X Air XR18 : Excellent multi-purpose mixer

This is an excellent budget option for both PA and recording purposes. We have our XR18 hooked up into a power amp for PA purposes (vocals, kick drum, backing tracks) and we can set everything up very quickly for recording the entire band as well via USB. The 16 (or 18, kind of) track USB recording option was the feature why we chose this. The mic preamps are very good to our not-very-trained ears and for our loud music.

We don't need this for live use, so all I can comment is that I can see how it could easily work for that purpose.

The all-digital interface is a bit more cumbersome than a physical interface though. It takes a bit of time to connect and adjust everything, but that's a very minor complaint. This can be solved with a controller anyway.

All in all, compact, good quality and fairly easy to use mixer that serves many purposes. As far as I'm aware, nothing beats it in this price category. Very happy with the purchase!