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Thread: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

  1. #1
    F5G & MD305 Astro's Avatar
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    Default Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    I was wondering if anyone could recommend a small mixer with very clean pres and very good phantom power.

    Our band has a Soundcraft ui16 that is fine for most of what we do. (90%)

    But we can't use our condenser mic with it because the pres arent so good and the noise gets even worse when phantom power is engaged. Its a known problem of these or I should say a usually acceptable compromise. With the condensor mic we just cant turn it up to hear anything without feedback. But Im not here to bemoan that. For the price point and features its still a good buy and Id buy again for the bar gigs we do. I tried using that fathead phantom pre attachment thingy to boost the mic signal but it didnt help enough. Maybe the ui16 phantom power is crap too? Doesnt matter Im done trying.

    I'm just looking for a mixer that has at least one great mic pre that is attached to great phantom power so that on those few times when I want to hook up my mic (EarTrumpets Louise) I will be able to use it.

    Can anyone recommend one for a couple hundred dollars max ?
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  2. #2
    Registered Muser dang's Avatar
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    Default Re: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    Off of suggestions here I have one of these:
    https://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/zed-10/

    Sounds pretty high quality to me, and I think it is from a good company. No sliders but knobs instead. The FX version is a little more but I kinda wish I had gotten it, just a touch of reverb is so nice.

    It can do phantom and has pretty dang good preamps, but anymore it seems you can get mixers that do a lot more at a lower price point...
    I should be pickin' rather than postin'

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  4. #3
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    Default Re: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    You may want to try a stand alone phantom power source. I find if phantom is not sufficient the mic won't work well and will feedback easier. It will also be less noisy as you are not using the phantom on your board.
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

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  6. #4
    not a donut Kevin Winn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    I've always had great results from Mackie gear

  7. #5

    Default Re: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    Great sounding pres come at a price. Soundcraft or anyone else can make a great pre, but then the mixer becomes expensive, like QSC and others. A friend has a few pre amps taken from pro recording mixing boards. One channel cost more than many consumer grade mixers. He works for a sound installation company and was able to take home a 24 channel mixer that was $10K ten years ago. Housed in a four space road case, it's totally controlled via iPad. The difference is amazing.
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  8. #6

    Default Re: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    I have the same mixer (UI16), and I love it! It has done everything I need it to do, but I did notice some noise and feedback issues once I recently started using an overhead condenser mic for my cajon setup. I have little experience with condenser mics in a live environment, so I attributed it to the live condenser mic in general.
    Once I ran the AFS feedback suppression and ran some low cut filters on it, I was able to get decent results with it. Perhaps not the results you are looking for, but it does a good job for my percussion overhead. For the money....the UI16 is an awesome mixer, but yes....the pre's could be better.
    Last edited by martynic; Dec-12-2019 at 9:57pm.

  9. #7
    Registered User Polecat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    I would suggest you look at the MG series from Yamaha. I have an MG 10 that is connected to my computer and an MG16 for live work. I've used them with large diaphragm mics, both expensive and cheap, for recording and on stage and never had an issue with unwanted noise. Online reviews also attest that the preamps are very neutral and have an excellent signal to noise ratio, although the Ear Trumpet Mics are well known for their low output, and if you have to whack the gain way up to get a decent signal, it's unrealistic to expect no noise.
    "Give me a mandolin and I'll play you rock 'n' roll" (Keith Moon)

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  11. #8

    Default Re: Small mixer with great mic pre's and great phantom power.

    There are inline boosters out there for about a hundred bucks that will allow you to use less gain on your board. (SoundCloud?) Pres get noisier as they reach maximum gain. People use thes on low output ribbon mics.
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