After finishing an 8 week tour with a Digidesign SC48, I figured it would be a good time to write a review about the desk. Since it hasn't been on the market for a while, not a lot of people have gotten to play with them yet.
After spending 8 weeks out on the road with one, I absolutely love it. It's official, it's an M7CL killer. For just a few grand more, you get a desk that blows the M7CL away in almost every aspect. The only thing the M7 has on the SC48 is more physical faders. But, if you learn to lay your console out right, you really will never need or miss those extra faders. The foot print of the console is very similar to an M7CL. It's a littler heavier then an M7(thanks to all the onboard stuff).
The SC48 is packed full of features in a very little space. They really laid the console out nicely. Everything flows well, you don't have to really think to use the console. Everything is either labeled very clearly, or easily accessible on the board, rather then buried in menus.
The ''flex'' section of the console does everything you need it to do right there. The EQ, compressor, and gate sections are all color coded and very easy to use. I find the EQ section easier to use then the Profile. The on board compressors are very smooth, and very easy to get good results out of. You can literally run them into 20dB of gain reduction and not hear it. The gates are very reactive. Yes, you can get them to click at super fast speeds, but between the frequency keys and adjustable hold/release time, you really don't have to set them super tight to get the results you need. The built in stuff really sounds good enough, that I didn't find myself needing to use a ton of plug in's. Speaking of plug in's, you get 20 to choose from on the SC48. Not quite as many as a Profile, but still plenty to make it work.
If you can't do it with the on baord inserts, then you can really do it with the plug in's. What more could you ask for? Oh wait, how about the ability to record with protools straight off the console via firewire. I tracked 70% of our shows, and it was a super easy and straight forward process. And, it comes with the console! No external cards to buy, nothing to fuss with. Easy as pie!
Ok, but how's it sound? The desk itself is very, very clean. I ran my inputs HOT some nights, and you really couldn't even tell. The only time I could make a channel distort, is when I really ran it into solid red. Seeing red from time to time wasn't audible at all. As I said before, the compressors are very transparent. The only time I could really hear them is when I did a 20:1 ratio and jammed it about 30dB into reduction. Any form of ''normal'' usage will really make you wonder if the comp is really doing anything at all. You wont hear it, but the level will be nice and consistent.
How's the console respond when you load it down? Well, I like to ''fiddle'' with the opening band I mix. I ran all 20 plug in's, as many inserts as I could, and whatever else I could do. The SC48 just kept on chugging along, without any hesitation. Even loading the racks down didn't slow the scene changing. I had about 2 seconds of down time between pressing ''load'' and having audio again. I'd love to see a Yamaha console do that... Speaking of scenes, it doesn't get much better then the Digidesign software. They did it right when they designed their software.
How easy is it to use? Well, if you've mixed on any Digidesign console before, it's a breeze. It'll probably take you 5 minutes to get comfortable with the surface, and then it will be smooth sailing from there. We had a few shows on the tour with ''guest'' bands who had engineers that had never mixed on a DIgidesign desk. I gave them each the 7 minute overview of the console, watched them through line check, and they were good to go. Aside from a few minor questions during the show, they had no issues mixing and said they loved the board. It really is that easy.
How stable is it? Well, I had 2 issues the whole tour. Issue one was a bad mix engine. It took out 6 channels on the desk. I patched around them, had Digidesign come out to fix them and moved on with life. A week later, I had a complete console failure. I finished the show the night before, packed the desk up, and the next day I got nothing out of the board. I got to the ''venue software'' screen, but as soon as it went to read the hard discs, nothing. The hard drive went bad. It happens. Between Clair and Digidesign support, I had a brand new desk the next day. You really can't beat that. Other then that, the console was flawless. It never locked up during a show, and it never gave me any grief other then that. I would recommend it to anyone in a heart beat. I have nothing negative to say about the interaction of the desk. It's all super easy to use, and is laid out very well.
Overall, Digidesign really made a winner this time around. This is a great console all around that is really going to serve the market it was intended for well. It's an M7CL killer. Seriously. If you are thinking about buying an M7CL, save up for another week and buy an SC48. You won't regret it.
Evan
After spending 8 weeks out on the road with one, I absolutely love it. It's official, it's an M7CL killer. For just a few grand more, you get a desk that blows the M7CL away in almost every aspect. The only thing the M7 has on the SC48 is more physical faders. But, if you learn to lay your console out right, you really will never need or miss those extra faders. The foot print of the console is very similar to an M7CL. It's a littler heavier then an M7(thanks to all the onboard stuff).
The SC48 is packed full of features in a very little space. They really laid the console out nicely. Everything flows well, you don't have to really think to use the console. Everything is either labeled very clearly, or easily accessible on the board, rather then buried in menus.
The ''flex'' section of the console does everything you need it to do right there. The EQ, compressor, and gate sections are all color coded and very easy to use. I find the EQ section easier to use then the Profile. The on board compressors are very smooth, and very easy to get good results out of. You can literally run them into 20dB of gain reduction and not hear it. The gates are very reactive. Yes, you can get them to click at super fast speeds, but between the frequency keys and adjustable hold/release time, you really don't have to set them super tight to get the results you need. The built in stuff really sounds good enough, that I didn't find myself needing to use a ton of plug in's. Speaking of plug in's, you get 20 to choose from on the SC48. Not quite as many as a Profile, but still plenty to make it work.
If you can't do it with the on baord inserts, then you can really do it with the plug in's. What more could you ask for? Oh wait, how about the ability to record with protools straight off the console via firewire. I tracked 70% of our shows, and it was a super easy and straight forward process. And, it comes with the console! No external cards to buy, nothing to fuss with. Easy as pie!
Ok, but how's it sound? The desk itself is very, very clean. I ran my inputs HOT some nights, and you really couldn't even tell. The only time I could make a channel distort, is when I really ran it into solid red. Seeing red from time to time wasn't audible at all. As I said before, the compressors are very transparent. The only time I could really hear them is when I did a 20:1 ratio and jammed it about 30dB into reduction. Any form of ''normal'' usage will really make you wonder if the comp is really doing anything at all. You wont hear it, but the level will be nice and consistent.
How's the console respond when you load it down? Well, I like to ''fiddle'' with the opening band I mix. I ran all 20 plug in's, as many inserts as I could, and whatever else I could do. The SC48 just kept on chugging along, without any hesitation. Even loading the racks down didn't slow the scene changing. I had about 2 seconds of down time between pressing ''load'' and having audio again. I'd love to see a Yamaha console do that... Speaking of scenes, it doesn't get much better then the Digidesign software. They did it right when they designed their software.
How easy is it to use? Well, if you've mixed on any Digidesign console before, it's a breeze. It'll probably take you 5 minutes to get comfortable with the surface, and then it will be smooth sailing from there. We had a few shows on the tour with ''guest'' bands who had engineers that had never mixed on a DIgidesign desk. I gave them each the 7 minute overview of the console, watched them through line check, and they were good to go. Aside from a few minor questions during the show, they had no issues mixing and said they loved the board. It really is that easy.
How stable is it? Well, I had 2 issues the whole tour. Issue one was a bad mix engine. It took out 6 channels on the desk. I patched around them, had Digidesign come out to fix them and moved on with life. A week later, I had a complete console failure. I finished the show the night before, packed the desk up, and the next day I got nothing out of the board. I got to the ''venue software'' screen, but as soon as it went to read the hard discs, nothing. The hard drive went bad. It happens. Between Clair and Digidesign support, I had a brand new desk the next day. You really can't beat that. Other then that, the console was flawless. It never locked up during a show, and it never gave me any grief other then that. I would recommend it to anyone in a heart beat. I have nothing negative to say about the interaction of the desk. It's all super easy to use, and is laid out very well.
Overall, Digidesign really made a winner this time around. This is a great console all around that is really going to serve the market it was intended for well. It's an M7CL killer. Seriously. If you are thinking about buying an M7CL, save up for another week and buy an SC48. You won't regret it.
Evan
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