Midas MR 18

For its price point at the time of purchase (£4 than the XR18), the MR18 was a worthwhile upgrade over the Behringer XR18. For this review I'm only going to explain why I think the MR18 is better than the XR18.

The pre-amps sound fantastic. The first microphone I tested them with was an AKG C414 on vocals and acoustic guitar and I was blown away. They are in my opinion better than the pre-amps on the X/XR series (which are already very good) and they are considerably better on some older digital mixers (Yamaha 01v96i in particular).

The genuine neutrik locking xlr connectors are fantastic and mean I no longer worry about cables getting pulled out and the 10 year warranty is also fantastic and gives me great confidence.

The wifi is sadly as poor as on the XR18 and you will need a wireless router with you to ensure a strong, reliable and secure connection. The MR18 also lacks hi-z inputs (the XR18 has these) but this is because the Midas Pro Preamp design lacks the circuitry for hi-z, but I prefer to use a DI anyway - hi-z was just a nice 'just in case',

This was our first digital mixer. We opted for the higher quality preamps over the XR18 model. The only drawback here is that there are no Hi-Z inputs. This was not a concern of ours, and we use a DI box for our Bassist usually.

Firstly - If it hasn't been beaten into your skull yet - you need an external secure wifi router connected. I'm a technical nut - so I bought a cheap one and put OpenWRT firmware on it. This way I can easily bridge the house wifi (w/NAT) to our own personal band network which then gives our devices house internet access, AND secure access to the mixer control.

Second - Expect a learning curve. My mate has a degree in audio recording, and I am an electrical design engineer. It still took us hours playing around to understand the signal routing, aux bussing (for IEMs), and FX. It took about 4 rehearsals to have it figured out enough for gigging.

Third - I LOVE THIS THING, it has amazing sound, and is a 100% Linux compatible interface, class compliant (no driver needed). I multi-track record all of our gigs with great results! I use electronic drums, and also record the MIDI hits directly with the audio. I am using 100% FOSS software for this on Dell laptop. Fedora Workstation (w/ native pipewire!), Ardour (DAW), Carla (signal routing / onboard effects). The requirements of this system are stupid low. To test that, I was able to multitrack record on an ancient dual-core laptop with 4G of RAM, and a slow spinning rust HDD. (But you NEED to be running Linux for this - windows is too bloated)

Fourth - I haven't tested it yet (but will soon) - but apparently a midi control surface (like Mackie MCU Pro) can be used as a physical mixer interface. COOL!

We all use the Mixing Station App because it is very flexible, and I can customize my layout on my tablet. Its worth the $5. Also it is quite lovely being able to all have IEMs and control our own mixes.

In closing, this mixer is nothing short of amazing, and can easily find a place in your toolkit, be it in a home studio or on the road.

This might easily be one of the top 5 purchase I've ever done.
This is simply great! I use it as audio interface for recording drums.

I used to go through a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40+adat, and was very concerned about sound quality/noisy pres. There's none of that! If you crank it, you will hear something, but if You record in a safe spot (-12, -6) you will be more than fine! Pres sound very good. I clean the signal at the source, and record after filters/eq on my DAW via ethernet cable, cause I will anyway be the only one using this boy, and have absolutely no plans to use it live for mixing, so I actually have never tried the wifi-router thing.
I was also a bit worried about the USB connection, being used to Firewire-Thunderbolt, but I have to say it's just flawless already recording on an external SSD connected to a 1TB SSD MacMini.
I can't praise this little monster enough!

Absolutely awesome!

This piece of gear is the perfect choice for anyone trying to step up his recording game! Whether its a home studio, live sessions, or album recordings this is your go to if you’re tight or budget. Use an ipad for versatile sound editing and mixing on the spot as you navigate between musicians. Great for multitrack recording and its 6 aux/buses makes it very friendly for group recordings as you can control who hears what and the levels of each. EQ, 4 effects rack, and dynamics options make this unit a mobile beast! Save your presets to navigate from your in studio and live customized templates to save time.

In conclusion, this mixer is hassle free, sounds great, amazing processing, yet might seem complicated at first for the lack of faders but once you get used to it, you will rarely be able to use it to its full potential from the amount of options it gives you.