What a great report, Bennett... and just in at the right time for me. I've mixed a few things here and there on a Profile, but this weekend was the first time that I mixed my regular gig on one. I have to say, it was rougher than I was expecting. It is no secret that I've been drinking the Digico kool-aid for some time now and I've done a ton of shows with my guys on various Digico consoles, along with a ton of shows on a PM5D. My goal with the Profile was to translate the way I like to mix onto this console, too. The Digicos meet all my needs and I've spent enough time on the 5D to lay it out and set things up to get pretty close... Sheldon, Robert, anyone: I'm hoping you can jump in to a few of my frustrations and maybe clue me in on ways to do the things I'm trying to do and failing at.
One of the first things that frustrated the living bejeezus out of me was the inability to move channels around easily. I found this out about a week ago when I was the A1 on a gig where the requested console was a Profile. Although it worked fine in the shop, I opened the console at the gig to find that nothing I could do would make the 10th fader work. I tried inserting a blank channel to work around this dead fader, but it messed the layout up down the line. And as is par for the course, the band showed up with a few additions and changes to their input list, so my preprogramming work needed a little update. I was also really looking for a simple and flexible insert and move channel function, but all I could figure out was it just wasn't possible.
Second, like Bennett, I was really bummed that I was unable to pair or gang adjacent channels. I have several inputs that I would like to at least be able to pair the faders without having to make those inputs into a stereo channel.
Third, like Bennett, I had issues with seeing around the knobs, especially while EQing. Additionally, I found a huge disconnect between what I was doing on the surface and the EQing that was occurring on the screen. Each time I'd look up to EQ something, I'd have to adjust my eyes to finding the frequency - the type is really small (or maybe I need to use a larger monitor!) Of lesser note, I think it'd be great if the knobs had a bit more resistance to them.
Fourth, like Bennett, I found that the desk didn't follow my button presses 100% of the time. I mix FX on sends, so I do a lot of turning that Aux on and off. I had several times the other night were I'd push the knob in to engage that channel's send and it wouldn't take. Frustrating. And back to the loose knob thing, the levels would regularly change when I'd press the knob in. Usually by just a little, sometimes by more.
Speaking of Aux Sends... is there a quick way to change a post fader send to pre fader and vice versa without clicking the PRE button on the display?
I too had an issue with faders changing position when I moved banks. It happened a couple times without me realizing immediately... once I was aware of the issue, I tried to be really conscious about not having my hands anywhere near faders when bank switching, but it still bit me in the ass a couple more times that night.
One of the layout schemes that I've always really enjoyed with Digico consoles is the ability to change banks on one section of faders without affecting others. I always like to have the same 8 channels under my right hand (vocals and a couple extras) and then use the other banks for the rest of my channels. I tried using the Bank Safe feature to keep channels 41-48 on that right bank of channels, but I found that I lost channels 17-24 in the process.
I could use a nice, full featured parametric on the outputs, too.
I had a great time with the Plug In feature of the console. I used an assortment of dynamics and EQs just to try things out and found some stuff I liked and stuff I didn't. I really missed not having the MC2000 multiband compressors on this most recent gig I did! I particularly enjoyed being able to insert a comp, a gate, and an inverted reverb onto a special channel. I think it'd be nice if we had the option to re-assign the comp metering on the channel strip to one of that channel's plug ins.
The other feature that I'm really really really excited about is virtual soundcheck. The Profile I was on had an HD rig connected and I recorded all 48 channels and took the recording home with me. My next step will be to run a virtual soundcheck in a friend's shop and tweak my settings where I'm not under the time constraints of a band soundcheck. I've got some more shows coming up on this console and I'd like the second show on this desk with my settings to sound like the 100th. If I can't get ahold of an HD rig to play the show back with, is it possible to use this feature with a 3rd party multi-track playback system and assumedly come straight into the preamps? (I'm guessing no)