Well,
I got to take my first spin on the MH2. Up at the State Theater we had the Bob Mintzer Big Band on President's Day. Bob Minzter is a jazz saxophonist who arranges and composes songs with a modern big band sound.
The band was a 16 piece and consisted of a pretty standard sax/brass section (2 alto sax, 2 tenor, bari, 3 trombone, 1 bass trombone, 4 trumpets), upright Bass, Piano, and a full kit.
At 28 channels the MH2 made quick work of this. I found the console easy to get around on, though the master section is a bit crammed. The printed VCA assign and mute group instructions were a help. It was my first time mixing on a VCA desk (though, I had used programmable mute groups before on theater type consoles. I was able to quickly set up my VCA groups and mute groups with no problems. The instructions are clear and to the point.
I love the feel of the console. The aux send knobs are a little on the small side, but given the feature set packed in to that size of space, I can't really complain. As Jim mentioned it is built well. Seemingly much better so than the GB8.
One complaint about color schemes. The top of the EQ and aux knobs are one color, and the hash indicating where the knob is pointing is somewhat small. The GB8 had a grey/white marker where knob was pointed. That helped visibility a ton! I wish the MH2 knobs were as visible.
Here's something else that is interesting. The solo buttons illuminate a blue LED when they are on. I haven't worked on any high dollar desks, but that is a first for me. Blue. And I really really like it. It stands out so well, I never forget to turn off the solo when I'm done. So many times I go to solo something else and I hear two things in my cans and I'm wondering what's going on. Only to discover, I had left another channel soloed. The blue master Solo LED really calls attention to that.
How did it sound? Pretty wonderful actually. This console worked very well with the program material and I had what seemed like gobs of headroom in the mic preamps. Even the most delicate, low volume, and expressive solos were not lost in the noise floor of a very quiet theater.
I really enjoyed myself mixing on this desk and would do so in a heartbeat in the future. And if you are a VCA beginner, have no fear, the MH2 is here.