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Author Topic: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?  (Read 8817 times)

Garrett Trott

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Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« on: August 23, 2014, 06:51:05 PM »

As an engineer who seems to be getting very down a dirty in remote locations these days mostly providing live audio for the west coast festival culture. I am wondering the community recommendations on which midsize pro digital console can take the dust day after day. After a few years of renting I am ready to take the leap in investing in two consoles of my own.

After a slow degradation of the faders on a SC48 even with extensive daily cleaning during 3 week tour I am considering the Midas pro2. Obviously there is always the analog option but I'm looking for your thoughts, recommendations, and failure experiences with digital.

-Thanks
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Jay Barracato

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2014, 07:00:58 PM »

You didn't say what type of festivals or who is doing the mixing.

If it is just you and there are no external requirements to meet (i.e. riders or visiting techs) I would consider something that can stay racked or cased with wireless access.



Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

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Jay Barracato

Garrett Trott

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2014, 07:25:25 PM »

You didn't say what type of festivals or who is doing the mixing.

If it is just you and there are no external requirements to meet (i.e. riders or visiting techs) I would consider something that can stay racked or cased with wireless access.



Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Good questions. It is mostly for a fusion of DJ's & full live acts. I need at least 48 channels of input. I do host Guest engineers form time to time but I mostly do all the FOH mixing with a various employees on monitors. It is mostly on the fly festival mixing with very little repetition throughout a festival so a lot of faders in a bank is good. I basically need to be ready for anything at any moment. Having the same console a FOH & Monitor world is a must for training reasons. Most of the riders I receive are very flexible or not specific about which console to use. Also my budget is flexible but for the sake of this post I would like to keep the price below $50,000 per console.
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Jay Barracato

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2014, 08:10:53 PM »

A while ago someone who was doing a lot of bar shows posted a photo of a plexiglass or lexan "beer" shield they built to protect their board.

I think the approach should be preventing the dust from getting into the faders rather than which ones tolerate it the best.

Maybe a more substantial foh shelter with some clear sidewalls would help as well.

Or you could consider ending the drought in California. I am sure that is not helping.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

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Jay Barracato

John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2014, 08:18:47 PM »

I don't think anybody makes hardened audio consoles (yet)  but there are surely  hardened pda/smartphones so perhaps secure the audio console inside a safe road case and drive it with a PDA that can tolerate mud.

JR
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Ivan Beaver

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2014, 09:09:16 PM »

A while ago someone who was doing a lot of bar shows posted a photo of a plexiglass or lexan "beer" shield they built to protect their board.

I think the approach should be preventing the dust from getting into the faders rather than which ones tolerate it the best.

Maybe a more substantial foh shelter with some clear sidewalls would help as well.

Or you could consider ending the drought in California. I am sure that is not helping.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
I did a festival in CA a few months ago.  There was fine dust that got EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

It was blowing all around-not just near the stage.  There was nothing you could do to keep it away from gear.

There was layer that stuck to everything.

Faders would be real problem-analog or digital.
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Doug Johnson

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2014, 09:29:07 PM »

While maybe not "pro" enough the first thing that comes to my mind would be a Midas 251 and a Behringer X32 core in a sealed ventilated rack and remote mixing.  A SAC system could be set up the same way, although it seems that people aren't quite as keen on it as they were a couple of years ago.  The Crest Tactus system might be an option as well but, I don't think it has been released yet.
Doug
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Garrett Trott

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2014, 11:43:22 PM »

I did a festival in CA a few months ago.  There was fine dust that got EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

It was blowing all around-not just near the stage.  There was nothing you could do to keep it away from gear.

There was layer that stuck to everything.

Faders would be real problem-analog or digital.

Yeah my recent travels I am referring to were in B.C. The dust was horrendous. We are also based in Oregon and do a lot of events with old volcanic dust which seems to be more of a problem then most locations. I like the idea of using a Tablet more often but this is surely not going to work for 1/2 of my acts. Obviously this is not easily done with the SC48... Ahem! Why is there not a app for Venue yet? I guess that is what you get for a windows based console. Anyway, I also usually have very nice 3 sided covered FOH situations. This dust comes usually from 1000's of people dancing for very long scheduling. It is at times unavoidable. Thanks for the suggestions guys. It seems like if there was an easy solution I would have found it by now.
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Garrett Trott

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2014, 11:59:06 PM »

While maybe not "pro" enough the first thing that comes to my mind would be a Midas 251 and a Behringer X32 core in a sealed ventilated rack and remote mixing.  A SAC system could be set up the same way, although it seems that people aren't quite as keen on it as they were a couple of years ago.  The Crest Tactus system might be an option as well but, I don't think it has been released yet.
Doug

The Crest Tactus seems like a move in the right direction. Remote mixing sounds like a good idea too. doing away with exposed faders and using touchscreens seems like the best option. Thanks for the suggestions Doug.
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2014, 02:27:01 AM »

The Crest Tactus seems like a move in the right direction. Remote mixing sounds like a good idea too. doing away with exposed faders and using touchscreens seems like the best option. Thanks for the suggestions Doug.

One of the reasons we purchased an X32 is to consider it a 'consumable' on shows where we really, really don't want to take a higher priced desk and there is no rider to meet.  We can replace an X32 for less than the cost of replacing faders on an M7.

I think touch screen mixing, either large surface or tablet, is still a work in progress.  Being a Ye Olde Analogue Luddite, I miss having some kind of tactile response - the pressure of my finger on a fader cap or turning a rotary control between my thumb and forefinger - and while I don't expect a glass top to imitate those sensations I'm hoping that there will be some uniformity in how on-screen controls react to touch and what kind of feedback they give the user.  I think it will get there; it's a matter of time.

Those niceties out of the way, the environmentally vulnerable points of a conventional digital mixer are pretty much the same as analog consoles: the linear faders, push buttons and rotary controls.  With digital mixers there are typically fewer of each to replace but failures have a greater impact.
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Re: Who makes the most rugged digital consoles?
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2014, 02:27:01 AM »


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