Rack Based Mixers

Posted at 14:10h in Posts by Matthew Grzybowski 0 Comments

I cannot believe I am about to write this article. Let me preface this by saying that I in no way like to, or like the idea of mixing from an iPad or other digital device. I need my physical controls. Actually the more physical controls the better.

That being said I recognize the need for small, simple, rack mounted mixers, and why not add the digital element to it that allows anyone to walk into the room and easily control the system from their mobile device of choice? Putting my horse blinders on for a moment, here is what I came up with.

There are currently 4 players in the Rack Mounted Digital Mixer arena. Well 6 actually, but for the sake of this post we are going to ignore the Behringer X32 Rack and A&H Qu-Pac. Both solid rack consoles, but what I focused on this time around was the ones that have no physical control on the unit, for those rooms and classrooms where you want to limit people just walking up to and messing with the system.

Here is the down and dirty comparison between the units we are looking at today:

Well as you can see for the most part any one of these will get the job done. There is no point in me telling you what is involved with each one, instead I will point some awesome features and some “gotchas.”

First off the Mackie and the Presonus both have the largest number of inputs at 32 which is awesome, but I would never use this in a space where I need 32 inputs. Goes back to my needing physical controls thing. I don’t care how awesome your software is, mixing 32 channels on a touchscreen is going to be limited and annoying.

The Behringer XR18 is cool in the fact that it has Combo jacks for all the inputs, along with the Mackie DL32R and Soundcraft Ui16 that have some Combo inputs as well. This allows me to hook up a MP3 player with a simple cable instead of getting a DI box involved. Again, simplicity is key here.

The Mackie DL32R has a Dante card as an optional feature. This is pretty impressive. The Presonus has Dante and AVB as future options. What I like about this is it allows you to tap into a larger audio network and pull in audio from other rooms, good for overflow rooms.

The Soundcraft Ui16 stands above the rest in that it does not require you to have an app on your device in order to control it. In fact there is no app available. You just hit the IP address of the unit from your web browser and the HTML5 based app loads and away you go. You could even come in with a Windows Phone (if you are one of THOSE people, please click here) and be controlling this system. No need to download anything, just go.

Conclusion:

Hold my feet to the fire and I would have to go with the Soundcraft Ui16 (or the Ui12 if you want less inputs.) I like it’s simplicity, ease of access to the control software, built in wifi, the option to add a monitor keyboard and a mouse and have a nice rack mounted system for a classroom. One last little thing that they did that is just a smart thing: they left openings on either side of the unit, between the rack mounts and the bulk of the console for your to feed cables through, so if this is mounted in a rack the cables can run neatly to the sides and go away all pretty like. Not a game changer but certainly a nice touch.