Did Bennett mention this was heavy?
I had the GB8 out on it's first two gigs with me this weekend. I'll start off with a little background. The first night we pulled this monster out was at a local ballroom for an evening of dinner and music. Attendance was around 500 people. The band was an 8 piece R&B/Soul/Rock band known for their review of Motown and rhythm and blues. I work with these guys a lot so that part was easy.
The second night was an outdoor church picnic... same band with an additional 3 piece polka band.
I normally require a full 24 mic pre's + goodies for this group. I was running a full split for monitors the first night (to road test my new split snake and EQ racks). I had the GB8 setup to run 4 FX mixes from FOH and two audience side fills on aux. The side fills were mostly used for announcements during dinner due to the configuration of the room.
I found myself very comfortable with the channel strips. The setup there is very similar to my Spirit 8 (8 group, 4 mute group, but 6 aux). I thought the faders had a bit of a "stick" to them... I'm used to a very easy sliding (dare I say "loose") fader. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but I noticed that there was less chance of me bumping a fader and moving it.
After a few puzzled stares and stumbling around I quickly got used to the layout of the master/group section. I'm always amazed how differently these sections are laid out console to console. I didn't find it confusing or anything, just "different." One feature I thought was really cool was the ability to pan a group left or right. So, if you wanted, you could set up some panning for different things but still have them in a group. My Spirit doesn't allow that. I just need to think of a way to exploit that.
OK, OK... how did it sound? Simply, great. I felt the console was transparent and the EQ did what I wanted, even with a band I work with all the time nearly exclusively on a different console. I didn't have to figure out the EQ. It pretty much just did it's job like I asked it too. It's not the most sophisticated EQ in the world. But sometimes in the combat audio world of line check only and EQ on the fly, the extra control can just get in the way.
Some general notes... I won't claim to be the most experienced person out there... but I question the market that this board will sell to. Not so much the layout/design but the channel count. Forty eight makes this thing big and heavy. I think the case had a lot to do with that however... but for something this big, a proper case is required. I can get away with a much lighter duty case for the smaller 32ch Spirit. So the weight is probably cut in half. Even though this console with 16 more channels only weighs 5 more pounds.
That brings me to another point. Sturdiness. I'm not saying the GB8 is flimsy... but I was leaning up to grab something and noticed it felt like the console flexed a bit. The metal (aluminum?) that the mixers frame is built from seems a tad thin. But hey... if it keeps down on weight then it doesn't matter that much.
A few other points...
The GRP/aux flip is a cool feature, AND according to the manual, the group inserts become aux inserts in this mode. Cool for inserting EQ into the signal chain for you monitor dudes.
However, the buttons are tiny and you need a pencil or something pointy (like a lighting tech's head) to hit them. This is probably a good thing so you don't bump them... however, I couldn't tell at first what was going on. They looked as if they were pressed in. And my fat fingers couldn't unpress them... Turns out they *weren't* pressed in and I was just being stupid.
PFL.... BIG complaint here. The PFL bus assigns to the center (C) meter to read out the currently solo'd channel. Guess what... it's hard to see in the maze of LED bars AND, the right angle lamps that were included cover it up and make it hard to see from all angles. I'm a PFL and AFL junkie so that was a big blah in my book. Most of the problem would be mitigated with a straight lamp but it's still buried in a sea of LED bars. Eh... can't win 'em all.
Pads... Someone mentioned in the chat the other night they were unhappy there were no pads. Now, so am I. I've never had a problem with any mic from any instrument clipping my Spirit 8 mic pre's. However, the drummer made quick work of this pre with his powerful right foot. Only a few times... but that was with the gain knob slammed fully CCW. Not a huge deal and it never sounded bad. And honestly, I should have a few pads in my inventory but sadly do not. I've been spoiled by my other primary console and the built in pads on my little one.
Over all it's a great board, it has been fun to work on so far, and I got A LOT of compliments on it from local musicians and the like. I made sure to let them know about the road test program and that sadly the console wasn't mine
I'm sure I've forgotten a hundred other things but I'll save them for the coming weeks as my mind (and body) recovers from this weekend. I'll have this out again in a couple of weeks at a BIG (for me) outdoor event back at the Roxbury band shell, to which you are all invited to stop by. We'll be there in full force as long as it doesn't rain or snow so much that the outdoor stage is rendered useless.
Edit: spelling.