Mixing Desks with Bluetooth

A mixing desk with Bluetooth lets you send music from your phone, tablet or laptop to the desk without a cable. The track from your phone runs on its own channel of the desk, and you set its volume just as you would for a microphone or a guitar. Here you will find analogue and digital Bluetooth mixing desks with 3 to 64 channels from Allen & Heath, Tascam, Mackie, Yamaha, DNA, PROEL and Revoltage. Almost all of them also have USB, and most have built-in effects, such as reverb for vocals.

What is Bluetooth on a mixing desk useful for?

Bluetooth comes in handy wherever music from a phone plays alongside microphones and instruments: at a wedding or a ball between the band's sets, at rehearsal when you play along to a backing track, in a café, at a school or in a sports hall. The host connects their phone and plays a jingle without running another cable across the stage. For a fixed installation in a bar or restaurant, there is the Tascam MZ-123BT rack-mount mixer. If you only want to play music from your phone and do not need a microphone, active Bluetooth speakers are all you need.

How many channels should a Bluetooth mixing desk have?

A singer with a guitar, a duo or a host with two microphones will manage with 4 to 6 channels, for example the PROEL Playmix 6, DNA HLC 6 MK2 or Revoltage MX5-USB. A band with drums, several vocalists and keyboards needs 12 to 16 channels – good choices are the Mackie ProFX12v3 Plus, Tascam Model 12, Tascam Model 16 or Yamaha MGX16. Small desks with up to 8 channels, which even fit in a backpack, are among the mini mixing desks.

Analogue or digital mixing desk with Bluetooth?

An analogue mixing desk has its own volume and EQ knobs on every channel, so you can turn down the music from your phone with a single move, even with no experience. A digital desk, such as the Behringer Flow 8 or Allen & Heath CQ-12T, adds effects, memories for your settings and control from an app on your phone or tablet. The Allen & Heath CQ-20B has no display of its own, so you control it from the app only. More desks with a screen and setting memories are in the digital mixing desks category.