Midas MR 18

Using it in a live band gig and it's great.
So easy to use. I installed it in a rack and we just love its portability.
Most times we need to instal really fast and its portability and ease of use make everything a breeze.
The sound is really good. You can tell it has the MIDAS preamps.
I've worked with other tablet based digital mixers but this one is by far the easiest to use.
The build quality is good and even though is almost identical to the Behringer, you can really tell the difference in sound.
I would recomend it to all "on the road" musicians. It's great for rehersal rooms too.
I even installed one in a house of worship and they love it.
I've had some issues with some other tablet based mixers with the connectivity especially when connecting more than one device to the mixer. I have not experienced any problems with this one so far. The connectivity is stable.
It took me about 10 minutes to set it up from scratch.
The band members love it as well. The fact that you can connect personal monitor mixers to it is absolutely fabulous.
There is just no competition in this price range.
Happy with the price and with the purchase.
Thank you Midas for this great product and thank you Thomann for a great service!

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.