i sometimes cross paths with these little budget mixers.

the behringers are noisey, despite their invisible silent words they
congratulate themselves with.

mackie has a budget line out to compete with the behringer stuff on
price. it's not nearly as good as the "real mackie" stuff.

the "real mackie" stuff...the stuff that carries the vlz badge of
honor, blah blah blah. they are actually legitimately quiet enough to
be called "professional". the preamps are useable-enough, especially
in an "i'm not trying to win a grammy, i just need to get something
done" situation. plus everybody on the planet is familiar with these
things (except my mailman, he seems kind of stoned out and not really
with it).

i would guess that the peavey stuff is behringer quality or even
below. that will just frustrate you. if you can pony up the extra
dough, go for the real mackie. to save money, you could get the 8 or
10 channel mackie for about $299 or $399 (i forget). and then buy a
little berhinger mixer for about $69. so when you need a few extra
channels, just put the unimportant stuff into the behringer and then
feed the berhinger into the mackie. and then bury that garbage deep
down in the mix. but at least you can tell the bongo player that all
six of his auxilliary percussion pieces are actually miked and going
through the mixing system.

"in fact, your finger cymbals and plastic blocks are so important,
that i've dedicated an *entire mixer* just to your instruments..."