Touchmix vs. Line 6 md20

[banjoboy]

I posted a couple years ago. I was interested in getting a digital mixer. I was considering both the Touchmix and the Line 6. I read several threads about both. Several things were taken into consideration when I finally purchased a board. I chose the Touchmix 8. It had great reviews, as did the Line 6. Eventually I chose the Touchmix based on price and recommendations. Several people I spoke with said that QSC is basically all about sound reinforcement and that there have been little issue with the product. They said Line 6 was more about guitars and amps, and that I probably couldn't rely on customer service should something go wrong as the md20 really wasn't a major item for the company. Over the years the QSC has worked well. I did have some issues however. The first was when the board would shut down. Turned out it was a loose power cord. This turned out to be a relatively common problem. QSC was great to deal with. The provided a new cord without charge, and in a timely manner. I also experienced some issue with channels shutting down during a show. It stopped when I rebooted during the gig. When this happened, QSC had released an update, and my issue may have been due to me not updating my software. Since then, QSC has released yet another update. I was disappointed when I got the board as there was no feedback suppression. I purchased two dbx Go Racks and that solved my feedback problems. The new QSC software update included a RTA and feedback suppression. I still haven't worked out how to use these features and continue to use my dbx units.

I recently started thinking it might be a good idea to get a back-up board, in case something happened to my QSC. I was originally thinking about an analog board, the Mackie FXPro12. But while searching, I noticed that the price on the Line 6 board has come down to $999.00. So now I'm thinking about that board again. Based on all the info out there, it continues to look really user friendly, especially for a non-techno guy like me. But I'm wondering about how they are holding up. The Line 6 board has been out for a while. How are they holding up for you folks who have them? Any issues? Any regrets?

[almeriastrings]

I still have one and use it at an installation. It has been very solid. No issues.

HOWEVER... development effectively ceased and there have been no updates for ages... apart from one to allow the iPad app to function in 64-bit mode.

As such... it is a very powerful, flexible and good-sounding mixer (I also have QSC TM8's and 16's), BUT... future support is questionable. Provided you get a warranty, though, they are a steal at the current discounted price. In some respects, even more powerful than the Touchmix 16... both have various pros and cons, of course, but QSC is great to work with, offer solid support, and you can be assured of longer term backup.... while that is not so with the Line 6...

[TonyP]

My Line6 has been a huge leap forward from the analog boards I was used to. It's approach is very unique which is not at all like any board I've ever seen or heard of. To some it might seem like a gimmick to have a representation of a stage and you program the people and their instruments on it with the input assignments but for me it was so handy. I've never heard of a board that has basically noob mode and pro mode like this has.

I got the board on Fri and that night after having watched a couple of YouTubes I set up the stage plot knowing how we set up and the gear each person used. It was plug and play for the first gig and literally after quickly setting levels off we went. It did give me a faint heart attack when I was almost finished setting up and decided to let it boot up while I did the last few chords and came back to a blue screen of death. Rebooted and never saw it again.

Outside its hard to see the screen but it's possible. I use a home made platform that clamps to the speaker stand to put the mixer on so it was in the shade of the speaker and monitor. It was really hot, no shade and functioned perfect. There were a couple of really quick blunders where somebody leaned a mic right into the monitor while wrestling with their rig and it caught the feedback so quick we were all not sure what had happened.

It's sad that this will end up an orphan but it seems my life is full of stuff I like going away.