Mackie ProFX16v2 16-Channel 4-Bus FX Mixer With USB, 10 Vita Mic Preamps, 7-Band Graphic EQ

2018-01-17T11:05:50

I've been a longtime Mackie user. We've used an 808M and SRM450's live for years. Great stuff for the price. Since we have gone from Passive to Active speakers, we no longer needed a powered mixer, and I wanted built in effects with channel compression for vocals. This fit the bill, however, I feel that Mackie tried to cram too much into a small board. Pros: Great faders. Channel Mutes. Compression. Sweepable Mids. Very clean and clear sound. I really like the simplicity of the 12 channel version (ProFX12), and I would have bought that if it included channel compression. Unfortunately, the Channel Compression (on channels 4-8) and sweepable Midrange controls are only available on the ProFX16 or higher. The sweepable mid is very nice to have. I'm still not sure if the Compression does much...or perhaps it is working exactly as it should (not being overly obtrusive). Cons: Unnecessary Sub groups. Cheesy Effects. I'm not sure why the Mackie Engineers decided that a 16 channel board needed 4 mixing buses. I like simple, especially live. Sure, with a front of house 32 channel board and a dedicated installation, more buses is great. On a small portable board, it is just unnecessarily complicated. I wish it had just the main and monitor mix; that's it. I think the majority of people buying this board will never use the sub groups so this seems like an un-necessary add for Mackie. Now the biggest flaw I see with the board. The built in effects engine. Umm..I'm not sure what went wrong, but almost all of the effects are unusable. They are WAY too present in the mix and you have no control over things like time and decay on reverb. All you can control is the blend between the processed and unprocessed signal (ie...turn the FX dial to 6 o'clock is 50% pre-effect 50% post-effect). The problem here is that even the most basic reverb is simply too much for most music. The older mackies would let you dial in the reverb. This does not. There is also a very annoying 2 second pause when switching between the pre-set effects. So, overall I'm happy with my purchase. Adorama was great! The board is very nice for the money, the pre-amps are very clean and there is tons of headroom, so I really do not have to worry about clipping. The board has features I will never use, and the effects are a bigtime fail, but for the money I doubt there is a better board out there.

Michael S.

2017-05-30T12:29:32

This board replaced a MACKIE CR1604-VLZ down in the youth room of our church. We have a small stage setup down there for some contemporary worship music. The old board was on it's 2nd go around with needing repair so I hopped online and looked for a replacement that would be in the same ballpark ad the repair would have been. Found and purchased this one on sale assuming since the brands were the same, then this would just be an upgrade. I now realize that the Mackie 1604VLZ4 would have been the proper upgrade for the form factor we were looking for. Well that board is like $ so this one would have won anyway. The ProFX16v2 is a solid board in its own right. For the price, we had to sacrifice and settle for two less monitor outputs, and tiny faders, but the USB interface and familiar Mackie layout are a solid plus. It's the same width as the old board, so it fits in the same rolling rack we have for it but you will need to purchase the matching mounting brackets. Last thought, if we had matched exactly the old board, then we would have been paying ($) which is already very close to going with the X32/X32 Compact. Solid board for around ($)

RONALD S.

2017-04-25T14:41:14

Amazing device provide more choices of vocal feedback!

cao-phan v.

2017-04-20T14:52:31

Adorama had this mixer on sale for <$, which was a steal for 10 XLR inputs (plus a few line ins). This is a great mixer for semi-large live setups, with all the features you need and not too many confusing extras.

Vivek V.