I OWN A VLZ 1402 MIXER(1 STEP UP OF THE 1202 BUT WITH SAME ONBOARD PRES) AND THE BOARD IS EXCELLENT FOR LIVE SOUND,HOWEVER EVEN THE BEHRINGER MAY BE BETTER FOR YOUR RECORDINGS.
tHE Neumann TLM 103 is a superb vocal mic with a straight linear response(meaning little added character in frequencies and overall sound), just a true sound. cheaper preamps like the behringer will give it some of its own character, however could add noise at the recording stage if you drive it too high. Mackie did put good preamps in the VLZ series,but i guess you would have to try them in your recordings to see if it works for you. Depending on whether you are looking for a "true" sound or something "colorful" will determine what route you may want to follow in your front line setup. My primary vocal line starts with
a RODE NTK(i think one of the best vocal mics around under a grand) loaded into a GRACE Designs 101 mic pre.So with this setup, i have two things, character and linearity. The NTK has boosts in the 5khz and 12khz range which adds presence and air, yet staying very quiet overall, and can handle any volume you can throw at it. Scream into it and it will laugh back at you any say "that all you got?"The job of the Grace 101 is to properly add mic gain without any colorization whatsoever. one of the pureist mic pres ever. check em out on the web to see what i mean. anything else prior to entering the recording stage is tweaked thru
a DBX 160A compressor or thru Antares vocal producer. The AVP-1 has a great compressor of its own,
a desser,and a mic modeler where you can even add tube saturation. The autotune in the unit has not been used for pitch correction, only to simulate outtatune character like in kid rocks "only god knows why" or Audioslaves end of "show me how to live". So just decide what sound you are looking for in your vocal recordings.If its clean and true sound you want, you are half way there with the TLM 103, but she definitely deserves more that a 1202 mixer preamp. the microphone and mic pre is the last place you want to try to skimp on. happy recordings. craig vallentine