Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Flo Pagany

Flo Pagany

Freshman
Jan 14, 2011
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Cambodia
Hello, my question is: Is there anybody who had to work or is a owner of a Vi6 and can give me some advice about the pros and cons of this console(AD/DA Converters, GEQ, PEQ, compressors, FX, routing etc.), compared to let me say any other digital one in the same category?

thank you!



Florian Pagany
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Florian,



Pros and cons relative to what? You'll have to give us a better idea what you're trying to find out. I think it is the best sounding digital console I have heard, I also think it offers the best control surface. Two engineers can use it at the same time. It also lets me see more than an analog console, and control almost as much almost as quickly. It has a few idiosyncrasies, like no auto comp attack/release, but the power it offers makes that a minor quibble for me.
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Thanks that was helpful already. What about Plug In implementation, recording options, is there a possibility of wireless controlling during system tuning(ipad etc.)?

How does it work within HiQNet?
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Florian Pagany wrote on Fri said:
Thanks that was helpful already. What about Plug In implementation, recording options, is there a possibility of wireless controlling during system tuning(ipad etc.)?

How does it work within HiQNet?
Click to expand...

1. no plugins

2. no wireless controlling while the control surface is up, it's laptop or surface.

3. the HiQNet implementation is very basic at the moment.



I personally see the Vi6 as a mixing tool and it does the job very well.



Recording is done easily via MADI, depending on the I/O options in the local rack. Basically a second MADI-card does the job.
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Christian Tepfer wrote on Fri said:
2. no wireless controlling while the control surface is up, it's laptop or surface.
Click to expand...



One way around this restriction of course is to use screen sharing to remotely control the laptop. The drawback is that you need an additional machine but if you are investing in a Vi6 the extra cost shouldn't be a dealbreaker.



I'll leave it to others to comment on how well this kind of arrangement works in practice.
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Stuart Høgg wrote on Fri said:
Christian Tepfer wrote on Fri said:
2. no wireless controlling while the control surface is up, it's laptop or surface.
Click to expand...



One way around this restriction of course is to use screen sharing to remotely control the laptop. The drawback is that you need an additional machine but if you are investing in a Vi6 the extra cost shouldn't be a dealbreaker.



I'll leave it to others to comment on how well this kind of arrangement works in practice.
Click to expand...

It's surface or computer control, not both at the same time. That pretty much limits the use of the editor for walking around and tweaking because you lose the control surface, aka desk. This is a bit confusing, the real desk is in the local rack aka core. It would be a step back to use a Vi6 without its surface just to have wireless control imho.
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

There is a Vi6 and a Vi4 at a venue I work at occasionally. It's a very easy to use desk and we find that we can get the engineers up and running on it easily and confident in it. It's great that two people can operate it so you can help out the engineer mid show if he needs something doing and he can still be using the other half of the board. I personally like all the visual feedback the desk gives you when mixing - you can see pretty much everything going on.



A graphics card died in the Vi4, the effects card died on the Vi6 (which has the knock on effect of not letting any audio out of any mix bus (apart from solo bus) - fix is to just pull effects card and grab your old spx's!), I think one of them had a faulty dsp card at some point as well. However I have never had a show stopper on one.



I don't like the onboard delay and would prefer a D-Two but that's the same with lots of digital desks for me.
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Lionel Miller wrote on Tue said:
There is a Vi6 and a Vi4 at a venue I work at occasionally. It's a very easy to use desk and we find that we can get the engineers up and running on it easily and confident in it. It's great that two people can operate it so you can help out the engineer mid show if he needs something doing and he can still be using the other half of the board.
Click to expand...

YES! This is what it's all about.



Lionel Miller wrote on Tue said:
I don't like the onboard delay and would prefer a D-Two but that's the same with lots of digital desks for me.
Click to expand...

We should start a club. Just what do those controls do, anyway? BPM and time, and they don't seem to scale linearly? Just tap the way I told you to, damnit!
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Quote: said:
We should start a club. Just what do those controls do, anyway? BPM and time, and they don't seem to scale linearly? Just tap the way I told you to, damnit!
Click to expand...



seems to be that sooner or later I'll have to join the club then
icon_lol.gif




but what is concerning me is the broken dsp and stuff. the problem is the company im working for is in Cambodia and its always big trouble with getting something repaired. what about the soundcraft support, any experience?
 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Spent this weekend doing monitor mix on a orchestra with two rock acts. 8 mono iem, 4 stereo iem, 5 wedge mixes.



Pro:

- Sounds great, even the dynamics is excellent.

- Easy and fast snapshot control.

- Big user surface with lots of space to move around.

- Sends back and fourth between mons and foh is a walk in the park when you use MADI.



Cons:

- No global patch list. A bummer when you have 80-something inputs.

- The layer buttons for buses and input channels have the same name.

- You can't label channels on different banks from another screen.

- Bus names is sometimes messed up by the desk.

- Pairing of channels on different layers can be confusing.





Btw: Nice forum
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Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Bennett where do I sign up!
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I have had the delay working ok if you set BPM to 120 and msec to 500 (should line up). But it's still no D-Two!



@ Helge. You can touch and bank of 8 faders shown on the central screen and they will apear on the right hand bank of faders on the desk. This would allow you to label channels on other banks.



Also you can only pair channels to the left or right with in a bank. So you can't pair horizontally between banks. You can pair vertically though.



Custom faders pages are fantastic. Especially in festival situations where you can have your master patch and then create a custom fader bank with whatever the next band needs.



It's a great desk for a venue or festival.



 
Re: Soundcraft Vi6 pros and cons

Lionel Miller wrote on Thu said:
@ Helge. You can touch and bank of 8 faders shown on the central screen and they will apear on the right hand bank of faders on the desk. This would allow you to label channels on other banks.
Click to expand...



Aha. Will try this next time around.



Quote: said:
It's a great desk for a venue or festival.
Click to expand...



For a venue yes, for a festival no.



Unless you request and approve of a certain digital desk, there is no digital desk suitable for a festival without soundcheck IMHO.





 
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