PA systems... Digital Mixers... Opinions

Diggler · #1 10-20-2006, 02:52 AM

I'm in the market to upgrade our mixing board. I have the Yamaha MG16/6FX now and really like it. I was initially looking at the MG24 mixer, it had the functionality I was upgrading for.

However, yesterday I started reading about digital mixers; I've never paid any attention to them up until this point. If I would go digital, I could eliminate a whole rack worth of effects... and have them for every channel. Instead of having 4 compressors because I have a rackmount 4 way compressor, a compressor comes on every channel of a digital mixer... and so on for all kinds of effects. The specific mixer I was looking at was the Behringer DDX3216. Regardless of the name, I have seen nothing but rave reviews about this product. Unfortunately it has been discontinued, at least here in the US, so I would have to buy it used.

Anyone ever use digital mixers for live sound? We run sound ourselves from the stage, so I think it would take some getting used to.

Magical_Max · #2 10-20-2006, 07:06 AM

I used a Yamaha O2R once and found it to be horrible on every level. It was confusing, difficult to use, not very user friendly. It really put me off digital desks.
IMO digital desks have a long way to go before I start to use them.
I'd go with an analogue desk, like the Yamaha MG24, analogue is still expensive but the digital desk needs looking at in a completely different way. I think to go digital you would need to get a sound guy in to run it for you.