Topic: ISO Battery Powered Mixer Recommendations

[nickgregory]

OK, so I am researching (definitely not ready to purchase) what is available in the portable powered mixer arena.  Basically something that would allow me to do SBD and multi mic mixes on the fly.  The only requirement is I would like to be able to power it via batteries on board or DC so I can build a battery pack for it.  I would likely continue to use an external preamp and just run the output from there into the mixer, so phantom power is really not a requirement for me.   In talking with Craig, I feel like I have found an AC powered unit that would do the job in the Mackie 1202 VLZ, but have not been able to identify much with remote powering options.

So any suggestions are appreciated.

Thx.

Nick

[chase]

i've never used a behringer mixer but this looks like a good option.  http://www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex.cfm?id=MXB1002&lang=ENG&CFID=726584&CFTOKEN=64985896

runs on 2 9V's.

[nickgregory]

yeah, I should have mentioned, I have looked at that one...have no clue what it sounds like.  I also played with a Samson Mixpad some time ago and was not a fan of that....but thanks for the suggestion...anyone use/heard one of these?

[Scuba Jeremy]

Wow, that Behringer looks really nice for the price. Anyone know how clean that box is? I'm almost wondering if that price is too good to be true.

[Sean Gallemore]

744T, only 2 mics with a board feed

[jlykos]

I am sure that Wayne can expound on this a bit more, but his Wendt X4 is amazing.  I have my heart set on this one when I am ready to take the plunge.  It costs about $1000 from what I could find on the Internet.

[nickgregory]

OK, I bought one of the behringer MXB1002 for a steal off ebay...will play with it and post back...I have a feeling this will be a case of "you get what you pay for"....but we shall see...tests to follow!

[fsulloway]

Yes, please let us know. I've been contemplating getting one of those too. Like you, I'm a little concerned over the low price.

[Jason B]

Yes, please let us know. I've been contemplating getting one of those too. Like you, I'm a little concerned over the low price.

Well most of us, you, Nick and myself, will be running line into the mixer. I think that this unit will work fine for this. Now, if you had to use the pre's, it would be a different story, but line in I think it will do just fine.

[nickgregory]

Well most of us, you, Nick and myself, will be running line into the mixer. I think that this unit will work fine for this. Now, if you had to use the pre's, it would be a different story, but line in I think it will do just fine.

Jason is right, I am running line in...not planning on using the pres...the main concern I have is electronics it goes through in the box....I will be interested to see the effect on the output signal.

[jpschust]

yah the behringer pres are among the noisiest worst pre's ever, but at line level ill bet it doesnt make that big of a difference

[mmmatt]

I own the behringer mxb1002, and I was surprised at how good it sounds.  I'm new to taping and wasn't able to go top line to start.  My desire is to do matrix mixes whenever possible, and the behringer gave me the option to "do it all" although be it lower end.  One thing that I don't like is that the phantom is 24v on ac and only 18v on dc.  I ended up selecting my mics based on the ability to handle an 18v phantom.  I have Rode nt5's.  They fit this requirement, hit my pricepoint, and are a matched stereo pair.  So far I like them.  They work well as matrix stage mics.  I just recorded a local latin/jazz/fusion band with my matrix set up, and it sounds great.  Maybe if I was going to 24bit it would suck, but to 44.1/16 via a jb3 it sounds great.  My first matrix was jeff austin and chris castino in madison on 3-18-04 and it is posted at the archive.  Unfortunately I don't have the software to do alot of the things I would have liked, but you should be able to get a feel for the mixer nonetheless.  The soundman threw me a lot of curveballs, and with my first matrix I wasn't ready for them... but you can check out the show if you want to know.  The biggest dilema of my cheap-ass software is my bitrate conversion.  Untill I get decent software, I am recording at 44.1.  However this 3-18 show I did at 48k and if anyone would like my untouched 48k files for a comparison I would hapily get them to you.
Matt

[nickgregory]

Thanks Matt.  I am actually going to run the MXB1002 tonight at a show.  I am actually going to bypass the preamps in the unit by running my mics into my MP-2 and feeding those channels and the SBD channels into the mixer as line feeds.  My hope is that this will avoid any "noise" that may be introduced with the gain stages of the mixer.  We shall see how it goes...

[mmmatt]

FYI  on the 3-18 show that  I did, the soundman ran my mics on stage through his snake.  He used his phantom, and gave me 1/4" back for my mic leads.  On the first set I ran them through chan 1 and 2 on the mixer and on set 2, I ran them stereo on chan 7/8 and on both sets I used 3/4 & 5/6 for the sbd feed because he shot me xlr off the board.  All part of the curveball barage he sent me.  Not any big deal really, but I wasn't prepared for xlr off the board and he and I both had to turn way down so as not to clip on the mic inputs that the board patch was in.   However this may have been an advantage because according to the specs the mic inputs for lines 3/4-7/8 have a s/n ratio of 106db and the line inputs are only 95db.  The  mic  1/2 inputs are even better at 120db.  Although the mp-2 is clean, any noise that it does have, will be added to the noise in the behringer... not any big advantage unless your mics can't do 24(18)v phantom.  The way I'm reading it, you will be shooting yourself in the foot by using the line inputs for your mics.

[nickgregory]

The way I'm reading it, you will be shooting yourself in the foot by using the line inputs for your mics.

Not really.  Two things, first the Gefells require 48Volts, but that is not an option since tonight I will have AC power.  Second though, I ran a test at home of recording some samples from the mics>MP2, mics>MP2>MXB1002 line input and mics>MXB1002 mic input.  The mics directly to the MXB did not sound as good strictly because the clarity was not there...almost seemed like the mixer placed a smudging effect across the mics input.  On the contrast, the mics>MP2 sounded clean.  The mics>MP2>MXB1002 line input was definitely cleaner than the mic input to the MXB1002.  I 'think' that the reason for this is that the preamps in the mixer are not nearly the quality of the MP2.  As a result, my inclination is to use the mixer solely as a mixing device, outputing a mixed signal to the Mod SBM1>D100, while applying no gain to the signal through the mixer, other than the minor gain/attenuation (not using the gain knob, but strictly the sliders) needed to get the proper mix for the room.

With regards to the SBD cables, no worries there, I have a set of XLR f->1/8 cables, and I carry a pair of adapters to conver the XLRf to RCA or 1/8 depending on what I am given out of the board.

Appreciate the input though....

Nick