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Author Topic: Digico S21/S31  (Read 23449 times)

Ryan McLeod

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Digico S21/S31
« on: July 18, 2017, 10:56:31 PM »

I'm interested in the opinions of owner/users of the Digico S21 & S31 consoles?

Do you also use a D-Rack or D2-Rack?

What do you like, what do you dislike, and is there anything you wish someone had told you before you made the purchase?

TIA.
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Greg Bellotte

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2017, 11:30:09 AM »

I have a S21 and am very happy with it. Easy to use, great sound, so far no issues whatsoever. I have a Dante card and Madi BNC card in the slots, and also use DirectOut Andiamos on the other end of the Madi. I really like the size/weight of this unit, travels well.

I had one of the first units, and there were some glaring omissions in functionality out of the gate. Digico has addressed most if not all of these. The only thing I really want at this point is offline software so I can build a show before I get to the hardware. I'm sure they will release this at some point, but yesterday would have been ok with me :-)
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eytan gidron

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2017, 11:53:46 AM »

I have a Dante card and Madi BNC card in the slots, and also use DirectOut Andiamos on the other end of the Madi.

Which Andiamo unit are you using, and why are you not using one of the Digico racks?
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Greg Bellotte

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2017, 01:28:22 PM »

We have the original andiamo, the andiamo2, and andiamo 2.ad/2.da units. We also use ferrofish a32 dante. Many times i'm taking an existing MADI feed and have no need for an interface at all on the other end. The D.O. units are great general purpose interfaces we use in many situations other than the S21 so it's gear we already have. Also, we do broadcast, not music, so the typical stage setup is not relevant to our events. It is not uncommon to have need for more outputs than inputs. The digico racks don't accommodate that scenario and are just not as cost effective for us.

Additionally, we use fiber exclusively between the console and other end. Distances between the two have run up to 10,000 feet. MADI and Dante are very easily adapted to fiber, and the ST/singlemode connectivity we and the other entities we interface with have standardized on.
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Art Nadelman

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2017, 04:25:35 PM »

I can tell you why I DIDN'T buy it.  I couldn't stand that the different fader banks were not independent of each other.  If you want to be on layer 2 of bank 1, you go to layer 2 on bank 1 AND bank 2.  That was a huge oversight as far as I'm concerned.

Happy I went with the dLive instead.
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Peter Morris

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2017, 09:38:45 AM »

I can tell you why I DIDN'T buy it.  I couldn't stand that the different fader banks were not independent of each other.  If you want to be on layer 2 of bank 1, you go to layer 2 on bank 1 AND bank 2.  That was a huge oversight as far as I'm concerned.

Happy I went with the dLive instead.

I really liked the S21 & 31 but I'm not sure it fair to compare them to the dLive ... if you check out the spec's the dLIve is slightly more powerful than an SD10!
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Art Nadelman

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2017, 11:13:21 AM »

I really liked the S21 & 31 but I'm not sure it fair to compare them to the dLive ... if you check out the spec's the dLIve is slightly more powerful than an SD10!

Well then, compare it to the less expensive GLD's.  They, too, have separate banks for their layers.  And sound great, as well.
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Michael Thompson

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2017, 01:57:10 AM »

I'm interested in the opinions of owner/users of the Digico S21 & S31 consoles?

Do you also use a D-Rack or D2-Rack?

What do you like, what do you dislike, and is there anything you wish someone had told you before you made the purchase?

TIA.

I've got the S21 and a D-rack, though I wish I had gotten the D2.  The sound quality is great.  On corporate shows, I wish it had an auto-mixer built in.  I often use waves via it's built in UB-Madi (USB) interface, which has been a great feature.  For festivals I wish I had the S31, just because more faders on top is faster when you have 16 bars to get it roughed in.  It makes a nice FOH console but a lousy monitor console due to it only showing so many aux sends without scrolling and the way you access sends on faders.  I wish they would add a post fader insert point.  The ipad app and it's implementation is way behind the curve and there is no midi or OSC control.  On the bright side software updates are consistently scheduled and each one makes it better and better.  Channels don't get eaten up with stereo sources (flexi-inputs).It's a digico that is super intuitive.  It's wonderfully easy to make patch changes and move faders to different layers etc.  It provides more information about more channels than anything I'm aware of at it's price point.  It's been absolutely rock solid, which is more than I can say for some other consoles I've owned.
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eytan gidron

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2017, 10:31:53 AM »

I'm interested in the opinions of owner/users of the Digico S21 & S31 consoles?

Do you also use a D-Rack or D2-Rack?

The surface has 24 high quality mic inputs and 12 line outputs. So, if for budget reasons you go for the D-Rack, you have access to 56 inputs and 28 outputs (if you use an analog snake).

I've got the S21 and a D-rack, though I wish I had gotten the D2.  The sound quality is great.  On corporate shows, I wish it had an auto-mixer built in.  I often use waves via it's built in UB-Madi (USB) interface, which has been a great feature.  For festivals I wish I had the S31, just because more faders on top is faster when you have 16 bars to get it roughed in.  It makes a nice FOH console but a lousy monitor console due to it only showing so many aux sends without scrolling and the way you access sends on faders.  I wish they would add a post fader insert point.  The ipad app and it's implementation is way behind the curve and there is no midi or OSC control.  On the bright side software updates are consistently scheduled and each one makes it better and better.  Channels don't get eaten up with stereo sources (flexi-inputs).It's a digico that is super intuitive.  It's wonderfully easy to make patch changes and move faders to different layers etc.  It provides more information about more channels than anything I'm aware of at it's price point.  It's been absolutely rock solid, which is more than I can say for some other consoles I've owned.

Regarding the auto mixer for corporate shows, if you already use the UB-Madi for Waves plug ins you can use the Waves Dugan auto mixer.

Regarding using it as a monitor console, are you familiar with the Aux Panel (its one of the macros)? With this panel you can instantly and easily access any aux send in "aux to faders" mode without the need to scroll the auxes.

To have post faders insert point, you can always send your channels to groups and/or matrixes and use their inserts to acheive this, of course this is not an ideal solution but its a workaround. I'm not sure that you can route matrixes to the main L/R master, I will have to check this out when I'm at the console.

What don't you like about the iPad app?
« Last Edit: July 22, 2017, 10:38:07 AM by eytan gidron »
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Michael Thompson

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Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2017, 12:14:50 PM »

The surface has 24 high quality mic inputs and 12 line outputs. So, if for budget reasons you go for the D-Rack, you have access to 56 inputs and 28 outputs (if you use an analog snake).

Regarding the auto mixer for corporate shows, if you already use the UB-Madi for Waves plug ins you can use the Waves Dugan auto mixer.

Regarding using it as a monitor console, are you familiar with the Aux Panel (its one of the macros)? With this panel you can instantly and easily access any aux send in "aux to faders" mode without the need to scroll the auxes.

To have post faders insert point, you can always send your channels to groups and/or matrixes and use their inserts to acheive this, of course this is not an ideal solution but its a workaround. I'm not sure that you can route matrixes to the main L/R master, I will have to check this out when I'm at the console.

What don't you like about the iPad app?

Yes you can get to that many channels, but you drop to 28 from the D-rack if you want to keep things running at 96k.  That isn't so much of an issue when using the UB-Madi because that re-clocks everything to 48k.  Which is another annoying point since part of the appeal to me was 96k.

I do use Waves Dugan.  In fact I use it not only as an auto mixer, but I often use waves as a place to make scenes and recall them via qLab for theatrical shows.  Most of them are pushing in excess of 32 channels through the UB-Madi.  Many lesser mixers are providing at least 8 channels of automixing built in.  Of those the X32/m32 implementation is terrible, the Qu is ok and I actually think the TF is the best of the budget implementations.  I think the waves version responds better, but the point is all of these lesser mixers include it while the S21/31 do not.  Or at least not yet.

Yes, I am aware of at least three ways to access sends of faders for the auxes.  None that I'm aware of are as fast as a soundcraft si or various yamaha boards.  It might be neat to have Monitor console mode that actually changes the layout of the screens (hint).

Using groups to get post fade insets is certainly a work around but, it doesn't help at all if you need more than you have groups :)

The ipad app does not jive with the look and feel of the consoles.  The EQ is well implemented and is but the compressors/gates are not.  Same with the FX.  All the nice visuals that you get on the console are gone on the ipad and you just have some plain knobs.  My biggest gripe though is that it's fixed IP only, you have to tell both the ipad and the console which address one another are on AND you can only connect one ipad at a time.  I don't think I need to go any further at this time.

To those of you that might think I'm bashing the little digico...well I am, a little bit, but despite it's flaws I do still like using it more than anything else in or near it's price range.  It's supposedly got room to grow so I just hope digico keeps on making it better.  The last update added some good stuff including upping it to 48 channels.  Just keep them coming digico!



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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Digico S21/S31
« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2017, 12:14:50 PM »


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