the QC issues) which means they can definitely hang. Especially if your model came with transformers on every channel. Criminally cheap right now.

Sam_Scholten wrote: Sun May 02, 2021 9:42 pm For interfaces: Focusrite Scarlett series in the amount of channels you ultimately want. If you want to splurge, Antelope Zen Tour has converters with the best of 'em along with some nifty compressor and EQ models.

For mixers, Midas Venice all the way. The very out of style "Chumbawaumba" styling and short throw faders makes it look cheap and lightweight, but sonically these punch above Toft (without the QC issues) which means they can definitely hang. Especially if your model came with transformers on every channel. Criminally cheap right now.

When did Behringer buy Midas? I’d like a year to look for or before.

I’m in L.A. and I’m looking at auctions and stuff. Unfortunately, most of the cool stuff is swiped by staff before auctions happen.

Cheers!

If it's in the budget, I'd recommend one of those Studer 962 mixers. It sounds great and offers a lot within a very small footprint.
The one I've used is 16x2, though I don't know if they are available in other channel configurations.

benadrian wrote: Sun May 02, 2021 10:42 pmWhen did Behringer buy Midas?

2010

krispoulin wrote: Sun May 02, 2021 11:01 pm If it's in the budget, I'd recommend one of those Studer 962 mixers. It sounds great and offers a lot within a very small footprint.
The one I've used is 16x2, though I don't know if they are available in other channel configurations.

I was going to say Studer too but the prices on them are up there. If you can manage it, you won't be disappointed, Studer being Studer their shit is built to last. I got a little 169 10x2 about 15 years ago and it's never leaving. The only funky thing is having to use the inserts as direct outs by plugging in a 1/4" halfway in.

I bought a used Mackie 1202-VLZ3 mixer to mess around and experiment with some no input/noise/feedback looping. I have not tried recording with it, but it’s solid and it seems to sound pretty good. 12 channels and a lot of routing. I haven’t broken it yet even though I’m using it super wrong. I think I only paid like $120-$130 on reverb.com. YMMV I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_9c0k0hfO0

And for fun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUhfkaVUPY8&t=927s

I feel like a Sony broadcast mixer could be a good pick. No direct experience so I can't recommend a model, but I see MX-series and MXP-series models in the classifieds sometimes. They seem to fit your technical criteria, and I've heard that they sound great and are delightfully overbuilt.