Yamaha MG166CX Mixing Console

Yamaha MG166CX

Bands playing in small venues that want compact PA rigs - say in the 3KW range - but demand a fully-featured sound.

And we\\\'ve all gone through working with the powered mixer amps that don\\\'t have the delivery grunt or monitoring flexibility; the smaller desks that deliver that \\\"head down the jet engine\\\" midrange and lugging in an overkill quantity of outboard gear to try to overcome the problems of your average small hall.

Well, this beastie fixes 90% of your issues in one lightweight package.

First things first : Out of the box, it\\\'s simple enough to operate that smaller bands or those that don\\\'t really want or need a dedicated techie can run it themselves with good results. And for once in a way, the manual\\\'s got some genuinely useful observations to add in too. But if you do want to add in some extras, then sensible features like the channel inserts and the flexible grouping help to make your job that much more straightforward.

Next up : Sound quality. In a word : lovely. It\\\'s warm, clear and rich and there\\\'s a heap of headroom in all the main control functions that means that you don\\\'t feel like you\\\'re pushing the thing to its limits every time.

So why only give it the 9/10 rating ? Two gripes : Having a channel inset on each of the main outputs would be icing on the cake and the onboard effects don\\\'t do the rest of the unit justice : The reverbs and delays are a shade sterile sounding compared to the great sound of the rest of the unit. But that\\\'s just me being greedy...

So, in a nutshell : If you want something for small venue work with limited lineups or if you\\\'re after a submixer for vocals or brass get hold of one of these and enjoy the ride...