I recently started listening to industrial & co. again and want to dabble in noise. I want to get a smallish mixer to:
Hook up a synth, or two.
Send the synth through a 19" Roland GP-8, Alesis Midiverb III and/ or guitar pedals. Perhaps route feedback into another channel with a gate in an insert. This is not a must.
Does anyone have any recommendations? I have been considering the Mackie 1202 VLZ 4. It seems to be rather flexible for the price, offering two aux sends and two stereo returns. Plus 4 inserts for channels 1 - 4. Also, you can send stereo return 2 back into aux 1.
Does this sound like a good review, or does anyone have any other recommendations?
You may want to reconsider the Mackie as they have been struggling with LR balance issues. They advise mitigating the fault by tilting the balance and pan knobs to compensate, but this is a bodge and they know it. It's hard to trust them again as you have to wonder what other corners they have cut. Have a look at the Allen and Heath Zed series, they do the same job as the Mackie, with the advantage of working properly.
It's possible that Mackie has fixed this issue, but I still hesitate to trust them.
I would agree about having lost faith in the latest generation of Mackie 1202 and 1402 VLZ4s, which have a silly level offset between left & right buses, so wouldn't recommend them.
Allen and Heath continue to impress with all they do, so would be happy to recommend their little mixers.
But there are also Soundcraft Spirits and various other low-cost brands to consider.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Posts:10110Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:00 amLocation: Manchester, UK
“…I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career” - (folk musician, Manchester).
Interesting about the Mackie issues. I was considering their small battery powered mixer as I haven’t found anything battery powered as affordable and flexible.
The KMI K-mix is amazing but alas discontinued, though Juno have them advertised for £360. They can be powered off a usb power bank. Incredibly small as well and they work as an 8 in 10 out audio interface as well. Mine has done sterling service for years.
ManFromGlass wrote: ↑Mon Sep 01, 2025 12:59 am
Interesting about the Mackie issues. I was considering their small battery powered mixer as I haven’t found anything battery powered as affordable and flexible.
It's a case of testing the product to check, I'm afraid.
I think it was a limited small number of affected products (the 1202 and 1402vlz4 for certain) which used a Mackie Onyx chip (possibly an OTA) in various gain stages. The problem being different gains in the two channels, resulting in an offset of almost 2dB at the output for a centre-panned source.
Many users probably never noticed and there are easy workarounds, but it should never have happened and it made those products unacceptable for serious or pro use. I dont know if Mackie redesigned later units to fix the problem — they have remained very quiet about it AFAIK, although someone on GS did get an acknowledgement from someone at Mackie who said it was "normal"... but that was back around 2021 IIRC.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Tried them all, Allen&Heath are great, no issues.
Mackie sound hard, Soundcraft, the recent ones, generic sound and poor build quality, sent mine back after slow failure of multiple channels.
Yamaha are fine, good build, but again, generic sound, A&H have a great sound, good EQ and a good balance of features.
Mixers mounted vertically never work, they are designed to "mix" and trying to move faders vertically is awkward, and you can never get a smooth fade.
