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[Tim McCulloch]

I've never actually touched an S6L, but my recollection is that the integration between the console and plugins (both Waves and native?) is pretty tight. For a while DiGiCo attempted to do something similar (i.e. Waves plugin UIs running on the console itself) but gave up after a while in favour of some level of communication between the console an Mutli/SuperRack running on a separate computer, which is functional but a bit clunky.

-Russ

I've touched an S6L.  Once I located the controls I needed to use and sorted out Das Blinken Litez it wasn't bad, but I didn't have the time to "learn" the desk before the support act's sound check.  For starting the set as a glorified fader pusher on my part the mix sounded okay.  I liked the subjective sound of the desk.  The channel strip EQs responded much like the Profile but sounded 'cleaner' for lack of a better word.  Channel strip compressors also.  I'd like to spend some quality time with it.

Is it walk up friendly?  For mixing 24 inputs to L/R, for an opening act I'll never see again?  Sure.  If I'd had to do any serious configuration from scratch, then no, but none of the sophisticated digital mixers are particularly friendly in this way.

For me I'd say my experience was one of lacking 'muscle memory' for control locations that I found most frustrating, but the UI was sufficiently "Profile" that felt familiar, at least on-screen.  Anyone without Profile experience would have a different impression, as I find myself with the Many Models of DigiCo.

[Helge A Bentsen]

I know a couple of people who work on S6L, they say that it's firstly the consoles snapshot/snapshot history function that makes it work for them.
Secondly they're 50/50 on plugin/Pro Tools integration.

What I will say, having delivered PA for a few S6Ls is that they sound good.
You still need a competent operator, but what I often get out of these into the drive rack is usually both good quality mixes and good quality on simple source material. It could be a simple coincidence since in my marked you'll usually have to buy your own S6L if you need one, I know of 2 production houses in the whole country that has them in stock....

[[email protected]]

I have many reasons why I pick S6L over any console, especially when show gets more complicated.

As a FoH console:

I love the plug-in integration (both native and Waves) combined with the very "open sounding" preamps. It also gives possibility to create a surface to match your exact needs and oh man I love the Events function. As an example I have an event that uses the color button on bottom of snare channel to record the tap tempo from it.

While it lacks a bit on Snapshot side compared to DiGiCo, it still has by far the second best snapshot capabilities I've encountered. Only thing I miss from DiGiCo is x-fade on EQs between snapshots.

Also the easiness of virtual soundcheck is one thing I like. I don't need to have any additional equipment (MADI interfaces etc.) or licences (DVS etc.). I only need a MacBook with ProTools (or any other DAW), and PT licence is provided with S6L.

The only HW you need to buy on top of SSD is if you're using newer MacBook the USB-C -> TB2 adapter and TB2 -> RJ45 adapter, because AVB in Mac needs TB2 as pipeline.

As a monitor console:

All the above +

Easiness of doing "musician based" presets for monitoring. So i.e if I have a show where artists are changing, I don't have to recall the whole show (and loose level changes etc. that I might have done in previous show to other), but I can simply recall setups and setting for just that one artist who has changed. All the other would have the exact same setting as they used to have on last show.
And the other way around also, all the other will have the setups per changing artists (i.e if the level is totally different or EQing or something else, I don't have to redial everything, I just load the setup for those changes).

The other thing I love as monitor engineer is the matrix mixer combined with really low latency. There are multiple scenarios where I have things going thru matrix to make i.e my (and backliners') CUEs having always those TB's that are needed on. I usually have in my CUE all the TB's so musicians can ask changes to their mixes without moving from stage. For gtr tech I only feed guitarists TB + maybe mine and FoH + tuning pedal..., drum tech gets drummers TB etc. while having the same mix as the artist is having as a base for their fine tuned ones.
Basically I can make a mix for all the crew that includes any mix they want + extras without the need to make the mix from scratch for them.

Also the possibility to feed Aux to another Aux is nice. I can make a "basic" mix on i.e horns, or drms which I will feed to other Auxes, so that there would be a basics in place. Makes changes like "could I get a little more of drums in my mix" easier when you just add the aux that has the pre-done drums mix in it, instead of adding all the channel a notch (or more).

As an example I made this summer a TV-show's (sing contest) monitors, for both band and contestants. We ended up with 18x stereo IEM, 5x mono wedge and 2x stereo wedge (contestants were on stereo wedges and there were 2 pairs, as they had a "battle" also, band was on IEM's and other show aspects (mid show during competition breaks) was mixed IEM and wedges. The total input count went to 97ch + 14 TB's (I just ran out of switch mics and therefore had one TB for some "clear groups" like strings, horns etc.)

And of course, between the 4 days, I had 2 different bass players, 2 different trumpet players and 2 different accordion players, changing shifts back and forth...

Although I'm pretty familiar with Yamaha and DiGiCo as well, I would not have been able to do that show in same time with those. I could have done it yes (in case of Yamaha with Rivage), but I would have needed to push those more.

So you asked why S6L, that's a brief reasoning from my side. This is not a comprehensive list and yes, you could do most of the monitor stuff (or with forcing all) with Yamaha and DiGiCo, but it is just so easy with S6L. What comes to FoH I really haven't found a good alternative for most of the stuff I do on Events, in any other console. For sure they have macros etc. but those can not be used in a same with with same results.

Br,
-Minka-

[Tim Halligan]

...combined with the very "open sounding" preamps.

I was talking to an FOH engineer who was touring through my city and he mentioned that he had transitioned from a Profile to the S6L, and he said it was like lifting a blanket off the sound, and he'd be very disappointed if he had to go back to using a Profile.

Cheers,
Tim

[Andrew Broughton]

Thank you, Minka. This is the sort of stuff I'm interested in learning about, hopefully others will chime in with what they love about the S6L. I appreciate you putting together that list.

So far I don't see anything on your list that cannot be done with other consoles, and I know of several things that cannot be done on the S6L or are much harder to do on the S6L, (mostly having to do with throw-and-go scenarios), but I will wait and see if there's other things that people like about the S6L that might make them more useful than other consoles in that price range before I go into that.

Cheers!

[Dave Pluke]

... and 2 different accordion players...

  Isn't ONE accordion player bad enough  ?

Thanks, Minka! I found your detailed examples helpful.

Dave

[Russell Ault]

{...} (mostly having to do with throw-and-go scenarios) {...}

Isn't this sort of a "horses for courses" situation, though? I'm sure the S6L's "first-use time from power-on to passing audio" isn't great, but it can't be much worse than an SD-series, can it? I mean, neither are consoles I'd want to walk up to day-of still in factory defaults (and I've spent quite a bit of time on the SD-seires).

-Russ

[Tim McCulloch]

Isn't this sort of a "horses for courses" situation, though? I'm sure the S6L's "first-use time from power-on to passing audio" isn't great, but it can't be much worse than an SD-series, can it? I mean, neither are consoles I'd want to walk up to day-of still in factory defaults (and I've spent quite a bit of time on the SD-seires).

-Russ

Pretty much my take, Russell.  Not sure why Andy has some kind of problem with Avid other than he doesn't spend enough time on the desk - much of why I dislike DigiCo SD and Midas - if you don't use them to the near exclusion of others, you'll never master them.

Expecting mastery in Andy's "throw and go" scenario with zero prior time on the desk is a false goal, IMHO, or one needs to limit expectations to "hey, this mix sounds decent considering I've never use Desk XYZ before.."

Little story, told here several years ago... three acts, our Profile (I think; might have been one of the last shows for our M7) for one support, SD10 for headline, and the other desk I can't recall now.  The BE on our desk had the best mix of the night, and he'd NEVER USED A DIGITAL MIXER of any brand BEFORE.

So Andy B, what's up with your dislike of the S6L?

[[email protected]]

Thank you, Minka. This is the sort of stuff I'm interested in learning about, hopefully others will chime in with what they love about the S6L. I appreciate you putting together that list.

So far I don't see anything on your list that cannot be done with other consoles, and I know of several things that cannot be done on the S6L or are much harder to do on the S6L, (mostly having to do with throw-and-go scenarios), but I will wait and see if there's other things that people like about the S6L that might make them more useful than other consoles in that price range before I go into that.

Cheers!

Yes, pretty much all the things you need can be achieved with most of the higher end consoles.
And almost all the things I mentioned and love can be done on DiGiCo also (monitoring presets etc.)
Events are one thing that other consoles can't do. Or let put it this way, there are macros etc. on other consoles, but the level and depth of possibilities to control console thru events is something totally different than any other console.

As in FoH:
You can get tap tempo from any channel, you can get other things happening when you do something (like I have an event where pushing lead gtr (3ch altogether, 1st line and 1 mic) VCA fader to defined value, or above, changes the pan to middle and simultaneously cuts mids of the keys, making room in the mix for gtr solo.
Just a few to mention. In my showfile I have 100+ events doing different things. All of course something you could do directly also, but events are just making is a lot easier.

As MON:
The same thing. I have events to mute/unmute/set level etc. based on different scenarios. Fo my basic monitor file I have some 50+ events, although I found myself more and more in FoH now...

Let me know what are the things you are referring as "can't be done" or "are much harder" on S6L? And to what console you are comparing it to?

Br,
-Minka-

[John Hiemburg]

You can get tap tempo from any channel, you can get other things happening when you do something (like I have an event where pushing lead gtr (3ch altogether, 1st line and 1 mic) VCA fader to defined value, or above, changes the pan to middle and simultaneously cuts mids of the keys, making room in the mix for gtr solo.

I must say, that is some very fancy stuff that sounds like it could be an incredible help if done right and thoughtfully, especially in an install. I can think of a large church install (A&H dLive) where some of the problems could be solved by (or solved much easier) by this kind of tool.

[ProSoundWeb Community]