Mid-range mixing desks query

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 10:15 am

Hello from typically rainly 'ol england.

My band mate (possibly unwisely) bought a second hand Tascam M-16 to use as our recording mixer, and got rid of his soundcraft ghost (one of the cheaper ones...but which i thought was a good desk) and it will cost £700 to get the Ta-scam up to scratch at our local electrical repair shop.

Does anyone have any direct experience of the M-16 and can comment on it's quality, (notably the quality of the pre-amps, or lack thereof) say compared to a Mackie 24 8-buss (which you can pick up for £600-£700)??

Does anyone have any other tips for a second-hand mid-range desk £600-£1000/$1200-$2000?

And finally, can anyone comment on the raindirk/chilton BBC desks as input mixers (these are in the price-range too and i've heard GOOD THINGS!!)

Many thanks,

Phil

Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 1:04 pm

That guy is spam. Ignore him.

While I'm here, where the hell can you pick up a 24 8-bus for £600? I found the new 24-4 bus listed at about a grand.

Are you fixed on 24 channels or could you go less/more and is there any requirement on outputs such as needing X amount of busses?

Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 2:05 pm

The mackie 24 channel 8 buss is available often second hand on ebay at around £650-£800.

We're not fixed on 24 channels - we're only recording with an otari 1/2" 8track and then doing further overdubs/mixing within protools...we only really need 8-10 inputs at one time for the size of studio that we have.

really keen to hear anyones experience using a raindirk...

Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 6:47 pm

I was thinking you can probably get a better quality unit with less channels around the same price.

A sort of Channels-Quality-Cheapness triangle.

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 12:19 am

I used a Raindirk in a broadcast facility in New Hampshire several years ago. Can't remember the model#, but I was struck by the clarity and presence of the mic preamps. My VO's sounded BIG through them. I was told by an engineer there that the build quality was very good ( the board looked very simple and solid) and that it was designed by Pierre LaFont, a Canadian broadcast whiz. It would sure beat the hell out of a Mackie 8-buss.

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