The Proel M16USB is a fairly inexpensive, but full-featured mixer aimed squarely at the small band market. Sporting 12 microphone pre-amplifiers, inserts on every mono channel and main outputs, three-band EQ (with parametric mids on the mono channels), three auxiliary sends, four output busses, phantom power and built-in digital effects, the feature set is enough to handle most bands and even small home studio setups.
First Impressions
The M16 has a solid feel and heft with an all-steel casing, plastic side panels and a built in power supply, so first impressions are of a well made unit. All the controls and connectors in the right places with a logical signal flow indicating a well thought out layout. There are some nice extras included – a padded woven nylon carry case and a set of rack ears (fitted by removing the plastic side panels and attaching with the same screws), both of which are surprising at this price point. Something I was happy to see was a BNC socket for a 12V gooseneck light (not included, but easy to find), which are not always a feature on an inexpensive mixer, but invaluable for low-light situations.
Inputs and channel strips
Inputs and channel strips on the M16 fall into two types: mono and stereo. There are eight mono channel strips and four stereo to make up the 16 inputs. Unlike many other inexpensive mixers, the stereo channels also have a single mic input, allowing the M16USB to be used as a 12-channel mic mixer. There are also two stereo Aux returns (which can be used as line inputs if you are not using the aux busses for effects) and a pair of RCA tape/CD inputs.
Mono channel Strips
The preamps of the mono channel strips offer -20 dB trim to +20 dB gain for the line inputs and 0 dB to 60dB gain (mislabelled as -60 on the panel), plenty for most modern sources. Each input has an insert for adding outboard compression and/or EQ to individual channels or taking a post preamp send for multichannel recording (or a separate monitor mixer in a larger setup.) There is a switchable low-cut/high-pass filter button set to 75 Hz to filter out low frequencies for those instruments that need it (basically everything but kick drum mic and bass) and to clean up the low end of the mix. The EQ section is three band: high shelving (12 kHz); low (80 Hz) shelving; and a parametric midrange (100 – 500 Hz), each with 15 dB of boost or cut. I do find the midrange frequency range to be very limiting, concentrating on the lower midrange and ignoring the upper mids completely.
Stereo channel strips
The stereo strips’ preamps have 20 dB less gain for mic and lack the low-cut of the mono channels, which is a pity when being used for mic or guitar inputs, but not essential for most stereo line sources. The EQ section differs from the mono strips only in the mids, replacing the parametric midrange controls with low-mid (500 Hz) and high-mid (3 kHz) controls.
Shared features
The auxiliary section has three aux sends, one pre-fade (for monitor sends), one post-fade (for effects) and one switchable. The post fade send goes to the onboard effects, but can also be used for an outboard effects unit. Panning and fader controls as well as mute switch are all straightforward – as they should be. Routing is better than most small mixers, allowing you to route the channel to both pairs of output busses if needed, instead of the usual single switch either/or arrangement, which immediately makes the M16 more flexible. The solo switches can be used either pre- or post-fade and the clip LEDs are bright and clear.
Aux strip
The M16 has an additional, 17th channel strip, used for control of aux sends and returns. Aside from the expected controls here, there are controls to send the onboard effects to both aux 1 or 2, allowing you to add effects to the monitor mixes as well as the mains. There is also a volume control for the tape/CD inputs. The fader is used to control overall effect level to the mix and can be routed to either the mains or group 1 & 2.
Master section
The master section comprises effects, graphic EQ, control room controls and master faders.
Effects
The effects are digital, but have analogue switching and no display. There are sixteen types of effects, ranging between reverbs, delay, chorus, flanger and combinations. There is very little control, with only sixteen variations of each of the sixteen effect type or combos and a tap tempo for delays. Unusually there are also sockets for connecting footswitches for both tap tempo and FX mute functions.
Graphic EQ
The graphic is a simple seven band affair which can be muted or assigned to either the main output or Aux 1 and 2. While a little limited for EQ’ing front of house sound, it is surprisingly good sounding and comes in handy for a bit of monitor EQ.
Control room
The control room section allows routing the four busses and/or CD input to both the control room and headphone outputs with a simple overall level control.
In use
Using the M16 in both live and home settings over the last six months and generally it has worked very well. The flexibility has saved me a few times live where I was able to come up with ways around problems with gear and venues. I have found that the onboard effects don’t have much input headroom, it’s easy to get clipping from even one input by turning the send up too far, so I’ve been forced to keep sends low and boost the effects master fader all the way up (which adds noise. The effects are also fairly noisy – even without any sends, simply enabling the output of the effects module easily triples the noise floor of the mixer (generally pretty quiet). Another niggle is the faders are all very sensitive around 0 dB (where a good mix usually lives), so it can be a bit difficult to tweak levels at times. It should be noted that I had a problem with the effects dying completely after a couple of months, but backup was excellent and the mixer was quickly replaced with no argument.
Conclusion
Other than a few small niggles, the Proel M16USB is a great mixer with more than enough features and quality for most applications and offers serious value for money.
Supplied by: Musical Distributors | Tel: 021-799-4950 | www.bothner.co.za
Suggested Retail Prices: Proel M.16 USB – R6 495.00 | Proel M.20 USB – R9 995.00 | Proel M.8 USB – R3 595.00
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