I say go for the analogue mixer. :D

Driving channels to breaking point sounds far better than their digital counterparts for one, and currently the mixer EQs on the latest sequencers are worth a pinch of shit. Admitadly the plug in EQs are getting better, but still abusing them by boosting rather than subtracting they sound well.....horrible.

I think something depends on the type of music you're doing though. Clean and clinical vs rough and dirty.

Timo your compering 3000$ summing boxes\mixers to a budget\prosumer mixer.

Im all in favore of summing mixers and may end up geting one when im rich. :D

haha, i have fun overdriving my mackie mixer...the noise level is REAL low, the eq is nice, and the pre's are so clean :)


all in all im very happy with it, and when i get a larger mixer with Direct outputs i'll be probably getting a larger VLZ series Mackie. or a soundcraft if i could ever afford one.


i was looking at a neve dual channel preamp today...2600 :/

if i only had the money for that.

you mean neve based... an original neve 1073 is around 2500 a channel.

I'm loving my oldschool Series 1a Soundcraft. Overdriving channels gives THE GRITTIEST sound :) and the EQ section is spectacular

no no, i mean neve...the new neve though...

http://www.rupertneve.com/


god i wish i had 20k to build a new customized rack :/

The new portico has nothing to do with the old 1970's neve consoles preamp designs.
Its a totaly new design as far as i know.

never claimed it did, all i stated was it was a neve. which it is

They must sound awesome,he also got a new EQ design.

bye bye thread hijacks!

to answer your question, if you are new to audio, its a great idea to get the 1202vlz pro. the 1402 will be 2 channels better, and something you'll find in this game is that you'll ALWAYS want/need more channels. so if you can afford it, do it. i imagine for the most part you wont use or need the actual faders, since you might just "set and forget" the rotary potentiometers at unity gain... i have turned countless friends onto this exact mixer and they all love it.

the dual-mono idea will work, but mackie hard pans right/left when both 1/4" jacks are plugged in, so recording to/from your soundcard will be a bit tricky on these channels... you'll have to be aware of what is routed where. i'll bet most of your synths are stereo anyways, and so the stereo channels are perfect for this. if you want a mono recording of a discrete channel, you can pull out the right plug and when panned to center, this becomes a standard mono signal.
the mackie is well built, has great preamps for the money, is flexible (multiple busses) and perhaps most importantly will let you learn on something high quality. right, its not a neve/api/avalon, but unless youre recording 4 piece rock bands you might not notice it. its completely possible that if youre mixing line level signals, you wont even notice.
so for your situation (where you have 4-5 hardware synths) the 1202 will suit you fine. like i said, it gives you busses, control room/monitor feed, mic preamps, eq, and aux sends. it will also retain its value, since youre probably buying it used.
in the future, you'll want to look into a compressor (RNC comes to mind for you) and then you'll suddenly find all sorts of things you want to buy to improve your sound.

and by the time you master this mixer---which could take a few YEARS---- you'll learn the differences an intricacies in sound between this and a neve.

hope this helps.