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[Adrian Goodall]

Hi there,
I'm at a Baptist Chuch in Surrey, England and we're loking to replace and old Soundcraft Live 8 mixing desk with a new digital one but we're not sure what to go for.
I head up the sound team. At work (Salvation Army Traing College) I use a Yamaha LS9. However I don't find that very user friendly. All the team are volunteers so we need a desk that is easy to go from analogue to Digital. Our Budget is up to £4,000.
I've looked at the Soundcraft SI Impact but that doesn't seem to have a simple way to save the settings although I liked everything else about it. I've also looked at the Allen & Heath GLD-80 and that looks very good. However will it be intuitive for older people (40's and 50's) who have never used digital desks?
We need a desk that can handle up to 32 inputs, have gated mic options for the drums, easy to use and be able to save 10 scenes or more.

I admit that I'm out of my depth in this area so would welcome any suggestons.

All the best,

Adrian.

[Mike Caldwell]

Look at the Allen Heath Qu32

[Stephen Swaffer]

I would second Mike's recommendation.  We did just that a bit over a year ago-went from an A&H GL3800 to the QU-32.  Both myself and the guy that does most of the mixing are in our 50's-I was 49 at the time and the transition was as seemless as you could ask for (though I take exception to 40's and 50's being considered "older"!)

The 32 has 32 inputs, of course, 100 scenes.

[Mike Caldwell]

I would second Mike's recommendation.  We did just that a bit over a year ago-went from an A&H GL3800 to the QU-32.  Both myself and the guy that does most of the mixing are in our 50's-I was 49 at the time and the transition was as seemless as you could ask for (though I take exception to 40's and 50's being considered "older"!)

The 32 has 32 inputs, of course, 100 scenes.

Yes 32 actual mic inputs plus three stereo line inputs, I'm surprised they didn't call it a 38 input put mixer!
I'm 55!!!

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Hi there,
I'm at a Baptist Chuch in Surrey, England and we're loking to replace and old Soundcraft Live 8 mixing desk with a new digital one but we're not sure what to go for.
I head up the sound team. At work (Salvation Army Traing College) I use a Yamaha LS9. However I don't find that very user friendly. All the team are volunteers so we need a desk that is easy to go from analogue to Digital. Our Budget is up to £4,000.
I've looked at the Soundcraft SI Impact but that doesn't seem to have a simple way to save the settings although I liked everything else about it. I've also looked at the Allen & Heath GLD-80 and that looks very good. However will it be intuitive for older people (40's and 50's) who have never used digital desks?
We need a desk that can handle up to 32 inputs, have gated mic options for the drums, easy to use and be able to save 10 scenes or more.

I admit that I'm out of my depth in this area so would welcome any suggestons.

All the best,

Adrian.

Most of the work of any digital board is the initial setup - routing, effects, channel labeling, etc. Once that's done, a board like the Qu or GLD is in most ways easier to use than analog.

The GLD series is better for changing setups than the Qu series and can handle more IO - especially outputs, but if you don't need those things, the Qu series is very functional.

[John Rutirasiri]

Roland's line of REAC-based mixers is quite popular in the UK from what my rep tells me, with great support base.  At my shop we have several M200i and M480 and close to a dozen of the snake boxes. 

They have not let us down in 6 years of service.  Reliable and easy-to-use, almost like an analog mixer.  Hard to clip the mic inputs.  All the snakes run at 96KHz if the console supports 96KHz (such as the M5000, a monster board.)  The REAC protocol is robust and will run over PoE mid-spans -- great for extending the 100 meter ethernet limit without having to convert to fibre.

We do all kinds of events with them: indoor corporate talking heads, outdoor festivals in the summer sun, and have installed them in churches and schools.  The factory support (for a dealer anyway) is fantastic.

Ask your local dealer to bring out and set up a demo unit (and leave it for a couple of weeks), so you can test-drive the board/snake running an event.  IMO using a board in a live show is the proper way to get the "feel" of it.  The mixers will likely get updated by Roland soon...you might be able to get a good deal, and B and C stock (demo) units will become available. 

Good luck,
John R.

[Mike Shand]

Hi Adrian,
I'm also at a church in Surrey (Oxshott) and have been running a GLD80 for the last 2 1/2 years, having replaced an AH GL2400. We find it excellent, and have it configured with a very simple layout for speech only operators who  basically just ride faders, and another more complex one for use with the band. We have an AR2412 on the "stage". You would be very welcome to come and take a look sometime if you are local.

The advantage of the GLD over the QU is that it is more configurable, but it IS significantly more expensive, especially if you plan to use existing analogue snake with the QU rather than an AR2412. ANd the GLD does seem to have reached the status of a "mature" product according to AH, which in practice means we can't expect any further functionality upgrades. THe one thing that it is missing, IMHO, is the ability to side chain gates and compressors from other channels.

MIke

[Adrian Goodall]

Hi there,

Thanks for all off your inputs to my question.
I'm looking at the QU series and I'll pop along to Mike's church in Oxshott which is just down the road from me to see his set-up. I'll check out the  REAC misers too.
I've then got to put my choices to the leaders then for a whole church vote as that's how Baptist Churcehes work.

So I'll spend some time looking at all you've said then a talk to the elders and the other volunteers before to decide the best mixer for our needs.

Once again many thanks,

Adrian.

[Frank DeWitt]

Hi there,

So I'll spend some time looking at all you've said then a talk to the elders and the other volunteers before to decide the best mixer for our needs.

Once again many thanks,

Adrian.

When I presented a new Digital mixer to our leadership I made a Powerpoint explaining how we did a simple mixing job on our analog mixer.  I walked them through the step by step process with pictures of the mixer going from the Worship Team singing to communion, to a soloist.  Near the end of this step by step I inserted a slide that said we can do this but if we make a mistake it distracted from the whole service and people remember the mistake instead of the sermon. This slide came up upside down, Then on it's slide, and finally right side up.

We got our digital mixer.

[Chrysander 'C.R.' Young]

Frank, you are my new hero.

[ProSoundWeb Community]