I bought the Flow 8 anyway, since our analog mixer started to fall apart. I'm actually quite impressed by it so far. It is really compact, and feels overall sturdy if it wasn't for the power supply which uses micro-usb. Hence the dedicated hard case is essential, in that the mixer may remain in the case during the show, with the power cord duct-taped to the hard case bottom.

The mic preamps are decent, as are the digital reverb. Feature-wise, it fullfills all our gigging needs: Individual low-cut filter, compressor, parametric eq, digital effects and monitor sends on all channels, enough input channels and 2 monitor mono output channels. The app is clean and straight-forward, with access to all settings within a few clicks (no scrolling or deep menu structures).

The balance between physical and app control is quite clever: The physical knobs and faders allow all mostly used settings to be made (changing channel levels, effect sends, monitor sends, master volume etc) whereas the more advanced settings (gain staging, compression, eq, phantom power, eq, etc) are more convenient via the app. The faders are not motorized, instead there is a clear "mode" indicator for each channel: If the level for a channel is recently changed via the app, and the value doesn't correspond to the physical fader's value, a led is lit for the channel to indicate that the channel is controlled by the app. Any changes to the fader is then ignored until the fader is changed to be in sync with the app setting. When that happems, the led is turned off, and the fader is used to control the level. It sounds complicated, but actually feels quite intuitive once you start using it.

The app connects via bluetooth, not Wifi. Hence the range is limited (8-10 meters according to the manual), but it is rock solid. I have used it a couple of times during gigs with lots of people (and hence lots of mobile phones) without any dropouts. The convenience of being able to quickly adjust levels via the app is really great (playing saxophone in a big band, it's quite cumbersome to physically move around).

Hence I'm really satisfied so far. Let's see how well it resists the inevitable wear and tear of gigging.

/Björn