Problems with our sound board

[Ety]

Hello,

The board we've been using at my high school has been acting up lately. It s a Sprit Soundcraft Digital 328 along with a pair these Soundcraft 8 input XLR->TDIF breakout boxes that are about 8 years old now. Every show it seems like we're having another input having problems. We have about 4 inputs that we can barley use now. 2 of them we can't get the volume up to a reasonable level no matter what we have plugged in. In the others no matter what we do with the EQ we can't get them sounding right. In addition to that someone plugged in a 1/4" cable and the tip of it broke off in one of the aux outs.

We're currently debating if we should send it out to get fixed for the next show or if we should start looking into a new board.

If we have to replace it we're not sure what new boards to look into. We need a 32 channel board but we can't decide what would be better for us digital or analogue and what brands to look at. We can get very very good deal on a Toft analogue board if we wanted. My reasons for a digital board are to save some room in the booth, and I would like to be able to have the board interface with out computer.

What do you guys think?

Thanks alot

[avkid]

The problems sound isolated (don't seem to indicate a larger issue) so you should have it fixed.

[Ety]

Originally Posted by avkid

The problems sound isolated (don't seem to indicate a larger issue) so you should have it fixed.

I was thinking that but what worries me is that the faders are separated on the board. Its not just two next to each other that stopped working or something like that. It's inputs you would think have nothing in common like 1, 5, 8 and 11.

[howlingwolf487]

You might want to look into renting a console you are interested in whilst the other one is being repaired. That would give you the opportunity to see whether or not you would like that particular console.

[museav]

Originally Posted by Ety

The board we've been using at my high school has been acting up lately. It s a Sprit Soundcraft Digital 328 along with a pair these Soundcraft 8 input XLR->TDIF breakout boxes that are about 8 years old now. Every show it seems like we're having another input having problems. We have about 4 inputs that we can barley use now. 2 of them we can't get the volume up to a reasonable level no matter what we have plugged in. In the others no matter what we do with the EQ we can't get them sounding right. In addition to that someone plugged in a 1/4" cable and the tip of it broke off in one of the aux outs.

We're currently debating if we should send it out to get fixed for the next show or if we should start looking into a new board.

Or you could leave it as is and consider it good 'real world' training, that sounds about like many consoles I've had to work with in clubs and bars!

As long as the Digital 328 works for you when it is working right, I would certainly consider having someone look at it before giving up on it. It it is not worth repairing then the small investment to be able to say that definitively may go far in justifying funding for a replacement.