Getting into a home or project recording studio is becoming more and more affordable these days. Unfortunately, with the rash of products being specifically targeted to folks in this market, you’re bound to run across a lot of inferior products on your way to building a rig with the quality and features you’re looking for.

We recently received an Electar XM-1204 compact console mixer from online retailer MusicYo. The XM-1204 is a 12 channel stereo mixer that can double as both a home or project recording studio mixer and has low enough noise and high enough headroom to serve both purposes well.

We spent most of our time testing the unit in a role as a front end to a home recording studio, as that is where we feel the unit is best suited. The unit provides 12 channels for maximum flexibility in a small package. The first four channels are built around XLR ins running studio quality mic preamps that reinforce the Electar “low-noise, high headroom performance” claim. We were really pleased with the recording results, especially while making digital recordings on our PC workstation. We used a Shure KSM27 Condenser mic for vocal and acoustic guitar recording and the signal was recorded pure and strong with little artifacts and no discernable noise. The 48V phantom power strung through all of the first four channels provided the juice for the mics.

The next 4 channels boast stereo left and right ins (for 8 channels) and are also very flexible. Combined with two aux sends, two stereo aux returns and even effects to monitor, you’ve got tons of choices for signal routing and monitoring. Quite impressive for such a small footprint. There are even 3 band Eqs on every channel, solo switches and 3 way routing for MIX/SUB/AUX. A headphone output rounds out the offering and the steel chassis gives the unit a rugged appearance that will withstand just about anything you can throw at it.

Using the XM-1204 in live applications should be limited to smaller trios or acoustic instrument performances based only on the number of available channels. Performance and sound quality certainly would not prohibit you from using the unit in this environment. We hooked the unit up to a Mackie M800 amp with C300 cabinets and pushed a nice little acoustic gig for a recent Memorial Day picnic. Given the high performance while recording digitally (via the analog outs), we were sure it wouldn’t be an issue and as we thought it would - the unit performed admirably. We had 3 mikes going for vocals, as well as a condenser on one of the acoustics and preamp ins for the other 2 guitars. Sound quality was crystal as evidenced by the fact that any noise coming through the unit would have been faithfully reproduced by the amp and cabinets further down the signal path. Last but not least, the XM-1204 comes with rack mounting hardware for even more flexibility. We didn’t utilize this feature, but it’s a nice touch for those of you with more elaborate hardware systems.

Finally, if there was one feature we would add, it would probably be some type of optical digital or SPDIF output for those that yearn to keep as much of the signal path as possible in the digital realm. That would really be a lot to ask for from a mixer in this range, but hey, we’ve got to find something to pick on!

Bottom Line:

For those of you who are stepping into home / project recording for the first time, this is a quality mixer with a great set of features for a very reasonable price. It’s very easy to get carried away and spend a lot more money for one of the more heavily marketed brands (and you know who I’m talking about), but if you’re someone who, like myself, believes in letting your ears make the decision, the Electar XM-1204 will fit the bill nicely. It certainly has a comparable feature set with the rest of the crop, and holds its own in the signal path quality category. Probably the best feature, though, is that it can currently be found at www.musicyo.com for around $200.