Allen & Heath ZED-18 - 18-Channel Touring Quality Mixer with USB I/O (AH-ZED-18)

This board is the hub of my home vocal studio, where I work as a professional Voiceover Artist.The ZED-14 is an easy way to route my inputs between my DAWs and other outputs (headphones at the recording desk and in the booth, studio monitors, etc.). The board also has the input and output flexibility to allow me to run Skype mix-minus set ups, telephone VOIP patches, etc., so that clients can listen to and comment on my work in real time while I'm in the booth, but I can exclude their inputs from the Mains output, so their comments don't make it to my DAW master tracks.The USB interface is solid and doesn't seem to introduce any problematic latency (though I monitor directly from the mains output, not from the USB Return). I also don't notice any digital artifacting and, in fact, think that it does as well at analog-digital conversion as my much more expensive Lavry converter that's a dedicated box in my signal chain.The entire board has an extremely solid and professional feel to it. Granted, I'm a VO artist and engineer and don't tote it from gig to gig or hammer on it during multi-feed recording sessions, but I have a lot of confidence in the durability and longevity of the board.The mic preamps are good, but not great. For a board in this price range, they're solid and should be fine for most gigging musicians and basic home recording. They're very quiet with a very, very low noise floor and good responsiveness. The gain controls, 100Hz Hi-pass filter, and 3 band EQ all perform their jobs, and the sweepable mid-frequency EQ is a really nice feature.Unfortunately, for what I do, the preamps don't have the chops to deliver on powerful Voiceovers with top-shelf tube mics. I can't hold that against the ZED in the rating, though. It's not billed as a full signal chain solution; in order to get the sound I need, I have to run through a channel strip with a compressor, more powerful pre, de-esser/limiter, and a more surgical EQ.Overall, this board is a critical part of my studio and sound chain. It's flexibility allows me to offer client services that other boards don't, and until I started pairing it with boutique tube mics it met all of my daily needs.

I orginally bought a Heath & Allen ZED-12FX from an online music distributor (who will remain anonymous!). It turned out that I need more inputs than what the unit had. So, I decided to upgrade to the ZED-22FX...actually found it cheaper on Amazon...more than $150 cheaper! Same quality as the "big guys". This mixer has it all...enough capability to turn your basement into a studio, or play out somewhere on a medium-size gig with ease. It will easily handle any external music device and any instrument/XLR mic input. The 3-band EQ is fairly straight-forward to use, and you can even adjust the amount of effect to each channel...a nice feature if you want more reverb on the vocals but a lesser amount on the drums. The effects are definitely studio quality, and will stand up to an rank-mounted effects you can buy. All sliders have a pro-feel to them, and it even comes with the Roland X2 Sonar (Calkwake) software to record directly from the mixer to your laptop using the included USB cable. I use it for every gig my band plays in, and all of our practices too. I even go direct to my powered FOH speakers and the sound is clear as a bell! I highly recommend this mixer, you will not be disappointed!

5 Stars because I love it, it is loaded with features, it sounds amazing and at the price - it is. However, that doesn't mean it's perfect. Quality at cost is excellent. Sound quality was above what I expected, and to be fair - I'm a harsh critic and expected to be disappointed. I have a lunchbox setup with some pro quality pres, some of the best, so I have a reference. However, I needed many more simultaneous channels for recording bands all at once. I decided to replace an older smaller board. This unit holds its own in sound quality and most likely won't disappoint. I was very impressed with my first recordings through it. The EQs worked well, it just worked and sounded nice. I love the inserts for out/in routing... great for going to an audio interface and mixing to a monitoring solution. So with all that, what's not great? Well, +48V is all 16 channels on or off. That is lame. No ribbons need apply here. And the USB interface is 2 channels, which is lame for a board with this many channels. But it's doubly so when you realize MacOS will let you link audio interface units but then you realize that the interface is just 44.1k and 16bit... the lowest of the low of modern digital sampling. It makes the USB part mostly useless since you want higher quality masters to begin with and won't use this despite having it. And I figure many bought it for that selling point because it wasn't clear what you were getting. Lastly, the faders have nice travel, but are far too light in feel... not cheap per say, but they slide too easily for proper mixing IMO. I like some tactile feedback... and these don't have it. Again, for the cost, highly recommended... as long as you understand the critiques are valid and are real limitations compared to more expensive gear.

I purchased one in 2017...never left my plan B room...was ok for a while then started to notice a dead mono input channel...then another a few weeks later and another...now when the master fader is moved above the zero mark (to add a bit more gain) it acts like a reverse fader and the audio drops out! Also overall it seems to have distortion at times...I'm going back to YAMAHA for a reliable small mixer !Hope you have better luck than me