recommend me a good audio mixer
 

with the following:

4 or more XLR inputs, phantom power preferred.

1-2 XLR outputs.

LOW or NO NOISE.

SOLID. can go anywhere.

decent price.

usb/firewire optional

you know any?

it's not for music, it's for video, need to hook up 4 lavaliers (aka lapel mics) and get audio out to camera and/or separate audio recorder.

the cheapest thing is a behringer...
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/414501-REG/Behringer_EURORACK_UBB1002_UBB1002_Eurorack_Batter y_Powered.html#includes
but it has no xlr out and i have a behringer and it does the job but it's meh.

any suggestions?

thanks!

what's a decent price?

$500 is my limit

under $200 is preferred.

i just found this... mic mixer...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/294571-REG/Rolls_MX124_MX124_Portable_4_Channel.html#accessor ies

looks good. ROLLS? any good?

never heard of that brand... looks decent though

does it have to run on batteries?

doesn't HAVE TO, but batteries have the advantage of isolating from any electrical noise in the circuits (like, certain fluorescents), and i'm thinking, for "outdoors" recording, it would be sweet. on the other hand, batteries die & suddenly PRRRRTTTT!!!

i was gonna recommend this, if not for the xlr output thing
no xlr op

ah, you want something portable... ok, this is not my area then...

that looks pretty good.


ah. still, thanks for offering.

yeah i was thinking of watching it with this sweet thing or somethign similar:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--FOSFR2LE

Behringer is shit, friend

I recommend Allen & Heath mixers

yeah, it's shit...

allen & heath uh?

found this-- looks good!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/528811-REG/Allen_Heath_ZED_14_ZED14_14_Channel_Recording.html #specifications

it got a shit review due to bad usb "codecs" (so the reviewer claims) but as analog does great. hm....

shit thats a steal

How about a good ol' Mackie 1202?

looks good! but not portable. :(

i'm sorta looking at field recorders with 4 xlr inputs and that might be all i need, skip the mixer...

Well, its just as portable (or not) as most of the ones you linked. Same concept as the first one but its a Mackie not Behringer.

Using a four channel recorder is a great idea--just make sure your levels are good and let the editor deal with the mix.

Do you have to buy or is rental an option?

yeah just go with a field recorder

i'm the editor :D

levels are no problem as we're using 4 identical lav mics that never give us any trouble.

well it turns out we're gonna need 5 mics so i guess a mic mixer will be necessary regardless... ouch, the money, the money...

rental is an option, but i'd rather buy at this point-- im getting a 50% deposit on the job. i like to have my own gear so i can fuck with it when i need to-- and i've been needing a field recorder, yeah....

everything that has the name allen&heath tagged to it is fantastic, i only know their dj mixers and they're so fuckin' awesome but: very expensive. those 399 bucks sure are a bargain, but in the end it might be a little overdressed for your needs. my girlfriend has a very good yamaha mixer that's very portable but sturdy, but it has no xlr out, but there's a bigger model that has 6 mic ins and xlr out at a little above 200 bucks, i can recommend that one.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMMG124C

All yer talent speaks at the same level? Quintuplets?

ha ha ha no, but it's not as complicated as working with different mics.

---

UPDATE

looks like a firewire interface is what i'm going after so i can record 5 separate channels straight to a laptop (i know i said different earlier, but it was gonna be only 4 mics now it's 5).

now i'm under the gun... ayayay...

FIREWIRE INTERFACES, ANYONE? or you prefer USB?

ha ha ha-- great pictures

if you're after a soundcard interface, I'd say the newest from TASCAM would be good if the laptop has a intel processor. like this one:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--TASUS1641



I know I'd buy that if I didn't have a FW from tascam already

I got a Vestax 3 channel mixer like new from Craigslist for 120.00 bucks. Look @ other cities & see if they are willing to ship, normally they don't mind. Behringer is crap!!! go with Makie as someone else mentioned. Vestax is my choice due to durability & flexibility not only that but you have aux. inputs so you can have a total of 6 things hooked up at once. I know it's a dj mixer but the shit works the same in my opinion.

rewind selectah!

wrong thread****

holy shit, that logs great & a great price.

i jumped the gun on something else though-- yes i burned a hole in my wallet too--

http://www.zzounds.com/item--DGDMX003R



it has 4 preamps only but i could add the 5th...

comes with protools, which works well with AVID, so im kinda hoping i chose right... if not... ha ha ha ha-- IM FUcKED!

was that a good choice or did i fuck up? time was ticking, and...

i thought you were on a tight budget?
i don't like pro tools very much, but if you're into it, you bought yourself a great piece of equipment along with some pretty powerful software you wouldn't get elsewhere.

oh, thanks man. yes i was on a tight budget but decided to splurge on the basis that protools would let me also do a better job at editing the audio in my moobys. as it is i've been looking for someone to fix some shit for months but i can't find anyone qualified & affordable, so i said fuckit, i'll learn protools and do it meself. now why protools and not another soft-war? cuz i edit with avid and it's the same company that makes protools and the two are 100% compatible.

thanks for the reassurance! the whole in my wallet does not look pretty but i was hoping it would be worth it. say no the recession!

Yeah, Pinnacle is part of Avid too. This fucking PCTV thing won't record more than one show without needing a reboot of the computer.

That thing seems about as portable as an anvil. But I'm sure it will do what you want.

ha ha ha pinnacle-- well pinnacle wasn'tavid until more or less recently-- they were bought out a couple of years ago, or maybe 3 years or so, and yeah it wasn't a great company or anything. the pinnacle editor, i forgot the name, was turned into avid liquid.

ive never used any pinnacle or ex-pinnacle products-- im sticking with xpress pro, and i'm looking forward to upgrading to media composer. i fucking love avid.

Can you tell me why? I just don't see what the big deal is.

(Multi hundred thousand for <don't recall>'s Smoke? What can make it worth that much money? And the damn thing never worked! If I paid that much money, I'd at least expect it to work)

So far my favorite editor (was) RexEdit from Canopus. (I now primarily use Edius) What I liked was that it was extremely basic and fast. Like a three deck linear system. I really liked the fact that you could have multiple copies open at a time. Work on one segment in one and your master in another.

hm... i fucking love it cuz im used to it i guess ha ha. it just does what it's supposed to. color correction is great. media management is great. i love the 2 timeline modes. their clunky bins, ive also come to like a lot. editing hdv in avid was quite painless too with DNxHD encoding. i can use it without thinking.

then also i was also able to score a bunch of great products for a small price-- i got started with xpress dv for $295, then upgraded to xpress pr for $500 (or was it $300?), then upgrades to media composer are available for $300 or so. what's not to love about that? ha ha ha. ok, they are picky witht he hardware-- i'm learning to comply.

the other two nles ive used are fcp and premiere pro. premiere was buggy as fuck (at the time, v. 1.5), crashed often. fcp yeah its cute & all but there's the mac tax & mac indenture. fuck that.

and then for avid there is this almost infinite upgrade path (from where i stand anyway), so that is a huge attraction for me. i'm looking forward to forking out 3 grand in the future so i can say im avid certified & get hired for humongous jobs. schweetness.

well with that avid background, it was the best thing to do i guess. have fun with it.

hurray for rash decisions!

thanks!