4-Channel Audio Mixer advice needed

What are you trying to achieve with said mixer? Your mixtrack quad is already a mixer in itself – are you trying to add more stereo inputs? Or more Mic inputs?

Specifics would help.. 🙂

I don’t think I have seen someone play guitar and DJ simultaneously before but if that’s what you wanna do, go for it.

I use a mixer every time I DJ (I don’t use a controller and just have a soundcard) – I use a Yamaha MG10 (v3).

What I would recommend in these circumstances would be a small PA mixer – ideally one with a mic input, a guitar input and a stereo input (from the controller).

Have you seen the Yamaha AG10? Strikes me that it could be perfect for you – although you wouldn’t need the onboard soundcard – Is your B Gtr active or passive? If it is passive do you use a DI box or do you want that built into a mixer? That’ll decide what kind of specific features you want.

If it is active, any mixer that has a line input will be able to connect to it. If it is passive then you either need a DI box or a mixer which supports Guitar (known as Instrument) level inputs. The Yamaha AG series supports this.

Other than that, pick a mixer from a reputable brand. The Yamaha MG series have the advantage of XLR outputs – useful if you are running active speakers but possibly a little unnecessary if you have passive speakers with the amp next to the mixer.. Depends on your setup.

I would consider anything (at the budget end) by Mackie/Yamaha/Allen and Heath (at a push – they are expensive in comparison…)

bob6397

Slight correction Vintage.. The Bass is active and therefore outputs at line level, which means that you can plug it straight into the mixer. The Acoustic is passive, so that would either need a DI box or a mixer with one built in (Yamaha AG series?)…

Effects are useful but only if you have a sound engineer to operate them live – it is near impossible to perform and mix yourself live and sound decent. When I mix for people, I use a (pair of for bigger concerts) Yamaha MG166CX console – and I will use the built in reverb effects etc. just to add some more into the mix – adding reverb to vocals transforms them when applied right..

BUT it is not necessary or even expected from a musician performing on their own.. So I wouldn’t bother in this case.. 🙂

bob6397

Do you mean that you don’t have gain control for the tracks from your Mac or that you don’t have gain control for the mic channel?

If you don’t have it for the tracks, you should be alright (though it isn’t ideal) – the autogain in your DJ software should take care of the gain for you and your track prep should sport any errors it may have (VDJ notably sturggles with older music which isn’t mastered in the same way that music nowadays is.. It applies far too much gain to them (partly also due to the emphasis in the mix – tracks nowadays also have more bass than older tracks..)

If you haven’t got it on the mic, check again that the control isn’t hidden on the back of the controller or somewhere (As this would be odd) but, again, you should be fine..

bob6397

Buy Platinum Notes (or get one of the free options, although I have to say I never really liked those) and run your tracks through it. It will automatically gain all your tracks the same. You can easily do without the gain knobs then. Also you can use the autogain feature in your DJ software.

Whatever way you do it, the gain/trim on a mixer will never be avaible for track gaining if you are using software and a controller.

Yes that’s right. If you don’t have a gain control on your controller, no amount of external audio equipment will help. You will just add another volume control to your setup.

Just as a sidenote: If your bass guitar is active, you can plug it in to the mic input of your controller. Only problem in the Numark is that the mic input cuts everything below 500Hz..so your bass won’t be effective. I use a keyboard with it and it works fine.

A tip if you don’t have gain controls: Keep your channel faders at about 3/4th of the way only…that way if a track ts too quiet, you’ll be able to compensate for it.