A gift from my old boss (and now best bud and booking agent), this thing used to be the heart of a really great local streaming radio station's live booth. Small but mighty. It was there for years before I got there, I personally did hundreds of live-in-the-room acoustic sets, band interviews, phone calls, etc. Even members of Congress have gone live through this board. City leaders disgraced by scandal. Future rock stars. Classic rock legends. And I was just one of a dozen DJ/engineers while I was there, much less before. It's done double-duty as a live board, dragged to outdoor gigs in a pinch, and once acted as the second-stage mixer at a 2-stage, alternating "festival" at a famous basement club, giving "bang for your buck" sets during the main stage changeovers.
This thing's seen some ACTION.
And against all odds, because it was neglected, it pretty much works as it should. Those dozens of engineers were often untrained (myself included at first), nobody did much cleaning or maintenance. One of the channels has an XLR input that's only giving out the weakest signal (need to diagnose), and some of the switches are dodgy, but so far, I don't think most of it is anything that can't be fixed with a good Deoxit flush.
I have a real fondness for this "last gasp" era of analog solid-state gear (yes, I realize this has digital effects, but to my understanding, this is an analog mixer with a digital effects module). Clearly, that late-'90s to mid-'00s low-end gear often sounds a bit flat, a bit devoid of "warm character" next to a Neve or something. But more often than not, it WORKS. Good, reliable, gives out what you put in. And now, 20-odd years on, the ones that still work were likely built to last. Clearly.
I'm not anti-digital, but I know that someone with a little electronics know-how can fix these analog ones and they'll keep right on doing what they do. And maybe philosophically, the aging punk in me loves how this kind of cheap gear puts "doing music" in the hands of more people, and generally deliver. Not excel, but deliver. I think that's important.
I'm gonna open this one up, give it a good cleaning, get some cleaner/lube in the necessary spots, and give it a refresh. After that, I'll see if that weak channel can be diagnosed.
My first day as an "engineer", the big boss asked me to cover his show, he was gonna be out of town. Tells me to text him when I get there. I do. Turns out, he's on vacation with his wife in South America. And he's gonna teach me how to run a board over the phone.
This was the weird little mixer that taught me how to mix sound after using a low-feature cassette 4-track for years, then into GarageBand. I'd just bypassed more complicated hardware and routing. I've had a Mackie 1402 for a bit, and been using my 424mkIII as a living room mixer, but this one will now be on duty for me 'n my wife doing our garage punk thing in headphone rehearsals. Room to grow.
So, I realize it's nothing fancy, but this board actually has some sentimental value, and beyond that, has been about the most bomb-proof piece of gear I've ever seen that doesn't have "Peavey" written on it.
I traded her a Bass Katana for it. I think I made out okay.
