Jul 29, 2008 02:29 am
As with anything on our industry, budget is the biggest factor.
There are a myriad of manufactures and product lines to have to sort though.
Now I am not knocking the Mackie product line. They have their place, and they work great in that niche.
In my experience, they have a longevity problem that Mackie doesn't seem to eager to solve.
The next step up use to be Crest. No longer since they will not support any of there older products. And their new ones seem to be crap.
Depending on your budget, I would suggest Allen and Heath for the lower end. They have a good product line with 24, and 32 channel frames.
If you have a little leeway in your budget. I would suggest looking into Yamaha's digital line. Very inexpensive for digital. And you get a lot of bang for the buck with them.
If that is out of the question. But your looking for a little more then what Allen and Heath can offer. Midas my be for you. Midas is the Top end of the scale. But they do have a cheaper product line. Such as the Verona, and Seara lines.
Fantastic preamps and EQ's. Quite and reliable. But I believe they start around $3000 US dollars.
Take a look at some of these companies, see if anything turns your fancy.
www.glseries.com/gl2400.php
www.midasconsoles.com/verona.html
www.yamahaproaudio.com/pr.../ls9/index.html