Our trusty Allen and Heath ZED22FX mixer was working so well that we decided to replace it… With this:
Sometimes you just have to mix it up (pun intended) and try something new and there’s not much newer that we can afford than the Mackie DL1608.
The DL1608 is not your typical mixer. They have removed 90% of the knobs, sliders and meters, leaving you with a box that is rather small, with 16 XLR inputs, 6 1/4″ TRS, a pair of XLR outputs, and a headphone jack. The only knobs are the input trim knobs and the headphone level knob.
There are two switches. Do you need any more than that? There is one to turn it on and off and one to shoot some voltage onto the inputs for your phantom powered devices.
EVERY THING ELSE is controlled from your iPad. The entire control surface is gone from the mixer and moved to an app.
You are not locked into just one iPad though. You can keep one docked if you wish, and that iPad can control the thing, as well as record two channels of mix audio (unfortunately, you cannot record all 16 channels like you can on the Presonus or the Behringer digital mixers). Using an inexpensive wireless router, you can plug the Mackie into that, and use several other iPads / iPhones to control the thing.
Here’s our plan:
DL1608 on stage, will reside on my bass amp’s road case. All stage wiring from mics and to speakers will run to the mixer. NO SNAKE running across the floor to pose a health and safety issue to dancers.
An iPad will remain docked in the DL1608 at all times and we will record two channels to that docked iPad. This iPad will be used to control the stage monitor mixes (remember those 6 aux outs? We can have 6 different feeds).
An 802.11n wireless router (Currently a very inexpensive Asus model) will plug into the Mackie and be velcro’d inside my road case.
My wife is our audio engineer who has been doing both front of house and monitor mixes for me for a couple years. She will now use her own iPad to control the Mackie from anywhere around the venue she chooses! NO CONSOLE TAKING UP A TABLE in the middle of the room. No Snake. No chance of someone spilling a beer in it.
Our guitarist and drummer probably want a different mix…. I’ll let them associate their own iPad or iPod to the Mackie and give them permission to affect ONLY their mix.
Should we add in ear monitors at some point, this system will be perfect for that too.
Shakedown cruise is coming this Friday at Rhythm & Brews in Greer, SC. I’ll try to reply or post a new blog post with the results. Oh, and we will be taking the old ZED with us, just in case!
John M. Hoyt – Bass guitarist on a mission