NO WORRIES, STANTON

We have been most impressed with Stanton’s mixers of late. Mixers like the M.207 have proved that Stanton understands the needs of DJs and can deliver solid mixers at reasonable prices. Their latest mixer to be released, the RM.416, is a four-channel rack-mount USB mixer with two channels for microphones.

The RM.416 is clearly aimed at installations in clubs and for serious mobile DJs, but the USB interface and those extra Mic inputs mean that this mixer could easily be put to alternative uses in a bedroom or project studio, not to mention taking care of day to day mixing duties with aplomb.
The construction of the RM.416 is great. Everything feels rock solid and tight, the control surface is nicely spaced, uncluttered and looks like it means business. The back of the unit continues the well thought-out and nicely spaced design ethos. Nice touches such as recessing the inputs and outputs so there is plenty of room for cables and the cable holder for the USB — so that the cable doesn’t wiggle loose — is a testament to quality design. The result is a mixer that oozes quality and feels a lot more expensive than the RM.416 actually is in cash terms.

What Stanton has created in the RM.416 is a very functional four-channel club mixer, without the bells and whistles like digital FX or other such distractions. Nice touches such as user-replaceable channel and cross-faders mean that the RM.416 will give years of mixing service without any fuss.
The control surface of the mixer is very intuitively laid out. Each of the four fader channels has a gain knob, three way EQ, cross-fader select switch and illuminated cue button, and an input selection switch as well as a peak light to indicate when the signal is being pushed on the mixer. The input switches at the top of Channels One and Two allow for selection between Phono/Aux or Line input, whilst Channel Three has an additional USB audio input position for connection of a laptop.

MASTER
The master section has a Mono/Stereo select switch, whilst the master volume is controlled via a knob rather than a fader — no big deal.

Verdict

Directly below this are four more knobs that control stereo balance, volume and the cut-off frequency going to the separate Sub Woofer output — if you decide to use a sub in your speaker set-up. There is also a decent-sized ten LED UV meter for each of the left and right output channels. Finally, at the bottom of the master section below the UV meter is an illuminated cue button to allow monitoring of the master channel.

At the bottom of the mixer are the cross-fader and cue sections. The cue section houses the handy split cue button and the all-essential headphone socket, and has two knobs providing control over the volume and split cue mix (always handy for beat mixing). Another bonus is that the headphone output level is very beefy and will provide enough volume for loud club environments.
To the far left of the mixer are the two Mic channels. Each channel has a Multi-Connector allowing for jack or XLR mic leads to be plugged straight into the top of the mixer without needing to fiddle around at the back. Both the mic channels have a gain control knob as well as three band EQ. There is also a switch which lets the DJ turn the mic channels on, off or to engage Talk Over Mode.

All in all it’s hard to find much to complain about with the RM.416, especially considering the very reasonable asking price. Sure a few extra features like level displays for each of the channels would have been nice, but the peak light on the channels takes care of the basics and this keeps the cost — as well as the clutter — down. Anyone who is flirting with the idea of a new mixer should check out the RM.416, as it’s a whole lot of mixer for not too much money.