Can you recommend a mixer with FX and three aux outs?

[The Dark Lord]

I play in a working three piece band (sometimes as a two piece with drum back tracks) - but mainly as a three piece.

We put [i]everything [/i]through the front of house PA, even when in small venues. We find it is easier to get a more consistent and balanced sound that way. It also helps us to set the volume of the band how we want - louder [i]or[/i] quieter.

Anyway, for this purpose, we use a Samson MPL1502 mixer. It is very good, compact, enough XLR ins, rugged etc. But is doesn't have built in effects - so we need to connect an outboard reverb unit.

We would also like a mixer which has built in effects and three aux outs - as we each would like a different monitor mix.

Any recommendations would be good. Cost is not a primary consideration. We will pay what we have to do get a good number of XLR ins, at least 3 monitor outs and a compact and portable unit.

At the lower end of the scale, I see there are two or three versions of the Behringer Xenyx 2222 models to consider (although they are [i]slightly[/i] bigger that I would ideally like). At the more serious end I'm also [i]really, really[/i] tempted by the Line 6 M20d.

Anyone have any other suggestions for a suitable mixer?

[EBS_freak]

3 auxs and small is pretty tricky but this comes to mind - 3 useful aux (2 pre, 1 post)

[RhysP]

+1 for the Allen+Heath Zed range.

[brensabre79]

+2

[Pob]

Can't go wrong with Allen & Heath!

[The Dark Lord]

A short list is appearing as follows:
[list]
[*]Line 6 M20D
[*]Behringer Xenyx 2222FX
[*]Presonus StudioLive 16.0.2
[*]Alto ZMX124FX
[*]Allen & Heath Zed12FX
[*]Mackie ProFX16
[/list]

[pete.young]

I've just gone through a similar exercise. There are two things to consider:

Even if the mixer has built-in effects, you still need an aux send to pipe the signal to the effect. This needs to be a post-fader send in order to be useful.

For a monitor mix, you need a pre-fader aux send, otherwise you'll get the front-of-house mix in your monitors.

So for your requirements, you need four aux sends, three of which need to be assignable to pre-fader.

Some of the mixers in your list (the Behringer and the Mackie, and maybe others), have only three aux sends, only two of which can be used as pre-fade. General rule of thumb seems to be that if you want lots of monitor mixes, you end up with a much bigger desk such as a Mackie Onyx 1640i or the 24-channel Behringer, can't remember the number but the footprint of these units gets much bigger.

The Presonus has 4 aux sends which can be configured, and it looks like a great piece of kit. I was put off by the price and what seemed to me to be a pretty steep learning curve, and ended up with a Yamaha MG206C and an external box for reverb. Be interesting to see if any of the presonus users had trouble getting their heads round it.

I've also found that setting up 3 different monitor mixes can be a complete nightmare, much more difficult than getting a decent FO sound. It would be much easier if everyone had IEM and the volume on stage was easier to control.

[bertbass]

Have a look at the Yamaha range. Might well be what you're looking for.

[Monckyman]

The Allen + [s]Grief [/s]Heath has much the nicer EQ .