Favourite Mixer

[mervaka]

all good desks (including analogue ones) have AFL on their output busses, which stands for "after fade listen", ie post fader. I'm not quite sure what you mean about a constant level though. do you mean like some sort of automatic signal normalisation, or compression/limiting?

 

EDIT: rob beat me to the reply :/

[jamesperrett]

The post was meant to state that the XL8 has a good latency in comparison to alot of digital desks, although this depends on the sample rate it runs at, such is (I believe) 48kHz is below 1ms, 96kHz not much over 1ms, exact figures I cannot remember.

 

Higher sample rates should give lower latencies for A/D and D/A conversion as (to put it simply) the buffers stay the same size but the data goes through them at twice the rate.

 

Cheers

 

James.

[Dj Dunc]

all good desks (including analogue ones) have AFL on their output busses, which stands for "after fade listen", ie post fader. I'm not quite sure what you mean about a constant level though. do you mean like some sort of automatic signal normalisation, or compression/limiting?

 

By my comment I mean for want of a bad example, you are doing a musical in which you want the keys to be at the same level during a song, so you set the level that you want, and away it goes, so when the keys get too loud, it reduces the level to the set point, and when the keys get too quiet, it increases the level up to the set point.

[mervaka]

you'd need a compressor in that case. you pick a threshold and ratio that brings the louder parts down to meet the quieter parts, then use the compensation gain setting on it to bring it back up to 0dB. this all happens pre fade anyway, usually between the preamp and EQ on the desk, from insert points.

[Dj Dunc]

duh. me not thinking again in that case but can a desk automate that process of increasing the gain? almost like an inverse limiter, so that the sound level coming in does not fall beneath a certain point.

[Shaggy]

Again, its called a compressor. You can't force sound up to a certain level, that would result in the gain being bought up to ridiculous levels in order to get a loud level which would be a very bad thing in live sound. What you would do is reduce the level of the loud parts, but not the quiet parts. Then, you bring the level of the loud parts back up to the level they were at and so the loud parts are no louder but the quieter parts are louder

 

So on a compresser, you set the threshold level to a level somewhat below the level of the loudest part. Then, using the ratio control, you set how many db louder the incoming signal has to get before it gets one db louder at the output. So if the threshold was -20db, and the ratio (in/out) was 2:1 then a 0db input would produce a -10db output. Add an appropriate makeup gain and then the loud parts are the same level and the quieter parts are a bit louder. If you wanted it all to be entirely the same level, you would use a limiter (compressor with a ration of infinity:1) set with a very low threshold and use the makeup gain to get it as loud as you wanted it. You would find that this would sound bobbins though.

[bMagiK]

For FOh live -

 

Well I love my Heritage 3000.

But having seen and payed with a lot of digital desks I have new mistress in the XL8. She wants me to leave my wife but I don't think that's a good idea - she's too young and although we have fun together with her bright shiny buttons I just can't afford to keep her.

 

:)

 

Seriously tho - as far as analogue is concerned - I love midas - especially the H3k.

as far as digital is concerned, the jury is still out for me. for 90% of gigs I do the M7CL is ideal - affordable, small, versitile.

however, the XL8 is miles ahead for me - I've never heard such clarity out of a desk - especially a digital. but that's just my ears. I do think it looks a bit too much like a control desk from a spaceship however - more lights on it than our rig!

 

for monitors - which I rarely do - currently a Midas XL250 but I'd much prefer a M7CL or PM5D

[Mark Payne]

Definately the KMX50 UK Kenwood kMix

 

More details here http://www.kenwoodworld.com/uk/product_det...1340&id=826

 

Less self noise than any other mixer I have ever used. A superb processor.

 

Cheers

 

Mark

 

Am just curious....

 

What's your 'favourite' mixer (i.e. which would you most like to use) in 3 different scenarios

 

*Theatre/Musical

 

*Live Sound FOH

 

*Live Sound Mons

 

I haven't put this as a poll, because there are so mny out there!

 

Thanks for your thoughts.....

[Bobbsy]

On the contrary, Mark, I have one of those and find it quite noisy...certainly noisy enough to scare a 3 year old toddler!

 

I'm also curious which of the three categories listed by the OP you'd use this for. Personally, I think it does an excellent job of "processing" the rap and techno CDs owned by my daughter...used for that application is can indeed reduce noise around the house....at least until said daughter starts screaming about her CDs.

 

Now gang...back on topic!

 

Bob

[mac.calder]

Not necessarily favorite boards, but the ones I am most comfortable with

 

Small format live sound or theatrical - M7CL - easy to use, yet very versatile.

 

Large format live sound (FOH) - Crest XVCA - knobs in all the right places

 

Monitors - A&H GL4800 - don't do monitors often, but when I did, this is the only desk I have used. It by default.

[minitechy]

I really enjoy the GL 2400. it felt a bit too compact at first but once I got to know my way around it without thinking too much it felt relly comfortable. also, I am impressed with the matrix, it has help sort a couple of situations very quickly where most desks would have made me struggle. just want one of my own now!

[meyerm3d]

Ok if were talking about unlimited budget:

 

Theatre: Digico D5T

 

Live Sound: Midas XL8 (This is probebly the ultimate desk ever made)

 

Monitors: Midas Heritage 4000 with the helix EQ

 

 

And now budget Sound

 

Theatre : M7cl or Midas Venice

 

Live: Midas Venice or XL300

 

Monitors : Midas Venice

[mervaka]

wow, some people's idea of a "budget" desk certainly blow mine out the water!

[mervaka]

I'm due to test drive the latest iLive 80 software on saturday, I'll keep you all posted if you like?

[Jonathan Mellor]

I've just bought a A&H ZED436, after a few years of using a Mixwizard at school and briefly having a go on a ML3000, I was pleased with the realibility of A&H desks. The new ZED series from A&H is excellent, the USB functionality on every ZED desk is a really good design feature.

 

For Theatre I find A&H Mixwizard usually deliver what you need. Only problem is if you use a mixwizard for musicals where all the principals have radio mics, you'll soon run out of channels. This is where a Soundcraft Spirit Live 4² is useful.

 

For Live Sound: The ZED436 borrows hardware from the GL and ML series making it a very good live sound desk.

 

For Monitors: I've never done monitors before, but from the last live sound event I was involved in, the sound engineer had a A&H GL2800M