Nord User Forum

Hi everyone....Just wondering what kind of mixers you are using. I am using a Mackie 802 VLZ3 with a pair of QSC K8.2 speakers with my Nord Electro 5d. Wondering if there is a mixer that will give me a better sound. The Mackie sounds good, but I'm sure there is something that would sound even better. I was thinking Allen & Heath, or Yamaha perhaps? What are you thoughts on Sound Craft? Any good? I would appreciate your input. Thanks!

I use an Allen & Heath ZED10FX. Mackie's are cheap and can do the job, but they are throw away disposable if you need service. The whole inside is on one circuit board. With the A&H, each channel has it's own circuit board. Easier to repair, will still work if you were to ever have a problem with a channel, and I never had a problem because these are bulletproof mixers, and the ZED10FX is studio quality. I have more than 1 A&H mixing board so I have a preference for that brand, but in reality, depending on the situation, you might not hear a difference between any of those mixers you mentioned if you are using them LIVE. You can be more picky with the sound if you are recording thru it. And my last point - Sound is subjective, so regardless of what I say, or what anybody says, you will still be the judge of what sounds good to you.

Rufus8102 wrote:Hi everyone....Just wondering what kind of mixers you are using. I am using a Mackie 802 VLZ3 with a pair of QSC K8.2 speakers with my Nord Electro 5d. Wondering if there is a mixer that will give me a better sound. The Mackie sounds good, but I'm sure there is something that would sound even better. I was thinking Allen & Heath, or Yamaha perhaps? What are you thoughts on Sound Craft? Any good? I would appreciate your input. Thanks!

I would be interested to hear opinions about how influential the mixer can be on the sound in this configuration. I guess with those QSC's, none of the components in this chain will need to be anywhere near saturation. If you're not using any effects or EQ on the mixer itself, I can't see it having a huge influence. I use the baby brother of that Mackie (the 402) in a rehearsal room with one band, and other various mixers in another rehearsal room, my own studio, and for live, and never needed to spend much time thinking about them as a bottleneck to my sound quality. Happy to be shot down.

Or build your own
Cheap and fully in control of the features, formfactor and connectors:

https://www.norduserforum.com/general-nord-forum-f29/nord-mixer-t20331.html

I like all my gear in racks, so I use the Ashly LX 308-B. It is 15 years old, seen hundreds of gigs, and still works perfectly-

-dj

Hi, I'm using a Radial KeyLargo for my keyboards, running it either into our own Behringer X32-Rack (for rehearsals or small gigs) or into the FOH mixer at event locations. The Keylargo is a great piece, high quality and and high reliability.

Hi rufus,
the Mixer is one part of the chain, the others are the speakers, the keyboard with its EQ settings and sometimes the quality of your cables. Regarding the point whether a mixer „makes“ the sound this reminds me of the 70s and early 80s, before the digitalization, as you often could see British versus American mixing console discussions.
Today you get clear, linear sound from many, many mixers. As the other posters said, lots of satisfying products. I personally use a small phonic mixer just to mix my two boards to a stereo sum signal.
The speakers are more important, and I guess you have already chosen good ones.
Do you ask for gigging live reason?
Cheers

Until recently I had a Yamaha 01v (old slugger) for my home set-up and small live-sessions.
Just replaced it with an A&H qu16, that also serve as an audio interface along with the other functions.
This setup allows the use of the A&H iPad apps for remote control of the surface and IEM.
For smaller live-sessions I also have a Soundcraft Notepad 8fx.

Tasten-Bert.....yes I was asking for live gigging. I like having a mixer where I can play with the EQ if needed, depending on the room. The Radial Key Largo that was mentioned by other posters does not have that option. I currently play in a 9 piece horn band so I send a line from my mixer to our FOH. But I'm also thinking of putting a duo or trio together and I'd need a mixer with effects for vocals. My Mackie does not have effects. So I was trying to get some opinions. Someone mentioned the Allen and Heath Zed 10FX which I was looking at also. I was just wondering what everyone thought as far as if the mixer really affects the quality of sound that much. Thanks for your opinion.

Rufus8102 wrote:Tasten-Bert.....yes I was asking for live gigging. I like having a mixer where I can play with the EQ if needed, depending on the room. The Radial Key Largo that was mentioned by other posters does not have that option. I currently play in a 9 piece horn band so I send a line from my mixer to our FOH. But I'm also thinking of putting a duo or trio together and I'd need a mixer with effects for vocals. My Mackie does not have effects. So I was trying to get some opinions. Someone mentioned the Allen and Heath Zed 10FX which I was looking at also. I was just wondering what everyone thought as far as if the mixer really affects the quality of sound that much. Thanks for your opinion.

In very general terms any reasonably modern mixer will have effectively zero impact on the quality of the sound and would be the last piece of the signal chain to worry about.