Yamaha SC-02 Session Cake Portable Mixer, Blue

I needed a way to boost my mic output for gigs where there may be no outlets and it's feeding a battery-powered speaker. To get the right volume level, a mic preamp was needed --- but a dedicated preamp is quite expensive (and finding a battery-powered one is quite difficult). This is a result of market segmentation rather than device complexity or quality, and I sorely was tempted just to cobble one together myself. Fortunately, I found this nifty little device. It was inexpensive, works like a charm, and also provides basic mixer functionality (which I don't need but could in the future). These days, it's very rare to find a product which actually works, let alone is inexpensive and fits the bill perfectly! FYI, I needed to play with the controls a bit to get the output right for my particular configuration --- so you may need to do a little trial and error, but once you figure it out it's easy.

It does everything that I was aiming for. I wanted to plug in my travel guitar and my phone to be able to practice with a track while traveling. I could either monitor the mix through headphones for a silent practice or through a portable speaker. Some people complain about low fidelity and hiss, but for me the sound quality is perfectly adequate. This is an excellent mixer especially when you consider the price - I payed less that $15 for it! What else can you by for this price that has the same quality and features? I'm not a big fan of red color though, but I'll survive ;-)

Nice little battery powered mixer. Yamaha always makes good stuff. Decent sound quality for the price point and the blue model includes a mic input which adds to the versatility.

I scoured the web for something like this however, everything is an audio interface these days. I just wanted a cheap, simple, portable, battery-powered practice mixer for which I can mix song audio and a passive electric guitar; bass in my case. Audio interfaces assume you're wanting to record or play thru or into an app. Way to complex for just practicing. I purchased a second SC-01 because I liked it so much. The chaining feature is a nice-to-have and it works well. Great little unit. I do wish it where a little smaller in size for my needs.

I use this nice little device as a headphone amp for a bass. The sound is more than acceptable and the volume is adequate. You can plug in music from phone/laptop/whatever and control the relative volume of the bass and music. It's battery powered and so can be used anywhere.I much prefer the Yamaha SC-01 to a Vox headphone amp, which I also own.

I didn't return this unit because I didn't have much choice-- I need a super compact unit to monitor my microphone + guitar + track + another musician for practice at home late at night and on the road, and there's nothing else this size and in this price range.Nevertheless, I'm shocked by how weak this product is. "Input" and "Me" seem to be the same control-- they increase and decrease volume for both the Aux inputs and the 1/4 inch inputs, and somewhat for the microphone, I think, though that at least has its own level control, (thank God.)Be aware that you could use this with a bass player, for example-- guitar, bass, mic, and track-- but guitar and bass are pretty much hard panned left and right. You can't listen in mono, or put one of them in the center or wherever. Still usable.The headphone out power is on the low side, and when you turn it up to 3:00 or so, there's just a ton of line noise. I'm not a snob about stuff like that, but it's loud enough to be distracting.Also, the inputs seem to overload easily-- louder transients break up for ALL inputs: Aux in, 1/4 inch left and right, and microphone, though again, the microphone volume is most manageable. And when I say they "break up" I don't mean in a good way! They sound likd overloaded inputs, or like the batteries are low even when they're new... and NOT like an overdriven tube amp!If you travel super light for gigs and need to rehearse to track with another musician in a hotel room, go ahead, hold your nose and get this thing, but keep your expectations low. If you can carry something a little bigger and more robust, that's a better way to go, or if you're rehearsing to track without a mic, get a Vox headphone amp or something equivalent.

You can split the Aux in to make it an insteument line out to your existing mixer. Now everyone with Yamaha SC-01 or SC02 has it's own ear monitor but can still be part of your traditional mixer. You can use your existing traditional mixer's aux out and connect it to chain 1 or 2 and then link all other SC-0#, then everyone can hear the mix. Connect the Chain to a phone's earphones/mic and record the mix to an app.Of course you need specific cables to do this. Just an FYI, Aux tip should be TRRS (4 pole tip) to seprate mic and headphonesThese are just my fav connections i have tried and works well.

At its actual price, this device is a bargain. Good Yamaha construction quality, decent sound for real time playing or for recording musical ideas (instrument and mic), and expansion possibilities with other session cakes.