Soundcraft Notepad-12FX mengpaneel

I recently purchased a Soundcraft Notepad 12FX for recording with DAW software, for live performance and possible Zoom calls. I haven't yet used all its features but I am impressed with the quality of the unit and all its features packed into a small footprint. I purchased the mixer from Bax Music as they offered the best price for the unit and I am impressed with their service.

I'll start straight away with one big disappointment though, and that is that Soundcraft do not provide a block schematic of the mixer as they do with some of their other mixers. This would certainly help. A drawing speaks a thousand words in any language and a schematic would have saved me a lot of time when researching mixers and clarify its many fuzzy issues.
For example, FX Return and the AUX jack functions. I can use a TS (MONO) Jack for Mono Line O/P to from the Aux buss, and this 'MONO LINE OUT' is great for connecting to a guitar amp with limited inputs!
But if a mono jack remains in place when the OUTPUT TYPE is switched to STEREO PHONES, then the
(Ring) channel output will be shorted out to ground of the mono jack's sleeve, so be careful!!
(I don't know whether there is some sort of overload protection built in to prevent this.)

The O/Ps from the Aux Jack are pre-FX, so you won't hear the FX in that Aux socket, but will in
the phone jack to its right.
The AUX MASTER knob seems to have two separate functions probably using ganged pots. One pot adjusts the (mono) level out of the Aux buss (i.e 'MONO LINE OUT'). The other pot (L&R I assume) seems to be a ganged pot for separate left and right channel levels to the i/p of the FX unit. (Quite clever economy of functions. But of course a blcok schematic would have confirmed this or otherwise.)

One has to assume that the 'External FX' (TRS) Jacks are standard send/return configuration where the tip of the jack sockets will carry the L & R signals from the mixer to the external FX unit via a two core screened cable and the ring of each jack socket will receive the O/P from the external FX unit back into the final stages of the mixer.

Other points:
The 'Hi Z' inputs '1' on the Notepad 8FX and '1 and 3' on the 12FX have a fixed gain of unity, i.e. no increased amplification.
The separate AC/DC power supply is a good feature in any audio kit as it eliminates any 50Hz mains hum from inside the mixer chassis and high-gain amp stages.

CONS:
The LED Output Level 'meter' is a little too basic.
There are no RCA 'phono' sockets for a 'stereo out/Monitor' facility.
There is no 'Power On' indicator.
There is no switch to switch off the phantom 48 volts which is always present on all the I/P XLRs but NOT on the embedded stereo jack of course.
You CAN however use BALANCED DYNAMIC MICS (i.e with NO inbuilt pre-amp circuitry) with the XLRS but perhaps it's best to plug these in before turning on the mixer. (I have a Beyer dymanic mic connected to my Notepad 12FX.)


Overall I found the User Manual somewhat confusing as the function descriptions seem far too
dispersed through the manual compared to others I've used. The documentation for a possible Notepad rival, the Allan and Heath ZEDi-10, is clearer I think and a block schematic for that mixer isavailable. But for it's price and it's impressive spec, the Soundcraft Notepad is good value for money and is light weight (unlike the A&H mixer) and is a very convenient and 'cute' size.

I hope this helps. I am not a sound engineer, but these are my first impressions.

GG

ps SOUNDCRAFT could you PLEASE provide us with a block schematic for your Notepad series!

Rapport qualité/prix/capacité/performance excellent !
Utilisée en répétition, en petit concert et en homestudio, on est pas loin du couteau suisse.
Légère et compacte, il manquerait peut-être un interrupteur on/off.
Les effets sont assez typés Lexicon, ils dépannent parfaitement.

J’ai acheté cette table pour pré mixer mes pédales synthé Mel9-Synth9-Synth1 et je dois dire que je suis agréablement surpris, même les effets sont tout à fait utilisables. Aucun souffle, possibilité d’effets externes. Faible encombrement , look .
Pour le prix c’est top