selecting & buying a mixer

i've been having a lot of troubles jamming with mates recently just running my roland v-drums, novation x-station, maschine & microphone thru my m-audio fast track ultra interface into ableton. it always takes a while to set up which kind of kills off that jamming vibe

i decided i should start looking into getting myself a little 8 channel mixer or some thing & i'm probably looking at getting one second hand since i don't wanna spend too much

which mixers would you recommend & would it be wise just to have a mixer sitting on my desk at all times to plug in instruments that then run straight thru into my audio interface?

i'm not that familiar with interfaces, so please help share some of your knowledge with me

a guy in my local area is selling a ''behringer 8 track recording mixer, exc cond, $250''



but i know behringer have a bad name but has anyone used one of these things first hand & had no problems?

or can i get much better for that kind of price?

Mackie VLZ series of mixers, whichever suits your size. They're built like tanks, flexible and I'm over the moon with mine (1402 VLZ Pro).

They can be used for some good distortion too, and the EQ is very useable. Personally I'd go for anything that's 12 channel and above, but that's because I prefer faders over pots.

Multiple sets of outputs means you can have a stereo mix going to your soundcard, another to one set of monitors, another to some headphones etc...

Also, depending on which model you go for you will probably get a send/return option too which is always handy!

Balls to Behringer. Normally, I don't like to put their stuff down without giving it a try, but for jamming I'd say you really can't go wrong with a second hand Mackie.

as scoob said... just get a used mackie vlz pro mixer for under $100 on ebay... they really are built like tanks [in a good way] and are everything behringer only wishes they could be.

i cosign for the mackie vlz series. and also everything scooby and crossings said

I found the Makie VLZ1402 to be really quite expensive. But I only wanted to buy a mixer once, so that's why I got one. Had it 10 years now - still absolutely faultless.

Legend has it that Makie sometimes demoed these things by throwing them on a concrete floor to begin with & then proceeding with the rest of the demonstration afterwards.

The Mic Inputs are more than exceptional.

If my VLZ was to go Tango Uniform, I'd buy another one exactly the same next day. Worth every single penny/cent.

+1 for the mackie mixers.

I don't have a lot of experience with mixers, and everybody is simply going to recommend what they have (as usual with hardware topics)...

I own a mackie onyx board since a few months and am really happy with it. My only other experience with mixers are the cheap yamaha boards, which clearly get blown away by the mackie board.

I'd check out Allen&Heath mixers too, from what i've read they seem to be on par with the mackies.