Small mixer for karaoke

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sawdust123

sawdust123

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Nov 10, 2006
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I used an old Behringer Xenyx1204USB as my travel karaoke mixer for many years. It isn't reliable anymore. I get occasional noise problems and some of the buttons now stick. It is not worth my time to fix it. I have been looking at something smaller and more robust. There are a few options but the best two seem to be the Peavey Unity Digital 8 @ $500. I played with one at NAMM this past Jan but as of late, only one or two sites show it available, and you cannot download a manual yet. The other option is the Behringer Flow 8 @ $200. The Behringer is definitely more fleshed out and the online reviews seem positive. The phone app seems robust enough although I saw some minor usability issues in some of the videos. Has anyone tried one of these?
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I have used Yamaha MG mixers in the past and never had a problem with them. The Peavey uses rotary encoders too so that is not much different. I do prefer faders but so much of the Behringer's other features are only accessed through their app's so-so UI. However, it has a lot of features in there.

The attraction to the Peavey and Behringer unit is the smaller size. I also like that either could be powered with a portable power bank in a pinch. After reading more reviews tonight, I am heavily leaning towards the Flow 8. One review was from a guy that also has the Behringer XR12 and the Yamaha MG10XU. He said the Flow 8 has become his go to solution over the other two.

I'll give myself another day or two to consider other options before pulling the trigger.
 
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I would have stayed with the Behringer XR12 or Midas MR12 for karaoke. Four XLR mic/line inputs with a quad pack of wireless mics (Line level) means you have up to 8 mic sources plus 2 (stereo) or 4 (mono) line inputs.

You also get built in recording and instant playback without any additinioal gear.

In addition, you get 2 AUX outs (XLR) and can assign the monitor to 2 additional busses (1/4") for a total of up to 4 AUX outs.

Karaoke to me, is a 'set-it and forget it' kind of setup - so you can store scenes and recall them at any veniue or event type. I like that almost none of the gear needs to be visible and having the mixer control on the PC right along with the karaoke program is pretty sleek.

Faders be damned! ***I'm not that guy who is going to constantly try and tweak a system to compensate every poorly performing karaoke singer. They are what they are, and when the steup is already ideal - it's up to the singer to make the cut or get voted of the island. :)
 
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My key motivation is portability. USB power makes this mixer quite desirable. I can see using it for ceremonies too. I am not sure if I have ever used more than 3 mics and two stereo inputs for karaoke although I see others using quad mic systems.
 
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sawdust123 said:
My key motivation is portability. USB power makes this mixer quite desirable. I can see using it for ceremonies too. I am not sure if I have ever used more than 3 mics and two stereo inputs for karaoke although I see others using quad mic systems.
Click to expand...
I have a small cheap usb powered mixer I’ve used several times for remote ceremonies with small attendance and no power
 
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I got my Flow 8 the other day and have been playing with it for a few hours. So far I am impressed with the feature set. The UI is just so-so but manageable. One cool thing is that I can stream four channels via the USB port. I set it up so that I had Karafun going to one fader and Virtual DJ or Spotify to another fader. I'm not sure how often I would do this but it gives me flexibility as to where I get my bumper music from. I have also had situations among friends where someone wanted to sing along with a particular karaoke version of a song they found on Youtube. In the past this meant extra button presses to stop the Karafun bumper music from playing.

Other cool features I have found is so far:
  • The line inputs and the main output can be toggled between +4 dBu (professional line level) and -10 dBv (consumer line level)
  • The headphones can be toggled to pre or post fader for any of the outputs.
  • I can operate several hours using my portable charge bank that I use for my phone.
What I would do differently:
  • The UI for EQing is poor. I prefer using a touch screen approach to change frequencies, depth and Q.
  • When you select between the monitor, FX or mix buses, the app UI doesn't switch screens. You have to do that separately.
  • Uses a micro-USB connector for power instead of USB-C
 
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