Soundcraft Notepad 12-FX Small Format Analog Mixing Console

PART ANALOG DESK, PART FX PROCESSOR, PART SOUNDCARD: ALEX WILSON HAS A LOOK TO SEE IF THERE’S A USE FOR A LITTLE BOX THAT DOES A BIT OF EVERYTHING.

Soundcraft’s Notepad mixers – of which the 12-FX is the largest and most fully featured – include a fairly extensive array of I/O, routing and processing options. Light and easy enough to transport in a backpack, it comes across like a Leatherman for musicians and studio-dwellers.

Let’s deal with channels 1-4 first – these are all XLR combi mic/line inputs. These first four inputs operate like a simple analog mixing desk. A three-band EQ on each channel provides 12 decibels of boost or cut at 80Hz, 2.5kHz and 12kHz. Channels 1 and 3 can be switched to high impedance, and all four have a switchable high-pass filter at 100Hz. There’s also trim, level, panning and aux bus controls. Channels 5/6 and 7/8 are balanced quarter-inch stereo inputs for connecting keyboards or other suitable playback devices. These can also be run in mono. Channels 9/10 are an RCA stereo input for line level and consumer-grade input signals.

The Master Output is on matching stereo male XLR connectors on a long-throw fader. There’s also a quarter-inch line level aux output, which can be switched between a mono sum of the auxiliary bus or a connection for a second stereo headphone channel. The main headphone signal is also a quarter-inch stereo jack of the Master Output, unless it’s switched to run channels 3 and 4 of the USB. This USB I/O connectivity enables easy recording and playback with DAWs or video workstations. Finally, there’s a quarter-inch stereo line input for using an external FX processor rather than the built-in digital FX. Enabling the outboard processor will disable any onboard processing.

ON THE RECORD

It probably all sounds a bit confusing on paper, but it’s very clearly laid out and comprehensible when looking top-down on the unit. It’s all pretty par for the course if you have a basic understanding of audio signal processing. Plugging instruments in reveals that the preamps are great quality for the price point: they are nicely transparent and lack any discernible character colouration, with no problematically noticeable noise floor. There’s a good amount of headroom available, with transient-heavy material like acoustic guitars and drums retaining dynamics and clarity without noticeably peaking. It’s definitely possible to drive the channels using the trim pot, but the crunch remains pleasing at reasonable levels. Overall, as a general purpose mixer, the inputs are very well-spec’d.

The onboard console-style EQs on channels 1-4 are good enough to perform useful moves. The fixed frequencies have been chosen to allow for control of body, presence and air. The lack of any Q control is an obvious downside, but despite the relatively rudimentary parameters, the EQ can still be described as musical. Only poor mix decisions would lead to the nastiness that sometimes plagues entry-level audio mixers.

Although the effects in the unit are from the highly-touted company Lexicon, and sound good enough for use in basic live mixing, they aren’t remarkable enough to warrant heavy use in a recording context. The included delay, reverb and chorus are all usable, but I can’t see many situations in which they would beat similar FX that could be used in a DAW, or added by quality outboard once

recording is done. I’m also a little flummoxed by the choice of chorus over, say, compression, which is noticeably absent from the channel strips.

So as a portable live/summing mixer or USB recording interface, the 12-FX performs admirably. You’d be hard-pressed to record much beyond a small band or a podcast in one sitting, but if you’re working smart within the 12-FX’s ambit, it should deliver in a variety of contexts.

CLOSELY MONITORED

With the right routing, the 12-FX is capable of controlling different sets of speakers and/or headphones, then providing a latency-free effects. If you are recording, for example, vocals in your home studio and want to create a vibey headphone mix with the vocals EQ’d, delayed and reverberant, this is a very good way to do it. The fundamental electronics are sound, the schematics are sensible, and it puts in a more-than-capable performance in the role compared to units that cost an order of magnitude more.

The jack-of-all-trades nature of this unit serves it well in a wide range of contexts. It’s honestly down to your imagination and knowledge of audio to put it where it’s most useful. For example: while I can patch 12 mics on my current recording rig, I could create an aggregate, synced device in Max OS X consisting of the 12-FX and my current soundcard to bump it up to 16. I can think of many times I would have killed for four portable and affordable and quality channels, whether it was recording a drum kit in my home or tracking a band’s live set from a venue desk.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You probably already have preamps, inputs, effects and a soundcard, but the Notepad 12-FX allows you to take a little bit of each in a very portable device. Sold at a good price, it feels like a piece of gear that could go the extra mile to get you the signal chain you need, when you need it.