Soundcraft Ui24R

I bought this unit to replace a Soundcraft UI16 that I was using mainly as rehearsal mixer to feed individual monitors and record performances.

However, given the USB audio connectivity and the number of inputs, it quickly turned it into my main home studio hub. It sits behind two Behringer Ultrapatch Pro patchbays which make it easy to physically reroute more than 40 inputs into the 20 usable inputs.

There is a lot of flexibility offered by the internal patchbay, so much so that I haven't been able to make full use of it.

The AD/DA converters are pristine. The UI16 had noticeable noise but the UI24R exceeds all my expectations on this.

I am a big fan of the interface. Of course I would love to have all the buttons and faders to psychically touch, but the cost and space would be immense. And the ability to wander across the venue with a tablet with full control of the sound is priceless.

As for the wifi signal, I never used it remotely. It is physically connected to the network. The UI16 had an external router and I would probably use an external router as well in any "noisy" electronic environment.

EQ and Dynamics is effective, Reverbs are quite good. Never used the Automatic Feedback suppression, but it is good to know it's there :)

Sometimes I insert the effects into my DAW signal chain, specially for reverbs. They seem much more natural that the plugins I use, even being digital...

The only minor issue that I have is that my computer does not recognize any input above the first 8. I am using Linux/ALSA and this has probably something to do with my software setup, so not really a product shortfall.

All in all, for my modest amateur requirements, this unit does it all and with flying colors. I feel that for more professional use the product would continue to be a very useful tool. I just wish I could buy another one to use only for rehearsals!

There are 20 XLR inputs you really can use. Sometimes it lost wifi connection and you cant reconnect without restart to the machine - it is not possible during recording and you dont know if it is still recording without the connection. There should be some rec light to visually be certain about that. Wifi strength is too low and it could easily loose connection about already 20-50m away. There have been problems with recording on the USB drive - sometimes it has error and it didnt record past that time, it is something to do with the format of the usb drive. Our sound engineers started to do the format manually (not the soundcraft format). To be always sure I record with laptop attached.

We use this as the core of our IEM rig, to allow an 8 piece band to have individual mixes. We also have behringer DI4800A's in the rack to split inputs for the FOH engineer, and a Powerplay headphone amp on each aux output with headphone cables running to each musician on stage. It works great in every regard, however it is clunky to set up multitrack recording, and the WiFi is awful - definitely get an additional router. The FX and preamps are good quality and the user interface is very easy to use, provided you're confident with technology and are using it from a tablet. Overall 4/5 stars. If I could find an X32 second hand but in full working order, I would buy that instead though.

I own this mixer, purchased it for multi-track recording, mainly directly to a DAW.

It never let me down, it is easy to setup and recall a preset, enables quick setup whenever and wherever I am recording. The sound quality is great but at this price point of course it is expected from such device.

The lacking of physical controls of course makes adjustment on the fly little slower than mixers with controls. However this can be overcome by adding touch screen to the setup. I have seen some folks online doing it, the mixer has a Facebook group with a community where questions can be asked,

It has lots of effects and amp simulation for guitars which is great but only available on some of the inputs.

Overall this mixer is a great value for the money, it has so many great features I cannot even list them in this review... If you are looking for a fairly easy to use, compact digital mixer and you got the budget, go no further.