Seeking Advice on Home Mixer/Interface/Monitors

[Crocobar]

Hi all!

After reading this forum and playing a guitar for a few months, I think I know a bit better what I want in terms of simple home studio of sorts. I'm asking for a sanity check and advice. I am looking for an inexpensive and efficient set of equipment - I am not opposed to spending more if it goes anywhere I understand but generally I want to stay lean.

I am mainly playing guitar (strat) by myself or with my daughter on bass (or she plays by herself). We also have an acoustic with a piezo pickup, a son/brother, who occasionally plays electric piano with us, and we will add a mic. All this in a living room.

• I want to have instruments feeding into some pedals, then a mixer, which goes to the monitors.
  
  
• We want to record/layer too, so it makes sense to have a mixer with a computer interface.
  • But I do not want to be tied to a computer and to have to power it up every time I want to play a couple of chords, so the mixer and monitors should work without the computer too.
  • It would be convenient to also be able to save tracks and layer on the console, without the computer - but perhaps this is too much to ask from an inexpensive mixer: to be a mixer, interface, and а tracker (?) all in one. Or is it?
    .
• UPDATE: following the suggestions in the thread, I found another candidate. So, currently choosing between A&H ZEDi-10FX ($300) and Behringer XENYX X1204USB ($209).
• UPDATE 2: I chose in favor of A&H because both people here in the thread and reviewers on amazon raised reliability issues in the Behringer unit.
  
  ORIGINAL TEXT: I found this mixer, which seems to hit most points: Allen & Heath ZEDi 10FX. It has 2 hi-impedance inputs, two more "mic" inputs, and some additional line/stereo/usb inputs. It is $300 on Amazon - not exactly cheap but acceptable if nothing reasonable is available cheaper. There are some cheaper mixers like PYLE PMXU 83BT but they seem weird: questionable quality and no hi-Z inputs, just regular "mic". But they are twice cheaper.
  
  
• I plan to hook up the monitor output to a SS TPA3116 2.1 board, which I power with 24VDC.
  
  
• I am not sure what to use for the monitors. I have ELAC bookshelf speakers (DB-52), and an ELAC powered subwoofer SUB-1010 but perhaps they are too delicate? This calculation following @Gnobuddy 's explanations suggest that they should be fine but I am not entirely sure.
  • If these are no good, what could cheap alternatives be?
  • There is an option to use the now-famous Logitech Z-623 but this is a separate can of worms.
    .
• The computer setup is less important at this point - but I would like to use a Linux-based DAW if possible since this is the only OS I have in the house.

So... asking for advice on the above. Does it make sense? Are there any better candidates for the mixer/interface?

Thanks!

P.S. Oh, yeah, this is the full list of what I have and use now:

• A Squire strat with the bundled cheap amp, and this fuzz pedal
• A squire PJ bass, and this multipedal for it (preamp, compressor, fuzz, octave, XLR out, effect loop)
• A cheap acoustic with a piezo under-bridge pickup, and this multipedal for it (delay, reverb, preamp, chorus, XLR out)

UPDATE 3 (2023-09-13):
I've now acquired all I had in mind, huge thanks to the advice in this thread. Here's the full list of what I have (also see pictures):

• Allen & Heath Zedi-10FX mixer (with USB 4-channel interface)
• Simple Frontman 10 amplifier, came bundled with the Squier strat
• Using the guitar amp from the above + old Yamaha 8" subwoofer wired together as a monitor for live jamming at home (short-term, will upgrade)
• Sonicake bass multipedal, acoustic multipedal, fuzz; Flamma FS06 digital modeling preamp
• Squier PJ bass, two Squier single-coil strats (hardtail and tremolo), simple acoustic guitar (Johnson)
• SM57 mic (yet to be tried)

Guitars go into some combination of the pedals -> to the mixer -> guitar amp+Yamaha sub

-------------------------
Related threads:

• https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/ultimate-audio-interface-for-home-studio-workshop.396928/
• https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/instruments-amp-y4-trio.383281/

 

[leadbelly]

You again! Just kidding...

I think it would help if you actually described what layout you are thinking of. Are you planning to have separate instrument amps for example? Or is this really meant to be all in one: one mixer, one amp for practicing and recording, one set of speakers, etc. Will the mixer and monitors sit on a mixing and recording desk?

 

[Crocobar]

I strongly prefer to have a minimal setup in terms of the components. So, one amp, one set of speakers. I plan to get the Flamma FS06 preamp for the guitar, so guitar -> Flamma -> mixer. For the bass, we use that multieffect pedal mentioned in the OP, so bass -> multieffect pedal -> mixer. And the mixer output goes to the 2.1 TPA board, which has two speakers and a subwoofer.

 

[leadbelly]

Well, it doesn't sound like you will have a separate desk, so you don't need true nearfield monitors, so the speakers you have sound OK. That $300 mixer sounds overpriced and Pyle has a bad reputation; maybe look at the Behringer XENYX lineup instead.

 

[Crocobar]

...maybe look at the Behringer XENYX lineup...

Thanks! I took a quick look: it seems not to have hi-Z inputs, and the computer interface is stereo only. The latter may be ok, even though having a few tracks would be cool. The absence of hi-Z is probably a dealbreaker: the main goal is to hook up two guitars...

 

[krivium]

Then 2 transformers should solve the issue.
Search for passive DI. Edcors offer tranformers to do this, check for prices as since covid they probably gone up...
Or invest in 2 active di ones and then Behringer price advantage is less.
A&H are good desks ( well engineered, sounds good). Behringers are ok.

 

[Crocobar]

Makes sense, thank you. What is the right ballpark price for a suitable transformer? I suspect that that plus enclosure might kill the price difference but I will check.

 

[krivium]

I can't tell, i'm more into high end stuff for transformers.

Edcors are not bad at all but way cheaper than eg Lundahl or Sowters for EU brands.
Cinemag or Jensen are USA equivalent in high end stuff. Something around 100$ would not surprise me from them.
Around 50$ for Edcors. Iirc it was around 35$ last time i checked edcor's offer but since then... copper have gone up in price.

One thing about passive di is they are simple and should last a lifetime. If you do live events you'll use them be sure... it all depend what you plan to do long term.
I don't regret any transformers i bought to this day. But i'm a junky about them.
'Sound is in the iron'. But it might not be your first concern.

 

[Crocobar]

I wonder what is the minimal price for a reasonable mixer that could do all of this:

• two hi-Z guitar inputs
• one mic input
• one stereo input
• more than two track interface to computer
• store and mix some tracks on the device without a computer

I am probably getting too greedy...

 

[krivium]

Forget your last wish if you want something recent. You could try to find a second hand Yamaha aw4416 or similar but... won't be cheap (you could find some not too pricey but they'll probably need some repair and it can go up in price quickly and you'll need di anyway... and no computer involved with this - it is the whole point!). Maybe there is more recent tools but i doubt, it's not what users wants now... check Zoom or Tascam they might have some, idk.

For the other wish you have already found it imho but you'll need a computer to record.... this is what customers want now.

 

[kemmler3D]

• It would be convenient to also be able to save tracks and layer on the console, without the computer - but perhaps this is too much to ask from an inexpensive mixer: to be a mixer, interface, and а tracker (?) all in one. Or is it?

You are looking at a lot more $$ this way, the computer is a great recording device, lots of good and cheap software, etc. A recording mixer / tracker tends to be more niche and more money.

You can get a suitable computer with TBs of storage for like $200, you'll spend multiples of this trying to find it all in one. I think Ardour or Reaper are preferred Linux DAWs but don't quote me on that.

I think you should look at the MOTU M4 or M6. They have the inputs you want, they are near the price you're looking for, they have monitoring on the interface so the computer is not needed to just play around, they expose 4 channels via USB, and they are known to have decent ADCs and DACs. I have the M2 and I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[krivium]

Zoom L12:
https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/digital-mixer-multi-track-recorders/digital-mixer-recorder/livetrak-l-12/

Tascam:
https://www.tascam.eu/en/model16
https://www.tascam.eu/en/dp-24sd
Model 16 seems to fit the bill imho.


Kemmler, yes i agree but for previous discussions with crocobar we know he don't really want a daw in the workflow: an integrated device to have a mixer and something to record live rehearsal. It must be 'simple' and fast to aperate. Kind of 90's setup...

 

[kemmler3D]

Hmm, I wonder how much of a mixer is really needed? As far as setting levels for rehearsal the MOTU stuff should cover it, there is at least a trim on each input. If you need panning and submixes and EQ per strip then you need a real mixer.

You do need a DAW to record with a MOTU interface, but not to monitor / rehearse.

The Zoom unit definitely fits the bill but it's a bit higher than the budget he mentioned earlier. Still, I'm surprised at how cheap it is, though, good find.

 

[krivium]

I am surprised too it even still exist!
Tascam always did very usable gear ( disliked their digital eq on mixers though). Not sexy at all brand but always spot on about functionality.

 

[Crocobar]

Thanks! @krivium and @kemmler3D ! I will read about the models you mentioned tonight. As for computer vs on-device, I am not opposed to a computer at all, favor it in fact. On-device storing/mixing was more of a "nice to have if I can have it for free for quick experimentation".

As for the budget - I do not want to artificially constrain it: I am not opposed to pay a bit more if it is worth it. But I also try to resist the budget creep just because I know I always want everything now, which is not really practical.

 

[krivium]

Try to find a zoom L8... closer to the budget i could find...

https://www.thomann.de/gb/zoom_live...W4NkCen3xikUc1EI9y7-Cwg7-ZPLk0yBoCbacQAvD_BwE

 

[kipman725]

Behringer X32 would do everything you want well, even a used one would be more than double your budget though. XR18 seems to also do multi track recording and is cheaper: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/behringer-xr18 . XR12 is only stereo recording. If the XR series are like the X32 3rd party apps are better for control than the official ones.

 

[Randy Bassinga]

Croco, I can't help but notice that your asks seem a bit jumbled up. Just to clarify a point, If you are running your guitars through an effects pedal that already has a built-in preamp, why would you also then need a mixer with a high-z input? Pedals like the ones you mention usually have line level outputs and plug into one of the line level inputs on the mixer. I think you might need to redraw your setup

 

[Crocobar]

Hey Randy, you're partially right: the bass multipedal has XLR out, and pretty much all effects I want for the bass: preamp, compressor, and even fuzz.

But the strat is another matter: I use it directly sometimes, or with a standalone fuzz, and I plan to ultimately get the Flamma FS06. All these options require hi-Z.

 

[leadbelly]

The fuzz and the Flamma don't need a high impedance input. If you have the fuzz already, just leave it in the chain with knobs adjusted for a neutral sound and your need of high impedance inputs goes away.