Allen & Heath ZED-22FX 22-channel Mixer

Tons of power under the hood

Those guys and gals at Allen & Heath definitely know mixers. And their ZED series is super popular for a number of reasons, not the least of which because it puts first-Class A&H quality at a new affordable price point. This is a mixer your band is going to be proud to use. More than that, it sounds great. We’ve already mentioned a bit about the I/O capabilities, but you’ll also want to know that it has four aux sends available — 1 and 2 are pre-fade and 3 and 4 are post-fade for monitoring with effects. Here’s the magic. You can send a stereo signal from the auxes via USB right to your computer, so you can create two separate record feeds that are totally independent of the main L/R mix. The ZED-22 FX is Mac and PC compatible and you’ve got three send/return configurations for recording, playback, and external FX. That’s a lot of power.

Onboard Effects

Now for the effects. Onboard, 16 separate effects have been crafted into the ZED-22 FX mixer, ready for any kind of live sound material you face. These include a number of useful delays and reverbs, including a ping-pong delay and a selection of reverbs with different room/hall/arena properties. You’ll also dig the flanger and chorus. Every effect has a parameter you can tweak to dial in your sound and five of the effects support tap tempo for really getting into the groove. All in all, with the combination of mic/line inputs (and these preamps are awesome, by the way), professional effects, recording capabilities, and bullet-proof construction, you can’t go wrong with the Allen & Heath ZED-22 FX. Get one!