At the Los Angeles show, at the Soundcraft stand we met Elliot Thomas who showed us what we consider to the tow most interesting innovations this year as far as mixers are concerned.
The first is the new Soundcraft Signature Series analogical mixer, and the second is the Ui Series completely digital and remoted controlled live mixer.
Starting from the Soundcraft Signature MTK Series consoles, Thomas told us that these new mixers have all been equipped with well-known Ghost pre-amps, just like those of the company’s professional consoles, therefore with greater headroom, more dynamic, audio resolution and an improved noise signal ratio. These mixers use Soundcraft Sapphyre Assymetric equalizers to improve both voice and instruments, as well as GB Series audio routing technology already in use in numerous concert halls all over the world.
Another innovation of these Signature Series MTK is the Lexicon audio processing section, able to provide studio effects such as reverb, chorus, modulation and more, as well as dbx limiters on all input channels.
Le console have XLR input, passable to Hi-Z, to be connected to any instrument or microphone. All these consoles, which are available in models with 12 and 22 channels, have a bi-directional USB integrated interface able to record all channels separately. All traces can be either mixed or transferred on DAW to a computer for following productions or mixdowns.
Moving to the two Ui live digital mixers with 12 or 16 channels, Elliot explained that these do not have a real complete hardware interface as, in order to have everything in a really compact space wit regards to number of channels, these mixers transfer all controls via wi-fi to iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS or Linux devices. This means that with a tablet, smartphone, computer or Mac (up to 10 devices can be used at the same time) you can access all parameters of the channels of the console.
The Ui12 and Ui16 also integrate Harman signal processing from dbx, DigiTech e Lexicon flagship products, including dbx AFS2 pre, DigiTech amp modeling and much more. Both models have gain and phantom power mikes that can be activated and called up remotely, four parametric equalizer bands, high-pass filters, compressors, de-essers and noise gates on each channel.
All outputs have 31-ban eq graphics, noise gate and compressor, as well as live frequency analyser on input and output. There are also three dedicated for ‘made by Lexicon’ effects for reverb, delay and chorus. The presets for Show and Snapshot, that can also be called up, and with safety functions to limit access only to selected functions for chosen devices, are fundamental for digital mixers.
Info: www.soundcraft.com