I'm thinking of buying a mackie mixer for my home
studio and cant decide between the 1202 VLZ Pro or the CFX12
The question is - is the price difference worth it for the onboard effects (£200 UK pounds)
or would i be better spending the difference on an effects unit?
Its the preamps and how noisy they are that you have to check. Mackie are always good in this respect.
However they are not really known for their FX. Lexicon though are and £200 should get you one of their budget reverb units , which are actually quite good.
I have Mackie FX on my D8B , and although once you get used to them they are quite good , they still don't have that magical sheen you get from a lexicon. To me Lexicon have the most realistic sounding reverbs on the market.
I had a 1604VLZ PRO and I loved it. I sold it a whole ago as I was restructuring my studio (and moving to a different country) but it was a great home studio mixer. I assume the 1202VLZ has similar circuits.
I would get external FX. But you never know, go try one in a shop, maybe the effects are correct for what you need.
