Feature:
The dual SPX effects engines are great. Most of the time people just want a little reverb or some delay and the on board effects do an amazing job.

Quality:
Built very well...no problems. It would have been nice to have those little dust blockers on the faders though.

Value:
Amazing value. You get a great sounding board with 24 XLR inputs, 6 auxs, and two built in effects engines (which we use a lot).

Sound:
I do sound at a small club in Buffalo, NY. We don't have a lot of money and we needed a new board to replace our Mackie SR24.4 PRO. This board seemed to fit the bill. The difference in sound quality was noticed immediately.

Ease of Use:
Just like any other board in this price range. Very straight forward.

Overall:
For someone on a budget that needs this many channels, I think the Yamaha is the way to go. We would have liked to get a Allen & Heath or something similar but it just wasn't in our budget. The other guy I work with has been doing sound for 20 years and he thinks it's a great board. Way better than a Mackie!

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 3/12/2008
• Style of Music: everything
• Location: buffalo, ny

Feature:
Giving it a 9 for good and slightly less good reasons. For the good, our school received this along with our entire new PA system, (mostly Yamaha, great system) three days before the drama premiered. Now, with some other systems this may not have been possible to pull together, but after a couple days of tweaking the EQ for the shady mics, it started to come together. The only problem was I couldn't for the life of me figure out how the effects worked, but I will try more this year.

Quality:
It's taken some unfortunate abuse from some DJ's who thought they knew how to run live sound, and it withstood spectacularly. It just looks marvelous which adds to its great sound. No worries about it breaking, tho we do have a back-up from the old system. I think with a proper road case, this could be used on tour. I think this will certainly last all 4 years of my high school career and into the future when I pass the torch onto the next "soundman".

Value:
Compared to other boards prices and features, I feel this board is really a bargain. It is definitely a high quality board, and I'm glad my school purchased it to compliment their new system.

Desirability:
It is a sexy piece of machinery.

Sound:
I have not used this for any other musical application except musicals and drama's, except once when there was a vocal and acoustic guitar duo, in which case it performed beautifully. In the case of theatre, our school ordered really crappy microphones, and this board made them sound pretty sweet. The good mics they ordered sounded great, and I look forward to using the board again for the next shows.

Ease of Use:
The EQ is very easy to work with. What I usually do is listen to the mic flat, then twist each knob slightly more dramatically then how it would be, to locate the necessary frequencies that need tweaking. The ability to choose a mid frequency on the mono channels is wonderful, and the stereo EQ is good for pre-recorded music. It was the first board I'd worked on and I had 3 days to learn how to use it, so I feel it's pretty straight forward.

Support:
Was never necessary. Good manual. Good equipment, no need for support.

Overall:
I don't feel I'll ever have to use another board in my time at the school. I feel a few things could be fixed, but hey, it's plenty better than our older system.

• User: a customer from msn.com
• Submitted: 8/6/2007
• Style of Music: Just about everything except new hip hop
• Location: Freehold, New Jersey, USA

Feature:
Here lies my biggest issue with this board, and virtually every other one with built-in effects: GIVE THE FREAKIN EFFECTS A FULL STRIP EACH FFS!!! Especially with a dual effects unit like this. Want reverb on the delays? You're stuck using an outboard delay unit. Want EQ on the reverb? You're stuck using an outboard reverb unit. I won't mix without being able to use delays to selectively thicken the reverb, and won't use reverb without EQ'ing it for the content and environment. So either I pay for effects I won't use, or I void the warranty modifying the routing. This comes so close to providing the exact bare effects I need (basic reverb + tap delay), but not quite. What a tease!! It's also pretty tricky to balance/distinguish 24 different sound sources without two swept mids, but that's a sacrifice I would make for the sake of the sound quality for the price. But the good stuff is GREAT. This is a great-sounding quasi-8-Aux console! FX1 and 2 are assignable to TRS outputs, and all aux's are assignable as post-fader, so if there's a monitor board, you're in flavor country for effects. Great for aux-fed subs too. OOH! I just noticed Early Reflections as an option for FX2... I use that a lot in the studio, gonna play with that at my next live show.

Quality:
I'm guessing here, based on Yamaha's track record.

Value:
If it's great sound you need with adequate versatility, you can't beat this board. It's the only console anywhere near the Behringer-Mackie range with noticeably good sound. I've tried other mixers in this line and the sonic benefits are not limited to the larger models, the 10/2 sounds great too. This console is half the cost of a 24-channel Soundcraft LX7 which offers the 2nd swept mid EQ but sounds even worse than Behringers, has poor build quality, and has no built-in effects or even pads!

Desirability:
No small music venue should use any other mixer but an MG-series suited to their needs. I just hope they answer the clue phone and change the moronic effects routing. I'm very seriously considering modifying the routing when I get mine and kissing the warranty goodbye. Hopefully it can be done in a reverseable manner that won't leave any clues. Tapping them just ahead of the fader and routing them to the nearby stereo line strips would put the features and ease of use ratings up to 9.

Sound:
I'm in the market for a light-duty B-rig for non-rider shows, and the sound of this mixer made me soil my shorts. Why 8/10? It's incredible for the money, but there are better sounding consoles, just not for less than at least 4x the price. I'm convinced this board had a cleaner and warmer sound than an A&H GL2200, which are notoriously thin, but still a rider-kosher industry standard. On my scale Mackie SR32's score a 6, Soundcraft LX7's score a 4.

Ease of Use:
The 60mm faders are short, but it's a fair trade for portability and price. The afore-mentioned bonehead design flaw of the built-in effects makes things interesting. I don't deduct for the lack of 2nd swept mid EQ since the sound quality makes EQ less necessary.

Support:
Again, guessing based on track record.

Overall:
This is a big step forward for good versatile sound systems accessible to small venues. If the effects routing can be fixed without voiding the warranty you're going to see a ton of these in small and perhaps medium sized venues (>500 capacity). I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it for live and/or studio recording using the inserts.

• User: a customer from tradecasting.com
• Submitted: 5/16/2007
• Style of Music: anything but rap/techno
• Location: Near Toronto

Feature:
Again it's real nice for the price. There are some options that usually aren't in a board at this price point.

Quality:
Good quality for the most part. Sliders have a little bit of a cheaper feel to them, but not bad. Wish sliders had rubber sheild in the slots but hey, can't have everything.

Value:
For the price you can't beat it! I know you can spend more on whatever brand you happen to be married to, but if you want a 32 channel mixer in this price range, this is the one for you.

Desirability:
32 channels with effects...more money in my pocket...now I can take the wife out on the town and have my toys too. Life is good.

Sound:
For the price it's very strong although I'd like it to have a little more punch. (but that could be due to my ancient speakers) It has so much more control than my previous board it's unreal.

Ease of Use:
Pretty straight foreward.

Support:
Haven't used it yet, but have dealt with them in the past.

Overall:
If you are on a budget and need a larger board, you'd be hard pressed not to get this. It does have some small "plastic" issues, but if you take care of it, it will take care of you.

• Submitted: 7/31/2006

Feature:
Nice mix of features. Dual FX is nice, though not all effects are duplicated on both channels so you can't always run two channels of a given effect. Hard to argue at this price!

Quality:
If there's a quality flaw, I have yet to find it. Three separate people have been mixing on this board now and each of us has to wipe the drool marks off when we're done. It's just a joy to use.

Value:
Absolutely worth it. Best value in a 32 input mixer on the market today, and I've looked at everything. Don't let the low price fool you... the electronics and sound on this mixer seem like they ought to cost 2-3X the price - but I'm glad they don't!

Desirability:
It's not sexy, but it's not meant to be. A mixer is supposed to be a straight noiseless connection between other components. That's exactly what this mixer is. We couldn't be happier. If it died tomorrow we'd replace it with another exactly like it.

Sound:
Excellent sound. Quiet, quiet, quiet. Blows away the Mackie mixer it replaced. With the Mackie we were always fighting background noise; the hiss was terrible. The Yamaha is absolutely silent. Don't let anyone trick you into believing the old line about Mackie's mic preamps being "better"... they're inferior. After using the Yamaha, I'll never consider, let alone buy, another Mackie mixer.

Support:
Nothing has gone wrong, so no experience for this mixer.

Overall:
I'll repeat what I said above: If it died tomorrow we'd replace it with another exactly like it. That's the highest praise I can imagine.

• User: a customer from richardhartman.net
• Submitted: 3/22/2005
• Style of Music: All
• Location: Spokane WA USA

Feature:
What more could jam on this board? Dual effects are icing on the cake.

Quality:
Appears well put together and sturdy, audio performance is very, very good.

Value:
Lots of goodies and great performance for the price.

Sound:
Very clean, we can finally hear each other in the monitor mix on stage. Totally outclasses our previous mixer for transparency, detail, features and natural sound. Not tipped up or bright sounding, not muddy at all. Great preamps for voice and acoustic instruments.

Support:
Haven't needed it yet.

Overall:
At the price, we couldn't find anything competitive. I also use the MG 12/4 in my home studio.

• Submitted: 11/10/2004

Feature:
This thing rocks, it could have a little better sounding distortion on the effects, but hey, it has dual dsp effects! Who's complaining??

Quality:
Excellent fit & finish

Value:
Compare it to a Behringer... Completely outclasses it. Compare it to a much higher priced Mackie and it has more features for less money..Read ALL the specs on this one.. Its amazing for its price...

Desirability:
Could be a little cooler looking, more high tech, but what do you want for 1099.00??? Smokes the competition...

Sound:
Transparent board, great sounding mic preamps! I love this board. For the money and the quality, it blows away Mackie. Check this board out AFTER you fool with an over priced less featured Mackie. It even appears to have a stereo sub out, so you could possibly do 5.1 mixing live.. What more could you ask for? A 4 band eq. Thats about it...

Support:
Never dealt with, new product, but I'm sure Yamaha stands by its own.

Overall:
I would suppliment it with another Yamaha monitor baord if needed.

• Submitted: 5/30/2004