so... I am home right now from the first Spectra gig, and I can say that I am satisfied!
there is a coverband of friends that live nearby, we made something like 60 gigs together last year, so I really know how I want it to sound in front of the PA. PA is always the same, mics are always the same, instruments, etc. everything the same
let's say I made 45 gigs out of 60 with the GL4000, and 15 with the Verona.
well, I found tonite to the best chance for the first Spectra performance.
the first word that comes out to describe the Spectra is "warm".
the overall sound was certainly louder and warmer if comparing to the GL4000, and also "different" if comparing to the Verona. please consider that I state the Verona as SLIGHTLY louder and certainly better sounding over the GL4000.
I found the Spectra EQ to be much more responsive than the GL4000, as the Verona is too, but I also found myself to use less EQ on the Spectra in general, because every channel was basically sounding good even with flat EQ.
VCAs are really cool! I never had a VCA console before... it is very confortable to actually forget about channel faders and mix the whole show with the central section only of the console! I just had the bass DI and lead vox out of VCAs, because of already single fader subsections.
I am happy of my purchase and can't wait to mix the next gig with the Spectra to further test it, both again with my coverband friends and other bands.
the only bad thing about tonight was that we forgot the Verona tilt so we had to put the Spectra onto a big table... it is heavy to lift even if 32 channels. the Verona 40 is something more but we always use the tilt. we won't forget anymore!
more to come...