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Author Topic: Current Digital console list  (Read 30740 times)

Samuel Rees

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Current Digital console list
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2014, 02:27:43 PM »

I agree. Btw - you talked about the SC48 like its a recording desk. It's not. Most digital desks have similar recording functions built in or available as an option.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2014, 02:30:54 PM by Samuel Rees »
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Jeff Carter

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #11 on: April 22, 2014, 02:32:46 PM »

Excellent, could you both reply with the model numbers and possibly street or MSRP pricing, I'm not really familiar with either soundcraft or A&H lines currently. I'll google and add street prices to my original post when I get home.

Have a look through both companies' offerings and decide how many faders and I/O boxes you want. Sweetwater lists prices on both so that should get you in the ballpark for pricing.
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Rob Spence

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #12 on: April 22, 2014, 02:36:36 PM »

In the requirements the OP should consider if a remote stage box is
A) required or
B) a desired option

And, does he care about the network connection from the desk to stage? MADI, Dante, D-Snake....

Minor topic swerve but...

Speaking of Soundcraft.
I thought I remembered reading that Soundcraft was doing a Dante stage box ( or was that after too much bourbon)?


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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2014, 02:39:21 PM »

Richard, sorry.. but I have to wholeheartedly DISAGREE!!
Why BUY a Mercedes when you can get the job done with a Ford equivalent with no loss of income, less capital outlay and faster/quicker ROI?  It makes no economic sense to buy the Merc - if you indeed view it as an income generator.

If you are looking at new consoles then you probably already know what clients need what, what potential clients MIGHT need, what kind of business you are targeting and THUS, what kind of booking rates you are likely to get in your area.

In other words, all of the above should give you some idea of your BUDGET. That will automagically narrow your choices down from an Avid D-show down to a QU24 (or equivalent) or leave you in the D-Show range. In which case you won't need to look at a QU-24.

The bolded text, expanded upon for Richard:  if you or your crew are the sole operators of the system/mixer then buy whatever trips your trigger, subject to your ROI expectations; if you supply mixers or systems to be run by Band Engineers or other 3rd parties, you should own whatever they request most often (or reasonable substitutes).

Presuming you know what your clients need/expect/want, it's a matter of finding the product(s) that fit the budget or meet ROI expectations before reaching obsolescence and are hopefully fun to use during their market lifetime.

The other thing that comes to my mind is to not have a primary console that is of significantly lesser or greater stature than the rest of the system.  If you've got Macke Thud® for speakers there's little point to considering an AVID Venue series or DiGiCo SD.
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Bob Leonard

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #14 on: April 22, 2014, 04:17:28 PM »

Richard,

Pick one.

$3,000 - $10,000

$10,000 - $50,000

$50,000 - $200,000

$200,000 - $500,000
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Richard Turner

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #15 on: April 22, 2014, 05:33:15 PM »

Richard,

Pick one.

$3,000 - $10,000

$10,000 - $50,000

$50,000 - $200,000

$200,000 - $500,000

probably looking at 2

one in the <10k system price range, cased with snake and possibly another in the sub 40k, again system complete cased with snake system or it could be 2 of the lower end ones or maybe none and I'll just keep on keepin on with the analog stuff thats bough paid for and adequately routes input signal to the outputs.

It used to be that one would buy a piece and it would be reliable, heck theres still a Crest GT 32-8 console here I think original invoice was about 30k cased plus outboard.....in 1995 but would it even get an offer if put up for sale these days? I dont even know if itssale would cover the cost of an ipad

I enjoy this forum but it seems to go off the rails quickly with A level guys and dj guys with 2 peavey sp5 chirping in on the same subjects at the same time. I'm going to go back up to the top and edit my original list and post to add the other brands/ models in and if anyone has something helpful to ad please do.

I think fader count on the console surface, channel count natively,digital snake yes or no,channel count with digital snake system  as well as price point would be useable comparison points.

I'm basically out in points beyond, theres 2 sc48 owned locally, one mobile one installed, one M7CL a few small presonus and possibly 2 x32. All save the yamaha which is in a theatre are owned by folks who would see my going digital as a big shot across the bow so I can't see them being overly helpful with a demo or info. I'd be looking at 14-20 hour trip just to go visit a dealers warehouse for a viewing on anything other than presonus or behringer.

I'm in no rush to make a decision but would like to make an informed decision when I do go to make one. I has ASSumed that by posting this in the LAB Lounge it was for things related to mid level operators where anything over $30k on a piece of gear would be regarded as a major purchase.

Also by asking about how long ago the console release date was that would correlate into how many units might be floating around in the secondary market as well as later costs involved regarding vendors who do major software updates that are not included free for secondary owners.


At this time I am only considering hardware based systems, so the Waves system (forget the models) AVID S3L and behringer rack thing are likely off the list.

I'll use the car shopping analogy again, last time I looked for a general use car I had many many brochures, some were tossed out right away but the BMW 3 base sedan and Mercedes 3 series base sedan were on the list long after the kia, chev, ford were crossed off. In the end the purchase ended up being a 15 year old dodge neon that had been genuinely little old lady driven 60k (4000mi/yr)  rust checked every fall and only needed a pair of struts and brake shoes for $500 roadside 4 years later and it shows no signs of quitting. It gets the job done just as well as a shiney new toy would have

As for the mercedes vs ford truck.I'm more familiar with tractors. One time another family member was looking for something in the 100hp range, had literature from catepillar, case, massey, new holland, valtra, landini,deutz-allis initial cost was only a factor, common service parts, dealer labor rates, and especially at $5.50+ a gallon fuel that was a major concern, in the end a 90hp Valtra won out as it punches above its with a high torque engine and matched multi speed transmission and about 2/3 fuel compared to a deer john and no one here had ever really heard of the brand let alone seen one
« Last Edit: April 22, 2014, 05:44:41 PM by Richard Turner »
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jasonfinnigan

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #16 on: April 22, 2014, 07:00:46 PM »

Waves can be patched into almost any digital board. All it needs is some sort of digital IO to the host computer. Yes, some of the Digico Consoles have waves built-in but they are most certainly not near the Sub 10k price point.

for a Sub 10k price point the X32 is hard to beat. There are some other offerings from Roland, Presouns, Allen&Heath and Soundcraft but those while in the same price point don't really have a very intuitive user interface. There is also a few of the Midas Pro Series in the Sub 10k range but don't buy them unless you like mixing with pop groups - I don't but many do.  there is also the Midas M32 which will be out at the end of the month to consider.

Personally I'd say unless it's in a installed situation, scratch the LS9 off your list. for one it's old, but mainly in festival/multiband environments you will hate it. The M7CL can be had used if you really want the LS9, and you probably like it better.
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Scott Bolt

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #17 on: April 22, 2014, 08:01:42 PM »

Hi Richard,

I can only comment on the <5K digital mixers that I have experience with.

The X32 and M32 are cut from the same cloth ..... as odd as that may seem.  The M32 has true MIDAS pre's, MIDAS faders (tested to 1,000,000 operations vs the X32's 300,000), a better warranty than the X32 and a MIDAS case.  Aside from these differences, they operate exactly the same, and have the same suite of applications which support them (Android app, iPad app, iPhone app, PC, Mac and Linux apps).  These consoles also sport LCD scribble strips.  Once you have LCD scribble strips, it is hard to ever live without them again.  There are over 100,000 X32's out in the wild, but the M32 has yet to ship.

Either one will sound great and has a full complement of digital flexibility with respect to buses and routing.

I know one sound provider that has A/B'd the internal plate reverb on the X32 with his >$3000 Eventide and considers them to be too close to differentiate when setup well.

I also wouldn't dismiss having an X32 Rack as a backup and stage box (ie it can be used essentially as a stage box for a full X32 and yet be considered a backup mixer in case someone drops a telephone pole on your full sized X32).

The Qu 16 and 24 mixers are solid mixers, but lie more in the "Digi-log" category ..... or in other words, they are digital mixers who are trying to be as much like an analog mixer as possible.  They have less flexibility than the X32/M32 (no DCA's, no matrix mixes, less flexible routing, etc, etc).  They are very competent mixers with great sound.  The channel VU meters are only 3 LED's which seems pitiful to me personally.  There are lots of these out there (no where near as many as the X32), but the QU-24 is relatively new.  The Qu-16 has been out for about 1.5 years IIRC.

The Soundcraft Expression SI 1,2,3, has the distinction in this group of being able to expand to 66 channel mixing .... which I believe can be 66 XLR inputs with the right combination of stage boxes (someone correct me if I am wrong).  This is also the only mixer in this group that can't do multi-track recording without an expansion card (add $400.00)  This is also an outstanding mixer with regards to sound quality.  There are quite a few of these out there and they were released about 2 years ago IIRC.

I would not recommend the Presonus boards as they lack motorized faders (which at a minimum means if you use a remote app to adjust something, it isn't reflected on the console), and lack recallable / remote gains.  They are also very limited in the number of mix buses compared to other offerings mentioned here.
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andy craig

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #18 on: April 23, 2014, 03:04:30 AM »



I know one sound provider that has A/B'd the internal plate reverb on the X32 with his >$3000 Eventide and considers them to be too close to differentiate

Hi Scott. What model Eventide was used for the comparison?

Cheers,
Andy
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Peter Morris

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Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #19 on: April 23, 2014, 09:38:26 AM »

probably looking at 2

one in the <10k system price range, cased with snake and possibly another in the sub 40k, again system complete cased with snake system or it could be 2 of the lower end ones or maybe none and I'll just keep on keepin on with the analog stuff thats bough paid for and adequately routes input signal to the outputs.


In the less than 40k price range I would buy a Pro2, it comes with a case and snake. An SC48 is also looks good but Avid's recent financial situations worries me. Yamaha ... don't know. The initial price of the CL5 was too high and now Yamaha is playing catch up. My market hasn't really embraced the new Yamaha's but your market maybe different.

In the less than 10k price range I would buy a GL80. If I owned a Pro2 I would probably favour an M32. I believe you can mix and match the AES50 Midas stage boxes.

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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Current Digital console list
« Reply #19 on: April 23, 2014, 09:38:26 AM »


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