Nord User Forum

I play all one night stands, using a Nord Stage 3 Compact thru an Allen-Heath Zed 6 mixer into two QSC 10s, in stereo. In the biggest rooms I’ll add a QSC 8” as a personal monitor, with the 10s for the audience. Outdoors and at concerts I use the house monitors if they’re decent (mostly so I can carry less gear from car to stage).
Here’s my question: since I literally use just one channel of the mixer, the other five are just taking up space. I’ve looked for a one or two channel mixer: there’s no such thing? I looked at direct boxes, but there aren’t any with tone controls. The QSCs sound okay without the mixer, but they’re much better and louder with it. And by tweaking the mixer EQ, I can avoid messing with individual patch EQ adjustments from room to room.
Having recently switched from the Nord Triple Pedal to a Korg DS-1H with very little consequences (its pedal noise sounds fine to me), it’s nice having one less bag to tote. Now I’d like to lose the Zed 6 and its bag for something the size of a long effect pedal, stereo, with EQ or tone controls along with attenuation (without having someone build me something more expensive than what I’ve already got). Any thoughts or advice?
Thanks,
RR

Source Audio makes an equalizer pedal that has two inputs and two outputs. It's a standard stomp box size form factor. You could run your keyboard into that pedal, and then run stereo directly to each of your mains without the need for a mixer. Then, you could use your 1 or 2 remaining output(s) on your keyboard to run into to your personal monitor. This would give you your EQ control for the mains, but you would have to rely on the Nord EQ settings per program for your monitor. No mixer needed. That's about as bare bones as you can go if all you want is external EQ.

The Source Audio EQ2's Ins and Out are both unbalanced. No idea if this works for you (from the monitor's Outs).

The Boss EQ-200 seems to be the same for a little less money: 2 channels, linkable as stereo. Probably unbalanced, as well.

I never used any of these tools.

Although not quite a small as a pedal, you could consider a smaller mixer such as the Mackie 402VLZ4 or Yamaha MG-06. You could also look at a preamp box like the Fishman ToneDEQ or Tech 21 Q-Strip. Keys are not the primary target, but it may satisfy your need. I used a BBE Acoustimax for a few years for a similar purpose.

Could this be something for you: DBX DI4?
I have this, and does the job well.
It's a 4 channel active DI with mixing capabilities.
Ok, still 2 channels too much,
but compact and at same time a DI box

Thanks for the replies. As for the smaller mixers, I’m not a big fan of wall warts for a power cables, afraid of attracting hums. But I’m ooen to hearing from anyone who uses anything that works, thanks. Will consider all those products & post if I buy one. Much appreciated.
RR

Mackie Mix5 might be worth a look.