Allen & Heath is a world leader in quality mixing consoles, and the Allen & Heath ZED-16FX is a superb choice for bands that care about tone, build quality, versatility and portability. It is a multipurpose USB mixer with stunning DSP effects for both live sound and recording.

The ZED-16FX is ideal for groups who need to travel light. It gives musicians, venues and sound companies access to 10 full mono channels, three stereo channels and a high-quality FX unit in a compact, rackmountable format. Configurable USB audio in/out makes it easy to capture stereo recordings.

USB audio flexibility
Getting audio to and from a computer easily is now a common requirement for live sound and music production. The way this has been implemented on ZED is flexible and easy. Just plug a USB cable into your ZED, select the USB routing on the mixer and the device on your computer and that's it.

Send options:
1) Main Mix Left + Right (Post-Fade)
2) Main Mix Left + Right (Pre-Fade)
3) Auxes 1-2
4) Auxes 3-FX

Return options:
1) To Stereo 3 channel

Equalization
ZED-16FX features a responsive 3-band, swept mid-frequency EQ design, which utilizes Allen & Heath's MusiQ with optimized slope (or Q factor) for equalizing individual instruments.

Preamps
Based on the proven pre-amps from the hugely successful PA series, ZED-16FX has DuoPre pre-amps, which use a two-stage design, with carefully controlled amounts of gain in each stage. When amplifying the signal from the XLR input, the gain range is huge (69dB), and is very evenly distributed around the gain control, meaning better control of signal level. Most of the gain comes from the first stage, so unwanted noise is kept to a minimum. Line level signals are simply plugged into the second stage of the pre-amp by using the line input jack socket, which has the great advantage of less noise when using the line input and also matching to a higher-input impedance.

Effects
ZED-16FX has an essential selection of 16 time-delay effects, designed for small groups who don't want to carry around an effects unit with their gear but who still want great-quality FX at their gigs and on their recordings. ZED effects are easily controlled using three buttons with nine display LEDs. For example, the ideal delay time can be quickly tapped in, or the perfect amount of reverb on the lead vocal can be dialed in. There is one-stop navigation and editing—in fact, it's just as easy as using effects pedals. To alter effects parameters, the TAP button is held down and the up/down buttons pressed to adjust the specific parameter for that effect, for example, the decay length on PLATE or the depth on CHORUS.