Today’s professional audio world is awash with digital mixers claiming to be compact. Sure, they’re compact in the sense that they take up half the space a digital mixing console uses. But what about if you need something that’s grab and go? What if you need a mixer that you can stuff in a bag and take with you from gig to gig? That’s where QSC compact digital mixers come in!
The QSC TouchMix-8 and the QSC TouchMix-16 are compact digital mixers designed for musicians and audio production engineers to use in live music applications. They’re perfect if you need all of the power, capability and function of larger mixing consoles, but don’t quite have the space or the budget for an entire console. These two compact digital mixers are easy to use, yet maintain a surprising amount of functionality and features. While professional audio engineers won’t have any trouble operating either device, the workflow is simple enough that less experienced users can learn the ins and outs (no, not the I/O) quickly. The QSC TouchMix Series compact digital mixers are the result of the collaboration between QSC and industry professionals Greg Mackie and Peter Watts.
Both of these compact digital mixers are well designed. They weigh about the same as a laptop and are similar in size. They’re truly compact (there’s that word again) so you can stick them in your backpack or carrying bag and whisk off to whatever gig or event you have planned. Both the TouchMix-8 and the TouchMix-16 include a padded carrying case for extra protection. A USB WiFi adapter is also included, allowing you remote control over the device. Remote control is possible with an iPad over a wireless connection.
The only difference between these two compact digital mixers is in the inputs and outputs. The QSC TouchMix-8 has 12 full function inputs (4 Mic, 4 Mic/Line, 2 Stereo, USB 2-track) and eight microphone preamplifiers. The QSC TouchMix-16 has 20 full function inputs (12 Mic, 4 Mic/Line, 2 Stereo, 1 Talkback, USB 2-track) and 16 microphone preamplifiers. Other than that, these devices are identical. A color touchscreen offers such controls like digital faders. There’s digital signal processing-based four-band parametric EQ with both high pass and low pass filters, in addition to gate and compressor functions on each input channel. The DSP also offers effects (or FX if that’s your thing) like reverb, delay, echo and chorus. There’s also a pitch correction feature. These compact digital mixers are also capable of multi-track recording to an external USB hard drive with sampling frequencies up to 48kHz.
QSC has crafted some impressive digital mixers! To learn more about either model, get in touch with us at sales@muzeekworld.com.