Best Sounding Budget Mixer?

[rockwithrespect]

I'm in the market for a mixer for my home studio. I will also be using it for mixing small live shows, but my main focus is recording. I need at least 16 channels. Mackie has the workhors VLZ PRO series, as well as the new ONYX line. Allen and Heath have the MixWizards, and Soundcraft has some reasonably priced mixers as well. Can anybody give me opinions on the sound quality of the pre's and EQ's?

All of the mixers I just named can be had for right at or under 1,000 depending if you can get them on EBAY or not. My limit is 1,500. Is there anything out there that would justify the extra 500? I have a bank loan that will be paid off in a little over a year. Once that is done I intend to take out another to overhaul my studio. I'm thinking of going with the Control 24 and a small HD setup.

What does everyone think about the Soundcraft Ghost? I've seen it on EBAY for about 2G's. Any suggestions and input would be greatly appreciated.

Kyle

[pk_hat]

What does everyone think about the Soundcraft Ghost? I've seen it on EBAY for about 2G's. Any suggestions and input would be greatly appreciated.





If it's in good condition, you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal. The Ghost is quite popular and while I've never used one, I've heard great things about them. However, the ones I've seen on eBay go for about $4k, great condition, fully loaded and with meter bridge. I'd do some investigating on a $2k Ghost, could be a minor thing, but worth looking into, that sounds like too good a deal...

As well, you can get a Soundcraft M12 which is by far one of the best budget mixers around. Same pres as the Ghost and some sweet EQ's as well. The M12 also has a SPDIF output so you can go digitally to your Digi interface.

In a nutshell, I'd recommend Soundcraft and Allen&Heath over Mackie anyday, but the Onyx still remains to be seen and reviewed, there could be something there, worth looking into...

[where02190]

they may be outside your budget, but the Midas Venice consoles are IT for small format mixers.