Hi all
Before I go down a
rabbit-hole of research, does anyone know of a digital mixer (12 XLR channels
min) that supports these two key features:
- Android tablet remote mixing
- Virtual soundcheck (ie record
and playback all channels, allowing tweaking of the full multichannel FOH
and monitor mixes (ideally onto an SD card, but a USB drive would be okay
too)
I'm currently using
a Line6 M20 mixer, but since I no longer have an iPad and I'd rather get an
Android tablet, I'm looking around to see if there's a mixer out there that
will work for me. (The L6 unit is good
in most respects, although the onboard touchscreen is hatefully cheap &
nasty).
From what I've seen
so far, there are plenty that support Android, but most only offer stereo
record/playback which is no good for my soundcheck workflow.
(The reason I need
virtual soundcheck is that I play simultaneous guitar and foot-drums in an
acoustic band, so can't walk out front whilst we're playing)
Some of the gear, some idea
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Comments
It does the virtual souncheck thing, too.
We've just recently got one and so far we love it.
It's almost overkill for what I need in terms of channels, but still - looks like a huge amount of bang for the buck.
How are you getting on having no onboard screen or controls? I think I'd find it a bit scary to rely entirely on tablets, but maybe I'd get used to it.
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The 3rd party app has great reviews, and it seems the same developer has made an Android app for the Behringer desks too! I wonder if he'd be up for doing a Line6 version?
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The ability to plug in directly was important to us in choosing the Soundcraft because we had similar concerns to you about relying exclusively on wireless connectivity. And actually we have seen the odd drop out when using the Soundcraft's own built in router so it's just as well! (From what I've read this seems par for the course with digital mixers that have a built in router - people generally recommend using a 3rd party router.)
Some other things we like about the Soundcraft are that it sounds good, that the client app (runs in any web browser) is quite intuitive, that the built in feedback destroyer works well, and that it has guitar amp modelling on a couple of channels - which is nice to have as a backup in case your amp breaks down.
you can give band members their own login with their monitor mix. Which can go between landscape (mix) and portrait (a me slider which just brings them up/down in monitor compares to rest of mix.
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They're great when you're in a 5k cap theatre, or an arena, where the PA is providing 99.9% of what everyone in the room is hearing, and you can have everything ready to go while "the talent" are still sleeping off last night's afterparty, but in a pub/club/bar? Not so much.
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