Re: Desk question, Midas verona vs. Soundcraft series two
Another question, how would a gl 2800 compare to the series two, and Midas. I have mixed on someone elses series two, but I can't really compare overall sound between the gl 2200 and series two, because the whole rig is different then mine.
Alan.
I don't know if this helps, but here we go:
I own a Series TWO-32. I like the mixer a lot, but I always leave it behind if I can use my DM2000 or 01v96...
You can compare it with the Soundcraft GB8-32 but the S-TWO has variable HPF and a full meter bridge. It does however have fewer matrices and you can only assign the pre/post setting on the auxes two at a time. You do however get to assign the pre/post settings on a per channel basis (not globally like on GB8)... The only reason I still keep the S-TWO with a nice outboard package is BE use, and most seem to like it and prefer the sound over a GB8, but there hasn't ever been a direct comparison with both desks present.
The price you mentioned seems a little high to me, try to get it down some.
Keep in mind that you can't extract one channel at the time, so especially liquid spills could get expensive to repair.
When it comes to the sound quality of the preamps, I always felt this question to be a little silly as the only way to really know is to set up a bunch of desks next to eachother, cobble up some funny looms that allows you to put the same signal into one channel on each desk and extract it from the insert sends and run them unbalanced into a switch or hub where all the desks are connected, and then switch between the preamps at the switch while they are all connected to some super-high-end studio monitor or something.
And even then you're kinda not doing it right because the loading of the signal source by so many inputs might change the sound, or if you have a buffer/splitter amp that might change the sound, and how do we know the quality of the buffer amp on the insert send jack? And to get it right we need all the levels to be set at exactly the same listening SPL which might bring some of the preamps out of their optimal setting area, which changes the way they sound. And on and on...
What I can say is this: The mixer sounds fine. If you get the gains structure screwed up for a very quiet show it'll be more noisy than my DM 2000.
Also, the insert return jack won't take any level of signal, so if you slam the preamp and insert a compressor and then give it a bunch of makeup gain you'll clip the insert return path somewhere. However, kudos to Soundcraft for putting in a clip lamp with multiple pickup points throughout the channel, including the insert return!