Allen and Heath ZED-12FX 12-Channel Mixer with USB Interface
Mix it up with 16 unique digital effects on this USB-equipped mixer. The ZED-12FX boasts 6 DuoPre mic preamps with 3-band mid-sweep EQ, plus 3 stereo inputs.
$729.99
- 12 x$60.83
- 8 x$91.25
- No Credit Check6 x$121.66
- No Credit Check4 x$182.50
Overall User Ratings (based on 14 ratings)
Submitted December 2, 2012 by Larry Russell in Pittsboro, NC
"Wish I would have bought an Allen & Heath long ago"
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After many years of trying to cut corners by purchasing inexpensive mixers, I finally decided enough was enough of my constant trips to my favorite electronics repair business. I was tired of losing sleep on nights before a gig-hoping and praying that my mixer would not die again in the middle of a performance. I have always adopted the belief that you must have a backup plan to your backup plan. I still run a rack system and any element (EQ,Compressor, etc.) other than the mixer can just be immediately bypassed-but not the mixer. Mixer dies and there is no sound-period! I currently own 3 identical Behringer Xenyx 2442FX mixers, and although they sound fine and are full of features when working, at least one of them is in the repair shop constantly. I always used one and had a backup close at hand. I finally decided to remedy this problem once and for all and I began researching what would be the absolute best fit mixer for my needs (DJ oldies/beach/motown/top 40/R & B plus live praise band) . After an exhaustive search and review during which I chose to not be concerned about initial cost outlay, the overall choice was an Allen & Heath ZED12FX. I did cost comparisons and found my best deal (by buying a blemished unit on which I have yet to find a blemish) was at zZSounds. I even called their toll free number and spoke with one of their reps who was extremely honest and helpful. Ordered on Sunday and arrived at my home in NC on Wednesday, I was immediately impressed with the quality build of this unit. Upon hooking it up, the sound is incredible, the reverbs are perfect, very easy to route, had the multiple stereo channels I must have, main insert points that I prefer, love the 100mm sliders, and easy to get to everything. My only regret is that there is no gooseneck light socket. Other than that, this mixer has far exceeded my hopes and expectations.The sad part is this: I bought 3 Behringer Xenyx mixers at different times over the years and had terrible reliability. For less than $200 more than any single one of these Behringers, I bought the A&H ZED12FX and probably have the last mixer I will ever have to buy and fully expect it to be worry free, as it has been for the short time I've owned it. I would have saved myself a lot of stress and cash had I bought an Allen & Heath years ago.
Understand I am not a Behringer basher. I still have 2 of their Europower amps (2500 & 4000) and absolutely love them. I have other Behringer stuff in my rack and am pleased with those also. I just will never buy another Behringer mixer. I'm sticking with Allen & Heath after experiencing the incredible quality of my new worry free mixer. I have no complaints whatsoever about the sound, performance or look of this mixer. As stated earlier, my only regret is I just wish A & H would install a light socket jack for my gooseneck light.
I have had no need for Manufacturer Support because I have had no problems with this mixer and really do not expect that I ever will, based on how solid and well built it seems to be. Part of my decision making process to choose this mixer, however, was the reviews I read by owners of A & H equipment who praised the support on the rare occasion it was needed.
Musical Background:
Guitar, Bass, (both acoustic and electric) Electronic Drums
Musical Style:
DJ all types of music, Live play Contemporary Christian in a Praise Band
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Submitted April 25, 2009 by a customer from gmail.com
"BEST MIXER I HAVE EVER PLAYED ON!!!!!!!!!"
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I have used Mackie mixers for 13 years now and that mixer lasted the 13 years since I bought it. This mixer, the way it feels and performs, should last me till it dies. Even if it does dies on me, you know I'll be getting another one to replace it in a heartbeat.
Sound
I have used Mackie mixers for 13 years now. This is the first mixer other than Mackie that I have used, and I have to say, I wished that I have bought Allen & Heath years ago. This is by far the best mixer I have ever played through. The sound is transparent and silky smooth. The effects are like butter and is a pleasure playing every night with the mixer.
Features
For what I need it for, you can't beat what it has to offer. I am just a solo guitarist, and for my needs, it's the best. I did a trio last night and worked very well. The other 2 musicians were in awe with the smoothness and the sound clarity of this board.
Ease of Use
Very easy, and straight forward.
Quality
This mixer is built and feels like a tank. Everything from the knobs to the sliders feels like it was made to stand time and usage. Very well built.
Value
For the price, I don't think you can find a better mixer with what it offers. Allen & Heath really outdid themselves when designing this mixer.
Manufacturer Support
N/A
The Wow Factor
The color and aesthetics of this mixer looks great. I love the color coordination of the sliders and knobs. You won't get confused with all knobs being black and searching up and down for what you need.
Musical Background:
Active Musician, Recording Engineer.
Musical Style:
Alternative, hawaiian, Folk.
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Submitted July 5, 2011 by a customer from juno.com
"IT'S THE LAST MIXER YOU'LL EVER BUY - GREAT FOR STUDIO USE!"
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You'll never need to buy another one - I'm through looking!
Sound
Superior! If you are looking for a professional mixer; grab this one, extremely quite - very impressed.
Features
Should handle just about anything you can throw at it - many options.
Ease of Use
Probably best for musicians who have experience; however, read the manual and experiment; you'll like it.
Quality
This is my fourth mixer - just wish I had invested in a top of the line mixer in the beginning; could have saved alot of money.
Value
Hey if you have too - the ez 4 payment program is there if you need it. They can't make it any easier.
Manufacturer Support
Treated me right the first time on the phone - had no other reason to call them - they already researched and gave me the lowest price.
The Wow Factor
You can see that alot of pride was taken into consideration when they designed this mixer. In my opinion; it can't get any better (looks & quality)
Musical Background:
Musician; Studio
Musical Style:
R&B; Jazz; Blues
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Submitted January 6, 2017 by Peter Grillone in berryville, AR
"BACK TO THE ZED12FX"
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A little about myself, I do Gigs as a KJ (karaoke DJ) as well as a DJ for weddings and such. I use 2 Bose L1M2 systems. Running both from my MacBook Pro. Doing this for about 7 years now.
So I recently found myself needing a new mixer.
My first thought was the Bose T1 tone match, so i bought it and used it for a few gigs. Until a wedding where I needed more inputs. It’s a fine mini-mixer, kind of look silly with all my huge system. So I decided to make it my backup.
Next I decided to go bigger digital, so I ordered the 16.0.2 from presonus. Nice mixer, didn't take too long of a learning curve. Nice size, very tinny sound compared to analog mixers I had used in the past. Firewire 400 connection to the Mac, so i needed to buy an adapter. Then the firewire plug on the back became loose, sound cutting in and out. I returned it.
I kind of liked the way presonus had laid out there mixers so I bought the 16.4.2AI, Big improvement over the 16.0.2, Big price difference as well. Huge mixer! ( I mean HUGE) firewire 800 this time.
decided this was the one, until I went to record a show and found out that the FX bus doesn't record without some major tweeting. Well this is a big part of my Gigs, recording singers and such. Also if you don't use firewire and just use the AUX input, it takes some tweaking to get any real punch in your volume. Reluctantly I sent it back.
I have ran the ZED12FX before and it was always reliable and sounded great, also ran the sound craft sig 12 mtg, when it first came out.
The SC is a solid unit, but the zed is far superior IMO. So today I'm back to analog, running the ZED12FX
The ZED12FX is a true workhorse, digital mixers try to duplicate the sound of analog mixers, but for me as long as they still make analog mixers, I will stick with them.
Just because a digital mixer costs more does not mean it will fulfill your needs.
The ZED12FX is old school and as easy as pie to record your show back to the computer. I guess Im a tech head always thinking that NEW means better. The mono out makes it easy to just use one of my bose systems . The smaller zeds don’t have that feature and neither do the SC.
But last weekend I had over 300 people that thought my old school analog sound system was the bomb.
Musical Background:
7 yrs
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Submitted October 4, 2010 by a customer from ccantanapoli.com
"ZED 12FX - Keep this beauty away from your competition...is a super unit...I have tried other units before and this is the most"
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Sound
Sound quality is excellent and the effects are all usable especially in vocal areas. The addition of parameters to customize the various effects is also a great feature.
Features
There are many features in this board. I use if for live sound. The channel eq is adequate and the addition of a shelf mid frequency is very useful to adjust those critical vocal frequencies. One question to the manufactures is why there is no master control for the auxiliary 3; I use that auxiliary to drive the subwoofers and it would be useful to control their master output.
Ease of Use
You have to have some knowledge of basic sound eng. and set up.
Quality
Well built. LIke the red sides...does not have a good place to grab it if you wanted to take it out of a case.
The power switch is a push button on the back of the unit; if you put it in a case or a bag with the back of the unit on the bottom then the switch get pushed in by the weight of the unit and that may damage the switch.
Manufacturer Support
N/A
The Wow Factor
Nice looking and light.
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
All - Live, DJ
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Submitted February 22, 2011 by a customer from comcast.net
"Fantastic product, albeit with a glich"
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Assuming the channel issue works itself out and the repair is our last, we are going to be using this mixer for a long, long time. For a larger band you'll want more inputs but for us, it's perfect.
Sound
We use this for an acoustic trio and it sounds fabulous both live and as the interface in our home studio. I think it's best to describe the sound as present, transparent and clean. When we've recorded with it, the recordings are rich and full (recorded in Digital Performer with a decent large condenser mic). We use it with a pair of QSC K-10s (one for FOH and one as a monitor) in small coffee houses and the sound is fabulous when the mixer is working - see below about the problems we've had recently.
Features
We're a little disappointed with the FX. You would be better served to just get an external FX unit and add it to your rack mount (we have our 12FX mounted and there is space for one fx unit). The sweepable mids are fabulous on guitars. Being able to rack mount it with the kit (not provided) is great. We also like the 1/8th inch headphone jack. Finally, the inserts for the entire mix are wonderful for adding some overall compression when we play live.
Ease of Use
Learning curve was pretty small, but I'm pretty experienced with mixers and gear in general. If you know your way around a mixer, you won't have any problems. The manual spells is all out and the only issue we had was resolved by RTFM.
Quality
Here's where we are totally disappointed. Only 60 days after having this mixer, the right output on channel 4 and the right output of the headphone mix have completely gone out on us. The former happened during a gig (thankfully we were using the right main as our monitor mix and the left main for FOH so the crowd had no idea what was happening). But, we were completely distracted by the horrible distortion coming from what turned out to be channel 4 going out. The next day we were recording and noticed that the right side of the headphone mix was also out. However, other than these internal problems, the mixer seems very well built in terms of stability of parts. The nobs feel very sturdy, and it looks excellent. Of course, we will always have it in a SKB case so we're not taking any chances.
Value
It's a little spendy and we wish we hadn't gone for the internal FX, which do not seem worth the money spent.
Manufacturer Support
The American distributor for Allen and Heath was very helpful when the mixer had issues. We are taking to a local repair shop this week and the repair will happen under warranty. We don't anticipate there being any problems going forward and while this has dampened our initial enthusiasm, the mixer still sounds incredible and we are very, very glad we chose it over the comparable Mackie. It just sounds richer and more full.
The Wow Factor
It looks awesome. It feels solid and smooth. If we didn't have the channel issue we'd be in love.
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
Alternative folk, jazz
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Submitted February 28, 2014 by Lynn Callihan
"Great little mixer!!!"
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This is a great buy for the money,Extremely impressed!
Musical Background:
Long time, Harp, Guitar, Banjo, Mando
Musical Style:
Blues, folk, Funk acoustic looping madness
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Submitted January 26, 2011
"The Allen & Heath Zen 12FX"
Sound
I just purchased this mixer, i wish it had more EQ on the stereo channels.Over all sound is ok i guess. I made my purchase based on the couple of other reviews i read. For being an Allen & Heath, i'm just a little dissapointed.
Features
As far as the features go with the USB capabilities they are fine. However i am very disapointed with the effects. Not at all what i expected.
Ease of Use
What's hard about using a basic mixer?
Quality
Built well, should last a long time. However, here again, assembled over seas. Even good products can develop problems, so build quality now days, still doesn't mean much.
Value
I think this board is over priced, for what you're getting. Would i replace this mixer with another just like it? Most likely not.
Manufacturer Support
I wrote Allen & Health a few emails inquiring about the Zen 12FX. They were very quick to reply. So i think customer service wouldn't be an issue.
The Wow Factor
This mixer looks fantastic. But i was expecting more.
Musical Background:
Active Musician, DJ
Musical Style:
Country
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