If anyone were to draw up a list of the axioms of music making in the MIDI age, somewhere near the top would be "You can never have enough inputs". True, you can never have enough inputs. It's surprisingly easy for a modest keyboard set-up to run to 16 or even 24 channels, especially if you tend to be adventurous with effects returns, using mixer channels rather than the effects busses.

Naturally, manufacturers have kept pace with the demand for more channels in compact, affordable mixers, and the Kawai MX16 is the latest in a line of such products from several companies, typified by Roland's excellent M-series, and the Alesis 1622 — small mixers for a modest MIDI set-up, or ideal sub-mixers in a larger one.

The MX16 has a simple 16:2 configuration, and manages to cram quite a lot on to its small front panel, including all of the audio connections, which are located at the top of the panel rather than round the back. This is not good news if you like all your cabling out of sight, but it makes reaching the audio sockets an awful lot easier, especially if you're going to mount the mixer on a keyboard stand. Kawai have even found room for a scribble strip above the channel faders, which is definitely good news — this is one of the few areas in which the comparable Roland mixers can be faulted.

CHANNELS

All channels have a 4-position input level selector switch. Channels 1-4 have higher gain positions, to cope with lower level mic and instrument signals: -0dBm, -10dBm, -20dBm, Mic (-45dBm). Channels 5-16 offer +4dBm, -4dBm, -12dBm and -20dBm. A simple treble/bass EQ section is provided, with 12dB of cut or boost at 100Hz and 10kHz, which allows you to make fairly broad tonal changes, but nothing more precise. More advanced EQ would certainly have added to the MX16's appeal, but it would also have added to the price, and even basic controls such as these are worth having. Below the tone controls on each channel is a simple clip LED.

There are three effects busses in the MX16, addressed by three send pots on each channel. All are mono, post-fader, with stereo returns. I would have preferred to see one of the three configured as a switchable pre/post send, but again, the modest price of the mixer (under £500) makes this kind of nitpicking seem a little mean. The final channel controls are a pan pot and a channel fader. The faders are small, and not very smooth in their movement — the latter fault is shared by the Alesis 1622, although it is perhaps excused on the grounds of its unusual construction — but it's unlikely that you'll be doing much fader-riding in the kind of applications for which the MX16 is suited.

Moving on to the master section, twin LED bargraph meters are provided for the stereo master bus. A phones level pot is located next to the meters. Effects control routing takes the form of three return level pots — there are no master send level controls. There are twin faders for the left and right master busses, and there is also a monitor level fader. This feeds a single mono monitor output.

SWEET SILENCE

The interesting part of the master section is the on-board Dynamic Noise Reduction (DNR). Immediately below the LED meters are a switch to enable and disable the noise reduction, and a simple threshold level pot.

There are no details in the manual of just how the system works, but it seems to be a simple dynamic filter that attenuates high frequencies when the signal drops below the threshold level. Setting the threshold level too low will result in noticeable 'pumping' on some material, but a correct setting will enable you to cut noise quite effectively and unobtrusively. This could make the MX16 quite a good choice as a submixer for many people, perhaps for coping with the outputs of a noisy sampler (my FZ10M, for example!).

All channel inputs and effects send and return sockets are via unbalanced jacks. The returns are rated at -10dBm sensitivity. All three returns are stereo, and the left input can be used as a mono return if necessary. The master output is duplicated at jack and phono outputs, with level switchable between -10dBm and +4dBm. Stereo -10dBm Rec outputs are also provided, on phonos, which are fed from the stereo master bus before the master faders and DNR. The monitor output (+4dBm) is via a jack socket, and the only remaining audio connection is the phones socket.

SMALL BUT PERFECTLY FORMED

The MX16 could easily have been a rather unremarkable compact mixer, but the provision of DNR gives it at least one feature that could swing anyone in the market for such a unit in Kawai's direction. Otherwise, it is pretty basic — mute or solo buttons, and more flexible EQ would have been welcome — but at only £499, it is still good value for what it does offer, and that's what really matters. With 16 channels of clean, uncomplicated input, the MX16 should turn out to be a popular choice for modest MIDI/portastudio set-ups, or as a submixer for keyboards and expanders.

FURTHER INFORMATION

£499 inc VAT.

Kawai UK, (Contact Details).