Good price - Yamaha 212S, Soundcraft EPM8, A&H ZED 10FX?

Passacaglia

Hey all - coming across some stuff priced to move, but no experience with any of these mixers. On a head to head, any thoughts among these three for medium venue use?

martin b

Hi Paul, in my view the Allen & Heath stuff is a cut above. They have a much better eq section than most comparable desks, which is the most important feature. In fact we use a Zed 12fx.

Passacaglia

That's good to know, thanks, Martin. I've read a lot of great things about the A&H boards. I'm leaning this way, as opposed to a powered mixer....much rather replace a powered speaker than a powered mixer if/when the amp goes.

Passacaglia

Just an update, decided on the A&H. Now, some active speakers...!

martin b

Good choice. For powered speakers we use RCF, from Italy. Don't know what availability is like over there, and they're probably a little more pricey, but again in my view, a cut above a lot of the competition which is mostly of Chinese manufacture these days, even the popular US brands. For stands I like K&M.

Passacaglia

Thanks Martin, looking forward to working with this board. Figuring out the monitoring notion, PM sent.

RCF is available here. Can you tell me which one you use? Thanks again!

Paul

martin b

No problem Paul. I spent quite a lot of time looking into all this a while back, may as well share my conclusions and what works for me.
The RCF units we have are the Art 310a. I think it's a discontinued model, but I'm sure they will do something similar. 1x10" and a horn, 350w. Never get the volume above half way. Very natural full range sound. Often remarked upon.

PM sent also.

Passacaglia

Thank you Martin, for your thoughts here and via PM. Very helpful.

Passacaglia

Well, I think this isn't going to be easy or elegant...thwarted. I leapt on the A&H ZED FX for its quality, and as I got it for $175 US. After catching my breath, I realize the ZED 10FX's lack of inputs, only 4 XLRs, may be problematic - myself and up to two other guitars, contrebasse, clarinet; frequently, vocalist (my wife), violin, accordion, mandolin; add in talkback mic and clearly needing more inputs. I won't find as good a deal on anything else A&H, I'm afraid..and I hate to go to straight mixer, without A&H's great reverb, etc. The ZED 12FX, like Martin's, is an obvious choice, but it's a few hundred $ more.

Just the off chance anyone (Martin?) might know something about tweaking these...e.g., pre-amping/eq/tweaking two guitars and putting them both on Channel 1, one gets the channel's XLR and one gets the channel's line input?

martin b

Ah, well, this is the fundamental question when choosing a mixer, and I feel neglectful for not having mentioned this first: you need enough channels for your intended use. I think this unit is ideal for duo/trio/quartet gigs, but for the more large scale scenario you're describing, there's really not enough channels.
If the bigger band thing is an occasional requirement, there are one or two things you can do, although running two guitars into one channel isn't one them. Channels 5 and 6 are stereo, intended for keyboards and such, with no preamp and basic eq. You could conceivably use these as an extra four inputs if you had players with their own preamps - Baggs Para DIs for example. You'd have to balance the gain from the DIs. Or you could run a mini mixer into a stereo channel, but a decent one would be more expense. Inelegant and remedial, but workable.
You can save another channel by keeping the bass on it's own amp, generally preferable.
Ultimately though, it's not a question of inputs, it's a question of channels, and if you routinely need lots, you're going to need a bigger board I'm afraid.
Are you able to reverse out of the 10fx deal? You could hunt for a 12fx used maybe. That gives you 8 channels plus the stereo input trick if needed.
Good luck!

Passacaglia

Thanks, Martin. The fault is very obviously mine....saw a lonely A&H sitting there in clearance and I knew I could get them to go much lower. I think ideally I'm looking for 8 XLR channels...I presume on the 12FX, you get 6 XLRs, and by 8, you mean two additional, in the stereo channels?

Cheers, Martin. Any new albums in the works, by the way?

Paul