Hi all. I really want to go dawless after many years of computer production. I have several synths including Moogs and such like. Mostly analogue stuff. Just went to youtube and saw a dawless jammin vid saying get a mixer. So after a bit of rsearch i saw the Allen & Heath ZED10 FX. Now i was thinking of buying an external FX anyway. Like an Eventide or something with Reverb and Delay. Around £400. So i see the mixer has the built in FX. Great i can save money too. If im wrong thinking say now please as i no very little about hardware mixers. Just want to escape the Daw as much as possible. The only thing i would like in the chain as well is a looper. Probably 4 track if possible.(although im not a big fan of loops it may help me be creative). So do you think synth-mixer- looper will work if i have THIS mixer. Am i likely to get better results with a better FX gadget? Anything im missing to get away from the computer till the final mix? Bottom line is is this a decent mixer for synth production. Cheers guys. Appreciated.
I had a ZED10FX as my mixer for about 4 years, and recently sold it. It’s a perfectly fine little mixer, and great for the fairly low price.
One thing to be aware of - that I wasn’t aware of when I bought it - is that it doesn’t do multichannel recording. By which I mean you can’t record individual tracks for the separate inputs, so that synth input 1 records to a dedicated track, drum machine input 2 records to a dedicated track, etc. Instead, everything gets mixed down to a single stereo track. I bought the ZED10FX because it had USB i/o, and I assumed that anything with USB i/o could do multichannel recording. But, that’s not the case. (There may be tricks or hacks to achieve multichannel recording others could share; I never figured it out.)
The effects are serviceable in a pinch and in subtle, almost subliminal amounts, but anything overt and it becomes noticeable that they’re of middling quality. I have software plugin effects (Valhalla’s reverbs, u-he’s Satin tape delay, etc.) that I would consider leagues over the effects in the ZED10FX. In absolutely no terms would I consider the ZED10FX effects to be a suitable replacement for Eventide stuff - just budget in the Eventides, especially if you’re working with Moogs and analogue gear! It would be a shame to have such high-quality tones and then cheapen them up with merely serviceable effects.
Hope I’m not being too much of a downer. Everything else about the ZED10FX was great. Simple, no-nonsense, reliable. Ultimately I sold it because I could no longer put up with the lack of multichannel recording.
Cheers. I think i need multichannel. I will look elsewhere.
I’m planning on getting a mixer soon too mate. Been looking at what’s out there on and off the past few months. The z10 was a consideration among others, but I keep on eying up the Behringer ufx 16 - look it up!
On that note - any elektronaughts chime in on these mixers?
Cheers will do!
Hi,
I recently (about 3 weeks ago) purchased a ZED10FX and I’m very happy with it.
It’s well made, easy to use, preamp are fine, EQ is musical.
I bought it for live use, to plug in two mics for acoustics instruments, a BAR, a looper and an eventide reverb.
The internal FX are useful to tune a bit your sound, but of course it’s nothing comparable to an eventide reverb.
What you really need to understand is if a ZED 10 is enough for your use. Keep in mind that if you want to insert external FX, you have to return them, scarifying some channels for the returns. (so you can’t have 10 ins and add external fx).
For studio and recording use, I think that another mixer, with more separated outs, is more useful. I use a Soundcraft 22 mtk, and I’m very happy with it in the studio, and I think that it’s great for the money! Soundcraft also makes a 12 mtk, with 12 separated outs via USB. For studio use, I would advise the Soundcraft 12 mtk. For live use, the ZED10 is great, very portable (and I found a 40 € hardcase for it, which is very important, if you use it for live things, you’ll definitely need a case).
Good luck 