Yamaha MG10 XU

Quality sound and a lot for the money

I bought this mixer for our project studio as the main interface for anything computer based. Having loads of experience from the top end of live audio I never really favored Yamaha in any way but I have to say I am pleasantly surprised about what this little thing can do. It's well built, with proper pre-amps on four of the 10 channels, nice gain structure but most importantly, it sounds very good for such a cheap mixer.

It ended up doubling as the ASIO interface for the main work station and it's doing just fine although we had to download the latest drivers from Yamaha before we got it working. If you experience intermittent noise on the outputs, it's a driver problem on Win 10. Under Ubuntu on the Linux side it works flawlessly out of the box though.

If any critique what so ever, I would say I miss a mix bus. A single mono bus would even blow the competition out. Other than that, the controls are small and can be a tiny bit fiddly but that's the logical price for such a compact unit. The built in FX bus based on the SPX engine is just that. If you are ok with any Yamaha SPX series, you will be ok with this. But it's not a Lexicon for sure! Finally the compressor just about ok for say streamers, but honestly, it's nothing I would ever use.

All in all, fantastic mixer that within the price range, beats an competition provided you ignore the compressor and lack of mixing busses.

Great mixer

I have been using this mixer for a few years now.

It's great.

Superb build quality

Mostly used live with

2 mics (ch1 and 2),

guitar (ch4)

piano (ch5/6)

phone(ch7/8).

Easy to use and very pretty layout. Although this is a matter of taste.

Good built in reverb effects as well.

Came with cubase but that's not my DAW so a great addition if you are looking for one. I recommend Ableton myself.

Use this for live gigs or as a usb mixer.

Bands, singer/songwriters, podcasts etc will all be loving this mixer!

Maybe as a podcast you could use a smaller version.

Still great mixer and brought it with me to many gigs.

If you treat it nicely it will last a long time.

Yamaha

Well no words needed....

It's Yamaha and it's my best mixer i ever had.

Use it on the road 6 times a week and never lets me down.

Just buy it !!

Too limited

Good enough for few things, but far from being good enough for a band if you want good sound.

Very good upgrade

A replacement for the Yamaha MG102c mixer, quite a good upgrade, with new features: the balanced XLR outputs, the 26 dB pad, the two stereo line-in connections with1/4" and RCA and the direct USB feed from a computer at 24 bit/192kHz, the phantom power to the mics and amazing 24 SPX effects that can be added into each channel! Very useful and an amazing upgrade for such a small-size mixer.

An RTFM but well worth the buy!

You have to Read The F* Manual! Recording is at first a technical challenge, only after that a creative challenge. Get your setup right, including how the mixer works and look into room acoustics, because yours most likely suck.

You also need to consider what you’re doing : are you recording a whole band or just one instrument or a combination of instruments? It offers a lot of options, including fun effects that you can approach individually but not all at the same time. It’s a wonderful tool, but you need to learn to work with it.

For instance, use the software monitor instead of the built-in monitor when recording, because that’s the sound you’re really recording. Pan full left for the recording instrument and full-right for the playback of what you already have. Only record the left audio-output to make sure that the playback isn’t automatically mixed into the recording of the instrument if you don’t want that.

Get a book on mixing and mastering.

Did I mention that you can download Cubase AI to record your songs when you buy this? For free? I need few words to describe it’s awesome, but many more to illustrate the options. Great buy!

Great quality mixer

I use this mixer in the live room of my studio to listen to and split the signals arriving from the control room. Great sound and manufacturing quality!!!

Good mixer, Recommended, but why no cables included !!!

Good mixer, Recommended, but why no cables included !!!

Excellent little mixer, portable, robust, great sound

I have used this mixer for a couple of years with a 3 piece folk group and everything still works perfectly. It is very easy to use and packs a lot of features for its price point. It?s also very portable - I can fit it in the front pocket of my acoustic gig bag.

It?s made of high quality material and feels like it could take a beating - though mine has been treated with care. All the knobs have a smooth travel and a notch for centering where applicable (EQ, Pan). I have had a few mixers around this price point and this one definitely felt the most premium. I also got the BMS10A Stand Adapter to sit it on a mic stand and it felt very secure.

The sound is crystal clear and you get a decent amount of control. The compression on channels 1 and 2 work great for vocals and I usually set them sbout half way every gig. I wanted a mixer with compression from a reputable brand and the MG10XU delivered.

Overall a great mixer, would definitely recommend.

Great budget mixer

I use this mixer as part of a setup for a live band, as well as in a dj setup. The sound quality of the unit is stellar for the price and outperforms many other mixers in the same price range.

The build quality of the mixer is excellent. The metal underside is strong and not prone to being damaged regardless of where it is placed. The plastic front is also quite sturdy and helps to keep the weight down which helps keep the unit light. All of the knobs are strong and turn smoothly without feeling loose

The range of features is fairly standard for a mixer, volume, gain and EQ controls as well as phantom power and usb connections. The only feature that I would prefer would be faders for volume instead of knobs.

There are plenty of onboard effects too which sound great and are all very usable in a live situation.