SeriesYamaha EMX

I bought it in 1999 (yes, last century) for small venues. It was my first powered mixer and I still have it (in 2013): That says a lot about its longevity and sturdiness. I still rent it from time to time together with a couple of speakers and it does its job pretty well: Amplify previously recorded music or sources coming from one or several mics. It is practical, without any irrelevant features, although it has lots of useful tools: Phantom power, 6 XLR channels, including two thar are also line + stereo, small 7-band EQ on the master but also for the second channel if you use it as return, small basic reverb (hall/plate/room), which is more than enough and, especially, easy enough for newbies to understand with a brief explanation. The pros: Reliability, ease of use, and decent sound quality The cons (being picky): A bit heavy, jack headphone out I wouldn't hesitate to buy it or its bigger sibling, the 860!!!

The Yamaha EMX5014C is a powered mixer that has 10 channels and 14 inputs. There are 16 high quality effects to choose from on this mixer. When I first read the specs I didn’t think they 16 would fit me, but after hearing how good they are it was a must have. It would have been nice to have some more though especially at this price. You can rack this unit but only if you purchase a separate rack kit because it does not come with it right out of the box. You will need to purchase a kit called the RK5014 if you want to use it as a rack mount. But using it as a tabletop mixer is not bad it will look great and fit right into your set up. I love how this mixer controls vocals; it will give you all of the tools you need to get clean and warm vocals. Plus you can add a little reverb or chorus to give them more depth. I love using this mixer for live shows depending on the style of music that we are going to be working with. This is not the ideal mixer to use for other events like weddings or banquets because you don’t need to have all of the EQ options for those events like you would a music event. There is a 3 Band EQ on each individual channel and a master 9 band graphic EQ on the main channel to let you control the whole output of sound. You can use this mixer with just about any instrument or any type of microphone. It will sound great no matter what sound source you throw at it. I love the quality of this mixer and it is a great value for the price. I would make this choice again if needed and I recommend it to people all of the time.

Yamaha EMX 212S is a 12 channel powered mixer that is made for the road. The construction of this mixer is heavy duty and will last a long time. There are 16 digital SPX effects on it, echo, chorus, flanger, distortion, reverb, and a few other ones are on it. All of these effects can be added very quickly at the touch of a button. There are EQ’s on the main and monitor channels so you can get the exact sound you want or get out that feedback quickly. There are 12 input channels and 4 for microphone with phantom power. This whole mixer only weighs 22 pounds and is made for use every day. It have used this mixer as well as seen this mixer used for hour upon hours and it has never over heated or shorted out. I have seen it dropped and just about thrown and it has never stopped working. I am pretty sure as long as it doesn’t get wet it will work forever. If it doesn’t Yamaha stands by their products and I am sure they will not have a problem working with you to solve the problem especially with most of their products coming with a warranty automatically. The only thing that I didn’t like about this mixer is the amps and the humming that I would hear. I would not hear this all of the time just sometimes mainly after the mixer and speakers would be on for a long period of time. This could have been the speakers, cords, or any number of issues but it just seemed like the amps in this mixer would start to make the unit “hum” after a while. This didn’t happen often just sometimes and it really was not that big of an issue unless everything was completely silent. Overall, this is a perfect mixer for the road and it is affordable for any budget.

The Yamaha EMX312SC is a dual 300 watt powered mixer. You will get a great sound with this mixer, I noticed the quality of the sound immediately the first time I used it. The compression on it is so easy to use, it is basically just one knob to use for compression and it will change the dynamics of your audio quickly. I really love what it does with bass; it gives the bass that punchy but still smooth sound that not a lot of mixer can do anymore. There are some effects on the EMX312SC too, chorus, flanger, distortion and reverb are just a few of them but I think there are about 15 total. They all sound great and are very usable, and the effects will be able to be used on each channel. This mixer is a great choice for a live show, there are a total of 12 inputs and 8 channels. This gave me just what we needed while we were using it. This mixer is not as portable as I thought it was going to be though. It was a lot heavier than what I expected it to be and if I had to use it a lot I think I would eventually want something lighter with the same specs. There are other mixers that have the same exact specs but are lighter. The knobs are made well and the LED meters are bright and easy to see in any kind of lighting. This is a professional mixer armed with phantom power and all of the bells and whistles you could ever need. Overall this mixer is great for live events and I highly recommend it. All of the mixers in this line from Yamaha seem to be pretty good. They are all basically the same just more or less inputs on each one. Great control and compression!

The thing to like about the EMX88S is that it's portable, light, easy to set up and functional enough for those small room club/bar gigs where a full large scale PA is unneccessary or impossible. It's drawbacks are limited individual eq's, size and ease of adjustment, and limited channels. For the price these are suited well to the small room gig. If you really only need to get some vocal mics and maybe a quiet percussion mic running then this unit will be great. Also, if you are playing a very quiet gig, let's say with a harp, some acoustic guitar, bass, and some vocals as long as you have some decent speakers you'll be able to pull off a good balanced sound while running everything straight into the head, no guitar/bass amps needed. The individual eq's are lacking, even just a sweepable mid would be a huge improvement. However, the graphic eq for the mains/monitors is definitely helpful to subdue some of those unwanted low mid feedback notes and of course those evil high screeching feedbacks. Just as a thought, you can use the main direct out and run this into another EMX88S to run your monitors. Doing this you can utilize all of the power of one for your mains and all of the power of the other for your monitors! The overall sound quality these put out is not bad, not amazing, but definitely passable. Comparatively, these have enough power to run some pretty decent sized speakers and still acheive good sound indoors or outside. I've used the EMX88S, (a pair of them), with both of my gigging bands in small clubs for a couple years now and they perform as advertised. They have enough power to run nearly any smaller speaker set-up and overall deliver a clean sound. Depending on your needs and your average venue size the EMX88S could be a fairly sound investment!

While looking for a backup or replacement amp/mixer for our mains, I found this barely used unit from MHZ Studio on Ebay. After tossing a coin, I put in my winning bid at the last 5 seconds of auction close for $291.00US incl shipping. The obvious thing to like is that your mixer, amp, fx processor and EQ are already plugged into one another and sitting in a relatively light ( apx 40lbs), attractive charcoal color abs enclosure - so setup and troubleshooting time minimal. This unit sounds great!! A higher fidelity sound when set flat over various eq'd Peavey mixers we were using. It has 3 way eq on each channel, plus a separate 7 band eq for mains and monitors- Although we just run vocals and acoustic guitars on this unit - We drive Peavey SP5G 15" 2way mains( 250w rms@8ohm) with enough volume for small outdoor gigs and small (50 people)to medium size( 500 people max) venues - room dependent of course. To keep feedback down - we moved from an SM58 to an EV 967 vocal mic which seems to lack fidelity on our previous boards, but sounds great on the Yamaha. The unit has the ability to send to powered mains as well, so, you can use the internal power for monitors while sending to you powered mains or if you want to use a different external amp. The 68s has footswitch inputs for both fx on/off and tap. The Clip limiter is a good thing to have, but we have experienced times when the unit brick walls the mix when something like a heavy palm muted "chicka" sound is being put out by an acoustic guitar. The whole mix just drops out for a slit second. Bare in mind we were playing out doors with the mixer main volume set at 8 out of possible 10. To compund this issue - the built in FX don't offer a compressor/limiter. So you need to be cautious and have your absolute maximum input volumes in line so as not to engage the power amp output limiter. The FX section uses a rotary knob that points to microscopic print defining the effect number that has to be referenced via a chart of equal fontsize that sits above the knob. Haven't dropped it on the ground or in deep water -so I don't know if it will float or withstand impact - it feels solid and looks well built. For it's retail price point you get a great sounding portable powered mixer that will handle most acoustic act applications,and small venue band applications. Having a " band break" switch is cool so if you run pre recorded music between songs or sets - you can mute the mic and instrument inputs. This unit runs cool and doesn't consume excessive amounts of power. Having LED's on the EQ section with a feedback detection system like the comparable Behringer would be a nice addition as well as a discernable digital readout for the effects section. We love the sound the ease of use - good product. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Guitar Center $625. Small band PA Built in amps capable of running front of house speakers and 1 monitor mix. EQ on channel strip only boosts low end at 100hz, poor for kick drums. If you are using built in crossover the EQ boosts the low end in your midrange/high/full range speakers and not just your Subwoofer. If you plan to use the internal splittable amps for 2 monitor mixes, the built in graphic EQ does not work for monitor mixes. They should have done 2 smaller profile EQ's that could be assignes for monitors or mains. That way you could ring feedback out from your stage wedges. Construction and quality seem excelent. i have only had the unit 2 months. If you plan to use this board for a band PA for anything but practice it is OK. If you are going to use a sub, plan on using a real croosover along with it. If you are using it with a kick drum plan on a purchase of a seperate EQ to use in the insert to really make it thump. overall I think Yamaha has a great idea here but they need to make a few adjustments. Again, if you are using this in a church, speaking PA, or a band practice PA for mostly voice it will be an awesome aquisition for you. I tried to purchase it for a small band PA to cut down on what we had to bring to small gigs and it falls a little short in a few areas. I can say it is a better option with more features than any other powered mixer I could find in its price range. Allen and Heath make a similar product for almost twice the price but I have not tried it, yet. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com