New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

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misterpatrick
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Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2023 4:43 pm

New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by misterpatrick » Sun Feb 05, 2023 11:56 pm

Hello all,

working on a gigging set up and looking for some mixer recommendations. Pretty straightforward where I'll be outputting Live to the mixer. I'll also have a microphone direct into the mixer and I'll be using a send to send that to Live for some processing. Mixer will be going to FOH. Latency is obviously an issue. I have an ancient Behringer MX1604 that seem to not really be working. Not sure what is going on so looking at a new one. Behringer of course has a nice looking cheap one with a digital USB interface which could eliminate the need for my current interface - an older Komplete Audio 6. The mixer in question is the Behringer XENYX 1204USB. https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=P0794

So, thoughts, recommendations, anyone using this mixer with OSX and how is the latency? Thanks!

yur2die4
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Re: New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by yur2die4 » Mon Feb 06, 2023 12:07 am

I guess the big thing is, you haven’t really described any aspects of your setup where a whole mixer is required, or what features of the mixer are necessary. It sounds like you have an input, the mic, and then the output which involves the mic also, and Live.

It might be easier for people to make suggestions if you maybe explain a little more what the mixer would be doing that an audio interface wouldn’t be doing.

misterpatrick
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2023 4:43 pm

Re: New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by misterpatrick » Mon Feb 06, 2023 12:50 am

yur2die4 wrote:
Mon Feb 06, 2023 12:07 am
It might be easier for people to make suggestions if you maybe explain a little more what the mixer would be doing that an audio interface wouldn’t be doing.
Thanks for the thoughts. While I don't need that many inputs for the current project, I may need more for future stuff. Also a mixer vs just using the audio interface is for ease of giving FOH outputs and having control over the mix balance between Live and the vocal, ability to quickly mute things etc. Plus I'm old and like faders. We'll be playing in various smaller clubs and I need to be able to adapt things to fit, for example how we're monitoring and if I'll need to send out a separate mix for the club or our monitors (stage or IAM). The built-in digital I/O's would be nice to remove one piece of the chain and keep things a little neater and quicker to setup.

Hope this helps explain things a bit!

yur2die4
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Re: New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by yur2die4 » Mon Feb 06, 2023 12:59 am

Alright. So one thing to be careful of with usb mixers is that some only do summed input and then stereo out. But other ones might have other amounts of inputs and outputs.

Also, some might have like, a hybrid of midi vs hardware control of the faders so you can determine if you want to control hardware or software with the mixer.

I’m not up to date on the most recent models, so I don’t have any suggestions myself. But yeah, it’s good that you clarified your needs as that can really help narrow down your options for people to help and so you can keep an eye out for any questionable features on future purchases.

misterpatrick
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Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2023 4:43 pm

Re: New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by misterpatrick » Mon Feb 06, 2023 1:21 am

And I forgot to mention, I need a clean vocal out, the feed back to Ableton is primarily for effects processing (granulizing, vocording etc) so some slight latency should be ok as it'll be mixed as vocal support.

misterpatrick
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Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2023 4:43 pm

Re: New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by misterpatrick » Mon Feb 06, 2023 2:11 am

To throw a wrench into the mix, I’m also taking a look at using something like the Audient EVO 16 instead of a mixer. Cost is twice as much but it seems to be able to do the routing I need, has low latency and is good enough to actually replace my current audio interface for studio work.

Some food for thought.

Greenapples2019
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Re: New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by Greenapples2019 » Mon Feb 06, 2023 9:55 am

Hi, we use an audio interface (Clarett+ 8Pre) for our vocal mics rather than a mixer. So mics -> Clarett -> MacBook (via USB to process the vocals with compression, eq, delay, reverb and other FX) -> Clarett -> FOH/monitors. Roundtrip latency is about 13ms so not noticeable and only the processed signal goes to FOH. This set up gives us loads of flexibility and simplicity, and to control everything we use a LaunchControl XL and midi map to everything we need to affect.

Happy to go into more detail if you want.

misterpatrick
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2023 4:43 pm

Re: New Mixer for Performance Thoughts?

Post by misterpatrick » Mon Feb 06, 2023 12:52 pm

Thanks for the response! I ordered the Audient EVO 16 and will see how that works. Plenty of routing options so I think it might do the trick. I was also looking at the Scarlett 18i20 which seems like would be about the same.

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