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A kid that works for me has a band. Four piece: guitar, bass, keys, drums. Two singers. They're creative on their effects but are using poor equipment equipment. Ready to step up to get to next level. His current choices are zed22FX (he likes the onboard efx idea) OR Zed 24, MG206C, but could be swayed to the A&H 16:2.

Told him I would see what advice you all might have
All suggestions welcome
Rick

I would use a minimum 16 channel board. Assuming it's a typical 5 piece drum kit, mic the kick, snare, 3 toms, high hat & maybe an overhead or two for the cymbals - 8 channels. If it's a bigger kit, there are shortcuts that can work. AKG D112 on kick, then a simple drum mic kit for the rest usually will suffice for most situations. An SM57 on high hats.
This is a decent little drum mic kit
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=271264 could also use the kick mic on the bass cab if you get the better AKG. Would also recommend a 4 channel gate for the drums, this will help reduce noise on the open mics.
Bass - I sometimes will run a mic on the cabinet or a direct line from the bass amp - or on occasion a mix of both. Mic of choice for me, AKG D112. Compresser on the bass is always a good idea.
Guitar - mic cabinet. Mic of choice Shure SM57.
Keys - direct to mixer - probably 2 channels for most keyboards.
Singers mics.Compressor on vocals is always a good idea.
Leaves 2 channels open for possible effects returns for external units. Out of the mixers listed i'd probably go with the A&H 16:2 - assuming it's this model?
http://www.zzounds.com/item--AAHWZ3162DX

Much better eq options per channel throughout all the channels.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I'm guessing your budget is $1000 - $2000. At that price range, I would go with a Soundcraft LX7ii, A&H MixWiz, or Yamaha O1V. All those mixers have advantages and disadvantages. Check them all out and see what suits you best. Here are some of my thoughts on each of them:

LX7ii, I own it, like it. AUXes are weird until you get used to unity gain not being straight up and down. AFL for groups is aggravating. Group sends to mix are paired with no pan knobs. Channel sends to groups are paired as well. AUXes switch pre/post in pairs, not individually; so if you need 3 monitor sends and 3 FX you have to be creative. No stereo channel strips, and sucky stereo return section. Great other than these complaints.

MixWiz, pre-fader AUX sends are pre-EQ by default. You can change them via a jumper IIRC. Sometimes this is an advantage. Smaller size, so you either get fewer channels or no groups. Not a huge issue. SysLink allows you to expand the channel count by connecting a second mixer. Great value for its price.

O1V, entry-level digital but you'll never know it's entry-level if you haven't used something priced over $10k. Expandable I/O. Scene save & recall. No gain pot recall, though. 4-band parametric EQ on every I/O. FX. You basically don't need any outboard with this console, except a crossover. You could even do that within the O1V if you wanted to get creative and didn't want to mix on group faders.

Don't skimp on AUXes. He may only want 2 monitor mixes right now, but if the other band members start picking up vocals, they'll benefit from having their own wedge or IEM send.

Don't skimp on channel-count, either. 16 may seem like enough, but if you invest in a good mixer that won't expand, you may regret it later. If you/he buys something without expansion options, get at least 24 mic channels.

I would look around for a rental shop that carries some more professional EFX units, too. If they are creative with effects they'll love the flexibility that comes with a few hundred dollars invested in a good FX processor. Try some out before buying.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Thanks guys. I have been trying to steer him towards th mix wiz as well. That LXII board sounds like it may be too challengimg to run from the drummers chaiir (forgot to mention no sound man). I saw the O1V board and just found one on CL for 600 with one broken knob. There budget is pretty good but they are essentially starting from scratch (given their current set up.

Lonman, with the kick mic'd to the bass cab that won't give the drivers fits keeping up? With both signals? Its a mark bass with 2x10's and a 15.

Not at all, sometimes it gives a very nice blend. You don't necessarily run them at the same levels just want to mix one into another to find that sweet spot.;

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Running sound from the stage sucks. I mean, sometimes you do it because your band can't book for enough money to hire sound; but if they can get someone decent to do it for them, it will be worth the money. You can't be creative with vocal FX when doing sound from the stage unless you really, really know your way around a vocal FX pedal board. I have seen bands make this mistake time and time again, and none of them ever do a good job because ... they are running sound from the stage. Dumb.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

I agree with you here!! And they are finding that out. They just did a live gig the other night and were getting horrible feedback from monitors. They even called me up for help. The problem turned out to be they had the singers channels marked wrong and as a result were making it worse because they were adjusting wrong channel. Its a group of brothers each talented in their own right. One is very good with pro tools and their demo is not bad for novice recording skills but he does add too many vocal efx to propely reproduce live. Thanks again, I will be passing on the info tomorrow

If there running sound from stage, I would not recommend the O1V. I own this board and I love the hell out of it. However, mixing while on stage requires the ability to immediately grab the knob you want to adjust and adjust it. Digital boards require you to navigate to the channel or setting you want to adjust first and then grab the knob and twist. It's not conducive to making quick adjustments when you're focused on more than just the board. As great and flexibile as the 01V is, for this application I can't recommend it.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke