1. Quality. You've made the decision to invest in a mixer. Now make the decision to invest in one that offers you the best sound quality you can afford.
2. Ruggedness. If you're running though jungles or shooting on the football field, choose a mixer with a metal case and protected controls. The average mixer, with its plastic knobs and case, may not be rugged enough for on-location shoots.
3. Stereo or Mono. If you're recording or editing mostly music, especially from CD or tape sources, a stereo mixer will help--even if the finished product is a mono track on your video.
4. Faders. What type of fader fits your budget? Your space? Your manual dexterity? Rotary are cheaper and smaller than sliders, but they can be difficult to control if you have many inputs active at the same time.
5. Inputs. Just adding narration? Two inputs is probably enough. A wedding might need four to six; small music groups, eight inputs. That 40-piece band might need a few more...
6. Mike vs. Line In. Will you be mixing mostly amplified signals (VCR, cassette, CD player) or live mikes? A microphone cannot plug into a line input. But you can adapt line-level sources to mike jacks. Or look for a mixer with convertible inputs.
7. Battery vs. AC. Do you need to go completely portable, or can you plug into power lines? Size counts here also. Bigger mixers take more power than batteries can practically supply. If you do go with batteries, be sure to calculate their running time and take along plenty of fully-charged spares.
8. Effects. Do you want built-in echo? Do you need a compact mixer without accessories dangling nearby? Or do you have outboard gear like synchs', samplers, limiters and reverbs that require aux sends? You may end up with more features now than you need, but in a year or so you could wish you had more.
9. Deejay. If you only need one mike input and mix a lot of prerecorded music, consider the advantage of all stereo inputs and cross-fade controls.
10. Size. Although determined mostly by the number of inputs, you do have a choice of full-size vs. compact designs. Will you be back-packing with your gear, or transporting it in a truck? Or are you outfitting a nice comfortable edit suit, sharing a desk with your typewriter and answering machine?
Digital Audio No one witnessing the onslaught of CD, digital compact cassette (DCC) or Mini Disc .
(MD) would deny that digital audio storage is here to stay. But few would have imagined that an affordable, fully digital mixer would hit the market so soon. Yamaha's revolutionary new 16-channel Pro Mix 01 converts all incoming audio to 20-bit digital for better-than-CD audio performance. The board includes two built-in digital effects units and four assignable stereo compressors. Each input channel has a 3-band digital EQ. Doing all audio processing in the digital realm has advantages besides fidelity.
The Pro Mix 01 will instantly store and recall 50 different mixer setups, including all fader positions, EQ, compressor and effects settings.
MIDI supports allows dynamic changes of any parameter mid-program. Slated to ship in August, the Yamaha Pro Mix 01 should carry a list price tag of under $2000.
