Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mike Lightkep]

Hello, all.  First time back posting in quite a while.  Looking for some data and opinions for the time being.
Quick bio - I've been in the industry for over 40 years and have done pretty much everything you could do up to this point.  Been out of the tour game since the early 90's and mostly venue A1, corp. and such.
Last 2 1/2 years now also snagged a cool and ever expanding teaching gig at a local college.  Local college has a 'robust' media tech arts program with a newly opened, Storyk, (WSDG), designed and built, $2m, working recording studio as it's centerpiece. 
Our aging theater/auditorium is about to get a huge renovation to the tune of about $6m.  Our department has been given a substantial say, along with the theater and music departments in exactly what gear and other specifications should be included along with WSDG and the architects will be offering.  Our departments have quite a bit of crossover and a very cooperative spirit which will go far into making the new space all the more pleasant and usable for all involved
Whew so with that out of the way, I have been tasked with helping out with the console(s) specification.
My slight drawback, as you may guess is that my knowledge universe for contemporary, high-end consoles is pretty sparse.  I was hoping for some feedback from current users and techs who have had much more hands on and might suggest some pointers on what to look for given what our use will ultimately be.
Just so you know, a local sound company will be hosting a few bull sessions for me with some well-known desks in the next few weeks, namely an S6L, Digi SD12, a Yamaha CL5 and perhaps a PM7, due at their shop sometime in early June.
I'm not sure what the pa rig will end up being yet.  I don't believe anything is really settled yet hence the console research project here.
Any advice is appreciated.  If you have questions I will do my best to answer.  Thanks for your time.

[William Schnake]

Mike, please don't take this the wrong way.  It is my opinion that you need to define what types of events that you will be hosting.  That should help to drive what type of console that you need in order to make your job as easy as possible.  I would pick one console if I was doing theatre and musicals and probably something else if I was going to be hosting music acts, depending on the level of the act, I might pick something else all together.

As I said I am not trying to be disrespectful, just a realist.  Hope this helps.

Bill

[Mike Pyle]

Where are you located? While you are evaluating consoles take a good look at Allen & Heath dLive systems.

[Mike Lightkep]

Mike, please don't take this the wrong way.  It is my opinion that you need to define what types of events that you will be hosting.  That should help to drive what type of console that you need in order to make your job as easy as possible.  I would pick one console if I was doing theatre and musicals and probably something else if I was going to be hosting music acts, depending on the level of the act, I might pick something else all together.

As I said I am not trying to be disrespectful, just a realist.  Hope this helps.

Bill

No I know what your saying.  It's a college theater/auditorium so everything will be in play.  Theater productions, music concerts with name acts, broadcast events and naturally, your standard lecture hall style programs.  As I mentioned, not only will this be a teaching lab where multiple industry disciplines will be taught - theater, music programs, dance, acting, broadcast and live sound, (my classes) - these will all be in play in addition to the space being used year-round as a working, bookable venue.
I have been perusing these forums extensively the last week or two gathering snippets of info and opinions on various products.  I'm pretty sure that virtually any of the well-know, high end desks will do very well in our venue and I'm hoping my info quest can better prepare me for the meetings that will be taking place with the design team where gear spec'ing and suggestions will be on the table.
To date, my only experience with larger, digital desks extends primarily with PM1D/5D back in the day and the odd GLD80 and your basic X/M32 and Presonus.

[Justice C. Bigler]

The CL5 is the only one on your list that is anywhere near affordable for a college theatre program. It is also probably the best choice for novice technicians and advanced students to learn on. If they have any aspiration of trying to get into regional, or professional touring theatre, then Yamaha or Digico are the way to go.

The S6L (unless it's the very smallest one) and the SD12 and PM7 are several times more expensive than a CL5.

Have a look at THIS THREAD

A CL5 can be had for right about $24,500 and a RIO3224D can be had for around $8500 these days (I would spec two RIOs). Of course you'll need network switches, Ethernet cabling, a back up power supply, UPSs, etc...and a few other odds and ends. But hose are the big numbers.

Please post your location. There's probably somebody close that can help you spec out a system and set it up.

[Kyle Waters]

IMO and I hate to say it, you cant go wrong with a CL5. There's nothing flashy about it, it just works.  The Yamaha Centralogic layout has been around forever so most everyone can walk up to one and run it. It's dependable and has lots of input options. Not my favorite console by any means, but it's easy to wrap your head around, and like I said, it just works.

[Mike Lightkep]

Just so you know, we will have approx. $1m budget for just lighting and sound.  This is a serious project - a trickle down from an even more ambitious project that was just too much out of the scope of available grants and donations, (a full on, regional performing arts center), and the end result was approx. $6m for the complete renovation of our existing facility.  I'm pretty savvy with the costs on the gear.  I'm only looking for some field-use opinions on what other audio people think of the various products for our situation.  The more info I can gather the better then I can have more intelligent discussions with our designers on the tech itself.

[Justice C. Bigler]

While it may sound like a lot, $1 million isn't that much and doesn't go a long ways once you combine it with lighting, especially if you are buying moving lights. Those suckers are hella expensive.

Also keep in mind that about 50% of your price for the system will be eaten up by installation. Add on to that that the general contractor will add 50-100% of the price of the system and installation into their side of the budget just because they can.

So now, your $1 million budget is about $150 grand for audio.

Do you need a monitor console? Are you buying fold back speakers? Effects speakers? Wireless mics for musical theatre (need at least 24 channels of lavs or ear mics)? Play back and recording rigs? Stage coms? Wireless coms? Are you adding new back stage and lobby program feeds? Including money for your assisted listening systems? Does the power upgrades come under the audio and lighting budget? Are you absolutely sure that the audio system will have isolated grounds and neutrals?

There's a lot more to a theatre venue audio system than just the console and FOH speakers. And anywhere you can save money is a place to make sure you get full capabilities elsewhere.

You might even look at the QL5 console. The same inetrface as the CL5, but a lower price point.

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

As much as I dislike the console I would have to agree with everyone on the CL5. It's a easy to use well known console, if your budget is higher a PM10 maybe, not sure how far out that is but if a S6L is an option I'm guessing the PM10 will be in the same range.

I would agree with the DLive, but for students needing to learn to work on it and adding to that needing to meet riders I think that the Yamaha products are probably a step in the right direction.

Also look at what Justice said about everything else. Decent wireless mic systems are reasonably expensive and I would much rather spend the money on some decent mics and live with a CL5 rather than having an S6L and needing to deal with lower quality mics.

If you have extremely technical theatrical productions then maybe don't discount the Digico, apparently they are quite good in that field but I've never used on for theatre so that's hearsay.

[Helge A Bentsen]

The sensible thing to do now if you want bang for the bucks is:

Midas Pro2C.

You can get one now with a 48 channel stage rack included for LESS than a CL5 surface without RIOs....

[ProSoundWeb Community]