Members Gregidon Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 Anyone else looked into the new line by Soundcraft. Looks like a very capable mixer for ~Studiolive money: http://www.soundcraft.com/products/product.aspx?pid=191 I'd love to hear some of the regulars comment on perceived ups/downs of this guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 Gregidon wrote: Anyone else looked into the new line by Soundcraft. Looks like a very capable mixer for ~Studiolive money: http://www.soundcraft.com/products/product.aspx?pid=191 I'd love to hear some of the regulars comment on perceived ups/downs of this guy. I agree that it's probably a worthy competitor. This market will get a good churning as it starts to mature and old guys like me who appreciate solid hardware and time tested routing/operation fall by the wayside to people who think watching a movie on a laptop is high art because they have never seen a movie in a theatre... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members djiceman1575 Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 One of my friends has the Si Compact 32 and loves it. They're selling it though to upgrade to one of the new ones, may be the Expression, not 100% sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reson8tor Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 Just a quick $.02 reaction here:If the UI is something you can get used to, then this looks like a strong contender. Especially that 16 channel version. Things I like about it, at first glance:* Physical knobs for EQ should be easy to select and grab in a hurry. The designers have put some thought into exposing the most important controls without making you wade through screen menus (which is a good thing, with that small screen). * Scene recall is one big reason I'll eventually be moving to a compact digital mixer, so the head amp recall is a big plus, along with the motorized faders. Reliability is a concern for me with motorizied faders, but with the Soundcraft name and service options, I worry less about it than I would with other brands (cough... Behringer, Roland...). * Good expandability to more channels, and a digital snake option.* It has the de-rigueur remote control via iPad, without having the iPad tied up as a central part of the system.I don't see any major downsides unless the control scheme is something you'd have trouble with. The color-coding for fader operations might be a little tricky -- are we moving a channel's level, or AUX, which AUX? etc. -- but it's probably easy to get used to, and it keeps the interface from looking too busy. I notice the 16-channel version lacks channel inserts, and the larger ones only have 4 assignable channel inserts, but with the onboard FX that might not be an issue for many folks.Overall, it looks very nice... sort of an Old School approach to digital mixers (if that makes sense), compared to the Behringer X32 or Studiolive. , although it's probably overkill for my personal "mix from stage" application. If I occassionaly ran sound for other bands from FOH, I'd be looking very seriously at the 16 or 24-channel model. As it is, it's a little larger and heavier than what I'm looking for, right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gregidon Posted March 27, 2013 Author Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 agedhorse wrote: Gregidon wrote: Anyone else looked into the new line by Soundcraft. Looks like a very capable mixer for ~Studiolive money: http://www.soundcraft.com/products/product.aspx?pid=191 I'd love to hear some of the regulars comment on perceived ups/downs of this guy. I agree that it's probably a worthy competitor. This market will get a good churning as it starts to mature and old guys like me who appreciate solid hardware and time tested routing/operation fall by the wayside to people who think watching a movie on a laptop is high art because they have never seen a movie in a theatre... Now Andy don't be grumpy . That said, I cannot express to you how frustrating it is that all of my consumer electronics - Smart Phone, TV, Computer, NAS and even my car etc seem to be buggy. I know these things are complicated to get to get really good uptime, but the level of bugginess in general in consumer electronics today is truly atrocious. I hope Soundcraft and others recognize that 5 seconds of lag while it figures out what it wants to be doing is unacceptable to this market (not that I've had this experience with Soundcraft). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Koopdaddy Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 IMO it is missing digital scribble strips. How do you know which channel is assigned to what without looking at the screen? Sure if you are using fewer channels then the max then it is somewhat irrelevant, but what if you expand beyond the 16/32 capacity? I also dont care for controls that you have to select which function it does prior to using it, especially when they are completely different functions. The Gain/Filt/Pan rotary encoder for example. I find that arrangement annoying. The Digidesign Venue has the same thing and drives me nuts. I understand sharing knobs for similar functions (like EQ bands for example). Shrug. I just dont see enough that makes it stand out in this price range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reson8tor Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 One other potential downside is that it uses MADI for multichannel digital output (or AES for lower channel counts), instead of the more common Firewire for prosumer recording interfaces.Or even built-in multitrack recording for some of the newer mixers out there.That won't matter to the pro market, but it could limit sales to the market segment that wants a cheap multichannel digital recording option, given the generally higher cost of MADI and AES-compatible computer interfaces. It does have individual outs that can be used with an outboard interface or standalne recorder (that's how I'd use it), but MADI could scare off some people who want digital recording. I think it's an indication of who they're aiming his product at, even with the fairly low price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jlb Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 Look at the block diagram. It looks like the Aux sends are post dynamics. Only shelving filters on the low and high bands? No scribble strips? I pad app is barley functional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 IMO, most scribble strips are too small to read at a glance, and many are not readable in high light conditions. Buggie electronics, just what I want in a high stress environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pro Sound Guy Posted March 27, 2013 Members Share Posted March 27, 2013 You mean like when we die Aged? LOL I gota get my kid raised. When he turns 18 dad turns 65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dookietwo Posted March 28, 2013 Members Share Posted March 28, 2013 agedhorse wrote: Gregidon wrote: Anyone else looked into the new line by Soundcraft. Looks like a very capable mixer for ~Studiolive money: http://www.soundcraft.com/products/product.aspx?pid=191 I'd love to hear some of the regulars comment on perceived ups/downs of this guy. I agree that it's probably a worthy competitor. This market will get a good churning as it starts to mature and old guys like me who appreciate solid hardware and time tested routing/operation fall by the wayside to people who think watching a movie on a laptop is high art because they have never seen a movie in a theatre... More and more features at a lower cost with more and more people not knowing how to run them. In the past it cost so much money for a "good" compressor that you didn't pick up 8 channels of compression without knowing how to use it or at least wanting to learn how to correctly run it after spending all that money. Now 32 channels of compression is just a low cost part of board X. As long as the desk are rock solid I'm all for it. But if they become full of bugs and lock up every other show then its time to rethink the whole thing. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted March 28, 2013 Members Share Posted March 28, 2013 Buggy and lock up every other show? It wouldn't take more than a couple of these events for me to deep 6 it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twostone Posted March 29, 2013 Members Share Posted March 29, 2013 I agree that it's probably a worthy competitor. This market will get a good churning as it starts to mature and old guys like me who appreciate solid hardware and time tested routing/operation fall by the wayside to people who think watching a movie on a laptop is high art because they have never seen a movie in a theatre... Well Age what attracts people to the digital side is the price, vs the tired and true.Plus with the digital is all in one package with has smaller foot print. Not to mention Apple made it cheezy easy to connect to the digital mixer which opens up a whole new world and you can record to monitor progress. I understand 100% the tried and true is less headaches to worry about a bug in the system so it's more reliabale and has longer shelf life unlike with the digital because outdated and unsupported and obusolete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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