Soundcraft Notepad-12FX Mixer with Effects and USB Reviews

I got the Soundcraft 12FX to use as a backup when my Evolve 30M would not connect to the mixer app on my phone. After a couple times using it I found that 1. I liked having a physical mixer more than using the app and 2. I prefer the sound of my guitar and vocals running through this mixer. It definitely seems warmer in the highs and thicker/more punchy through the midrange compared to plugging directly into the EV xlr inputs on the pa. I've also used a few other mixers with the same pa and in my opinion the Soundcraft had the best overall tone.

Another benefit is 2 of the inputs have buttons to switch to instrument level so you can plug your acoustic guitar 1/4in cable in directly. Great feature and it's awesome this tiny device has it on 2 channels. It was a life saver on one gig when I was getting noise from my preamp pedal. I bypassed the preamp, plugged in directly and played the show with no problem.

I have not used the usb connection so can't comment on that. And I only use the reverb very sparingly, just a touch so the vocals and instruments aren't completely dry. Overall I find it to be a great compact mixer. Perfect for solo or duo acoustic gigs. Throw it in a backpack along with some mics and cables, plug it into your favorite portable column pa and you have a nice easy to use compact rig for bar/patio/party gigs.

Amazed at the quality that this units puts out.

I find this mixer very well built. Easy to setup. Can not wait to try the usb feature.

Wow, I was going to get a second Radial Keylargo as I ran out of room on the M24, and happened across the Notepad 12. If Keylargo has any competition, this is surely it! It is a very solid and we'll built kit, all the jacks are TRS and above that it's not adding any noticable noise as sub mixers have done in the past. I couldn't be happier! unless they made one with out USB and left out the built in FX. Only one negative note is that Phantom Power is always on and I don't know if that could adversely effect any sensitive electronics that are connected to the first 4 inputs...

Don't let the size of this mixer fool you. This mixer packs the same sound quality as the big ones. Very good mixer. Unless I'm passing sound through it I'd never know it was turned on. I'm running it through a rack mount stereo 15 band equalizer into a PA:) nice clean transparent mixer.

This is absolutely perfect for my use. Was looking to lighten my load when playing solo or duo - the Soundcraft 12FX fits in my gig bag, smaller than a magazine. Great Pre's and the effects are fine and actually sound rich... (A little limited in "tweakablity" - but at this price point, the effects work GREAT!)

Was surprised at the build quality and Pre's. Quiet, well built, Soundcraft Pre's - at a great price and value.

As always Chris McCowan sales engineer extraordinaire took great care of me. Sweetwaters service just can't be matched!

I purchased the Soundcraft Notepad-12FX because I wanted less too transport when playing live. I use this with a Zoom A3, and Bose S-1 powered speaker. Awesome combination. Thanks Lindsey! I have never been disappointed by Sweetwater!

Bought a mixer. Immediately received an email reaching out because I was a new customer. But next received a phone call letting me know I can call at any point and get help with the new equipment. Great customer service. Will definitely buy here again.

This mixer is exactly what I needed for my home studio. I get a true 4 track usb output OR a 2 track mix off the Main L/R outputs as needed, not one or the other. The 9/10 channel works great for recording playback from Reaper or Waves Tracks and to play music from my iPod during breaks at gigs. As a basic analog mixer it handles the chores pretty easy with 6 channels being used at once. The effects are not complicated and there aren't a lot of choices but what is there is easy to use and sound great. The size is small enough to fit on my desk without hogging any extra space. This little mixer does everything I wanted in a home studio mixer/USB interface. The only thing I would change is adding the 3-band EQ to channels 5/6 and 7/8. You could easily spend almost 3 times the money for a mixer that does much less.

Great sound, great effects.
I have a presonus studio live 32 mixer.
I bought this notepad for smaller gigs and to practice with a smaller
Team.

I use this for many different things, mixer for small group gigs, as a drum mixer to be sent to the main board in larger gigs, band practice mixer.

I have a larger soundcraft board I'm very happy so I figured this one would be just as good... I was right. There are a lot of options with aux settings, wider eq-ing with hi MID and low (most I saw in this price range had no mid) ,the lexicon effects and a huge amount of in's and outs.

There is only one thing that really bugs me... there is no power on/off switch with indicator lights! I can't tell it's on.
Obviously when a signal is going thru it the levels light etc, but otherwise, it's kind of a leap of faith you plug it in and have to try something tap on mic etc. to be sure it's on.

I had to take away a half star, if it had some indicator light I would have rated it a 6 !!

I took off half a star because my original failed after 4-1/2 years and Harmon doesn't repair these.
But I liked it so much I bought another one anyway.
That said, this is by far the most flexible interface/mixer combination of this size I have ever found.
The 4+4 USB gives you the ability to live monitor and playback without any extra equipment.
Best points:
Very quiet for solid state preamps. The channel EQ's have that nice subtle lively Soundcraft vibe.
The effects are respectable - I mostly use the reverb in the performer's direct monitor output when recording - it gives the
performer a nice confidence-building sound while not introducing the latency of the DAW effects.
Lots of options for input formats, Hi-Z switches for the mic channels, and phantom power.
Would have been nice if they had found room for a power switch though.
This was my first purchase from Sweetwater in quite a few years and the customer support lives up to their excellent reputation.

I researched these little boards to use in really small venues instead of my 26 channel Allen & Heath. It does the job very well. I didn't realize it's value as a mic preamp & recording interface! It boosts dynamic mics and powers condenser mics & has a 4 in 4 out usb computer interface. For this price it's unbeatable.

I picked this up for a couple of reasons: First, I wanted something portable that I could use for band rehearsal. Second, I wanted something to replace a cheap, old USB interface that was getting scratchy-sounding. Third, it needed to be affordable.
Boy, does this little guy deliver!
It generally lives at home on my studio desk where it serves as my recording interface, and in this capacity it has a few limitations that you should be aware of. Namely, that you can only use a total of 4 inputs for recording. I knew this going in, and it is enough for me. You can select which inputs you want to use in the Soundcraft utility program.

It doesn't have MIDI, so if you are thinking of replacing your interface with this, bear that in mind. If it did have MIDI in/out, it'd be six stars out of five and a perfect interface replacement.

Also, you'll notice that the USB port is located on top of the mixer (I'd prefer it to be around the back for a cleaner look/better cable management). Additionally, it does not have an on/off switch (for the mixer itself, or for the phantom power on the first 4 inputs). This means that if you wanted to give phantom power to a couple of mics, you have to unplug the mixer, plug in your mics, plug the mixer back in, then (if you're using it as an interface) go into the software and re-assign the inputs you want to use (because the software forgets every time it is disconnected).

These are relatively minor issues, but i wish I knew that it had no power switch before buying.

The FX sound good, although I don't really use them. Build quality is bulletproof, the EQ and preamps have no business being on a mixer this affordable. They sound really, really good. Form factor is totally backpackable. Everyone who sees mine wants one, and nobody who hears it can believe the price. I can't think of another small mixer with this level of quality and feature set, for the price.

I like this tiny little one as its a very handy mixer whether for a small private gig or in your studio.
The USB use is a good feature.

I think Jonathan,s recommendation was helpful.

Exactly what I was looking for, super easy to use.

I use this as a sub mix for my Inears. Built in Phantom power on the channels, nice. Works perfect.

I bought this from Sweetwater a few years ago on sale. Still works as expected and has decent build quality for a compact mixer. I mainly use this for multi-track recording, which is very clean and low latency. A few shortcomings are the usb routing options, phantom power always on, and aux return disables the onboard effects (though only when using both L/R returns). USB options include channels 1-4 and 1/2/Stereo mix. Would be great if there were other options for more flexibility. Also found out the hard way that some devices don't like phantom power (rest is piece Volca Drum). Obviously user error due to inexperience, so I won't fault Soundcraft. As long as it fits your needs/budget, I'd definitely still recommend. Not too many alternatives when it comes to a 4x4 audio interface with mixer, eq, and effects.

Great mixer ,combined with my kustom 50 PA,speakers , it works great for nursing homes.

I've used Yamaha my entire music career. This is my first Soundcraft purchase and so far, it's all that I needed. Let's sell the downside first. The fact that it doesn't have an on and off switch is baffling to me. That's the only thing I can say about this mixer. Otherwise, it's perfect for my needs. I use it for a live mixer. The phantom power works great so far. It has a clean sound and very compact. I'd also be careful with the power chord because it does seem fragile.
I'm excited to use it for recording and other applications. Solid buy. Just don't let me hanging, Soundcraft!

Great analog sound.
I wish I had kept it in a heavy foam case rather than a laptop bag. I am very careful with my gear but after 2 years of normal use,the channel 1 trim pot is loose and crackly already.
Going back to the Mackie. Those are more durable.

Great mixer that puts a lot of inputs and features into a very compact package. In particular I like the high impedance option on two of the channels for plugging guitars directly into the mixer.

However if you plan to use the USB interface with DAW software and a Windows PC, you will have to reboot your PC in recovery mode and select load unsigned drivers to get it to work. It is hard to understand why Harmon requires this fundamental security flaw to use their product. It would be a 5 star product otherwise for me.

The built-in effects are sent to the effects return channel which is different than mixers I've used in the past (you need to turn up the effects return channel volume).

I just un-boxed mine and as I checked it out I saw what for me was a serious oversite. The phantom power cannot be switched off. For most users this might not be an issue, but if You have ribbon mics or dynamics without transformers (IE: Shure SM7b} you can seriously degrade audio and easily damage your mics. Once upon a time you had to make certain a mixer had phantom power. This is the first time I've seen a mixer where it can't be disabled. Poor design choice, or did I miss something?

The unit that I purchased has a behavior that is frustrating. I play a backing track on my computer and send it to the Mixing Board using a USB cable. Then, I connect my Roland Aerophone AE-10G to any other channel, and my sound monitors to the mixer's output. When I try to play my instrument simultaneously with my backing track, the sound from the computer (via USB cable) fades out, and I'm left only with my instrument's audio. In other words, it's not mixing at all. I called Harmann's tech support and got no help there.
I decided to return it and go with another brand.

Bought this a while back and used it successfully with my Intel Macbook Pro. Upgraded to a Mac Mini M1 and now the USB interface has problems with too low volume level to be useful. I had to buy a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 so I could run the mixer's analog out into my Mac but lost two channels in this configuration. Support does not seem to be on the ball with driver updates. I'm going to toss this thing and just get a Mackie. Well, at least I got one year out of it. I won't buy another Soundcraft product.

Thought this mixer would help consolidate a mixer and audio interface into one unit, but it falls short in three key aspects.
1) The USB audio level is about 50% quieter than the analog output. Verified this with other users online and is a result of cheap components.
2) It is possible to alter USB channels 3/4 to be the channel strips 3/4 or the main mix, but when using software like Zoom or BandLab, they only see USB channels 1/2, so it's almost useless.
3) There is very noticeable scratchy noise when adjusting knobs on this unit.

Worked as It was supposed to for ONE gig. One by one the channels became scratchy and and the effects wouldn't work. I only use this board for one show a year so put it away until following year and just figured it needed cleaning. Year 2 rolled around and got it out and low and behold it was worse. Contacted Sweetwater. Out of warranty with Soundcraft. I've bought soundcraft products for years. This POcrap is their very worst product ever. Soundcraft has a minimum $ charge for repair as I understand it. Hmm, would I just buy another POC at $ or buy Yamaha? Run away from this Junk!

I purchased this mixer for DJ work as a spare to my Yamaha MG10XU as they were out of stock. I couldn't believe this unit had the Soundcraft name on it, as I always associated this name with quality. To begin with, the unit has no power switch and the only way you can tell the unit was 'on' was by tapping the 'Karaoke Tempo' button to verify the indicator light flashed. Once connected to my gear, the sound was average at best and didn't even compare with my MG10XU. The sound is very cheap sounding and one dimensional and all of the adjustments in the world couldn't help that! Don't waste your money on this mixer, buy a Yamaha instead and save yourself the time and aggravation of sending it back!