A friend who fell on hard times came through with payment for a project long after I had forgotten about it . I had decided the friendship was worth more to me than a few dollars and low and behold he shows up with a smile and certified check some three years later.
I am looking to upgrade my digital mixer. Presently, I have a Korg 168RC which has been excellent. I can afford $2500.00 for this one item.
I am considering the behringer DX3216 and Yamaha 01V96. I have several adat equipped computers so the dual adat inputs / outputs are necessary I will have to buy the cards). Do any of you have experience with either or both boards before I take the plunge? I am hopeful that the mic pres will be sufficient so that I an outboard solution won't have to added. The onboard effects aren't critical, I have lots of toys in that department. Basically, I need good quality mic pres, a functional and easy to navigate digital patchbay, quality faders and reliable build quality.
Digital Mixer Recommendation
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- KVRAF
- 3222 posts since 23 Dec, 2002
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- KVRAF
- 2317 posts since 11 Mar, 2003
Personally i would ask yourself if you need to upgrade if the Korg has been excellent. i would be tempted to invest in a high quality Mic Pre. Do you use the mixer to actually mix tracks or do you track/monitor via the mixer then mixdown internally/natively on the computer? If it is the latter then again a decent Mic Pre would be the way to go.
Of course, i may not understand all your requirements/set-up so i may be a bit off on this reply. Also what sort of music do you produce (all acoustic, electronic with hardware, electronic with software etc.)
For build quality i would go Yamaha, i don't think the Behringer's Pre Amps will be all that, but even the Yammy may not be great.
Of course, i may not understand all your requirements/set-up so i may be a bit off on this reply. Also what sort of music do you produce (all acoustic, electronic with hardware, electronic with software etc.)
For build quality i would go Yamaha, i don't think the Behringer's Pre Amps will be all that, but even the Yammy may not be great.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 3222 posts since 23 Dec, 2002
The Korg is locked in at 16 bit resolution and 44.1K and I am wanting to record at 24bit and perhaps 96K. I write with a combination of acoustic/electric instruments and vstis . Although live tracking doesn't occur often I am looking for better quality results. I have some decent mics - rode NT and CAD e-200 as well as the Event SP-8s, two UAD cards and 2 OAsys pci cards (all linked together). The mixer is now the weak link in the chain as the rest of my setup is working well. If I went with a mic-pre box, I'd need monitor outs. My RME card would allow me to route most of my adat based gear/cpus directly so your suggestion is plausible. I am pretty sure that I want to go the digital mixer route largely due to the digital patchbay features given my fairly complex setup. Do you have any specific recommendations?
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- KVRAF
- 2317 posts since 11 Mar, 2003
It's a pity you don't have a SCOPE card in that(rather nice) set-up, as you could do all you routing/monitoring/mixing in that very easily - that's what i do, using my analogue mixer for monitoring, never for mixing. i don't know how well it would integrate with those other cards going though. If you definitely want hardware i can't really suggest anything from experience, but the Yammy's are OK.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 3222 posts since 23 Dec, 2002
Yes, I have been eyeballing the scope/pulsar stuff. There was a nice 20+dsp system for sale on Ebay a few months back but the cash wasn't disposable at the time. Much like yourself, my Korg 168 served as a glorified volume control and doubles as a front end on occasion. I did use my Mackie cr1604 for monitoring as well. The digital routing though is essential as I am forever bussing this to that and vice versa.
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- KVRist
- 121 posts since 20 Nov, 2003 from Finland
What about the behringer digital mixer? Obviously a rip off from Yamaha, but is it to any good? At just over 800€ it seems to be quite a steal.
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- KVRian
- 1313 posts since 29 Mar, 2002 from Salt Lake City, Utah - U.S.A.
I love the Behringer DDX3216, I really think it is a steal, maybe stolen even (hehe, pre's are similar to my old Mackie's)... Just don't turn the preamps all the way up (no further than 85-90%) and they are very good for the money. I really love mine, even the effects are very usable, although I usually only add a little compression while inputing, for everything else I use vst's.