This is a mixer I have had for a very long time. It was the second piece of audio gear I ever bought (I think I was about 17) and was purchased in the late 90's. It looked old then, and I found it under a stage in Tempo Music Store in Hendersonville NC. I gave $200 for it, which was not a great deal, but not horrible back then, considering when these came out in 80's and were like $800 or so. The original purpose of this was to do live multi mic recordings directly into a cassette deck so we could hear our practices. Over the years, this thing has seen much abuse. I have had other mixers come and go (some that went without my approval, RIP Soundcraft M12), and I have lent this to many people for various events, but it is still working. It isn't pristine, but it is clear and has decent body to the sound. It doesn't sound tinny and weak like these shitty little 8 channels everyone has out for under $200. It does have flavor and that flavor works well in the on location band practice space recordings I do that are approached as "lower fi" projects. I wouldn't want to cut a studio album on this, but it is totally possible to get a "Check Your Head" sounding record out of this box.
It has a monitor and effects send, 7 channels, and a lot of various outputs on the back. Each channel has an insert right after the gain knob. I am currently using it only for the gain knobs. I run a mic into the mixer, and send it right out to my 828 audio interface. I don't like EQ's and compression to tape (and I try not to use them in the mix if I don't have to), so 1 gain knob to tape is perfect for my application and how I roll. It also takes out of the mix(er) some of the circuitry that gives Peavey it's noisey reputation.
The Manual-
