When our venue's soundboard died, the $50 mixer from the trunk was the hero.

A backup plan with basic equipment prevented a total disaster.

4 comments

4 Comments

Honestly, I would have agreed with Harper before last summer. Tbh, I always figured anything under a few hundred bucks was just practice gear. Then I saw a band power through a backyard wedding on a battered old Behringer, what, an eight-channel thing? It literally had gaffer tape holding an XLR port in place. The sound was thin and we got a nasty feedback squeal once, but it got the vows mic'd and kept the playlist going. Sometimes the junk that works is the best gear you own.

harperh649h ago

No way a $50 mixer saved the show!

robin_roberts4h ago

Harperh64, your "no way" comment hits home because I was just as skeptical at a community theater gig last year. Our sound guy pulled a dusty mixer from his trunk, something he picked up at a garage sale for maybe forty dollars. We had no choice after the venue's system crashed right before act two. That little box hummed and one channel cut out, but it carried dialogue to the back row well enough. It wasn't about quality in that moment, it was about sheer functionality preventing a total collapse. Have you ever seen a show limp to the finish line on what everyone thought was junk?

julia_fisher9h ago

Totally get where you're coming from. A $50 mixer seems UNLIKELY to handle a professional show's demands. But hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

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