Apollo SmartColor scrollers are excellent. Very, very low noise, very little need to re-align the
gel strings, and good
stock gel strings. We've got 12 of them at the college that I'm going to, and the work a whole lot better than our Chroma-Q's in terms of reliability, noise, and
gel string alignment retention.
And about my weird
console philosophy - on all of the standard consoles, there's usually someone who can teach it to you nice and easy. I learned how to use the
express from someone else in ten minutes
flat. I could record cues, subs, groups, effects; set times, waits, follows,
etc for cues; I could assign effects to subs, set properties of subs,
etc. And the only
console that I'd ever worked on before was a Lightronics Crapbox 5000X SOL. I also know for a fact that it would have taken me alot longer to learn all of that by the
manual.
And I wouldn't reccomend just plopping any no-name
console in a school. I've done very extensive research (everything short of actually using it) on the Compulite D-lite, as I really like it as a viable competitor in terms of ML functions, fader-per-channel allocations, and
ease of use to the
ETC Express. Compulite is usually known for their Vector series of consoles, which go out on alot of big tours. Bryan Hartley uses a Vector Red linked to a Vector Blue and a timecode feed for TSO. However, in my opinion, this nice little product of theirs is an undiscovered gem. I'm sure that most of you have barely scratched the surface on what it is and what it is capable of. In short, I don't recommend things haphazardly. For instance, I wouldn't recommend one of the new
Leviton consoles, because I don't know enough about them, but I do know that they're just a
buyout of another company that no one knows about. I wouldn't reccomend an NSI
console because the
manual tries to set you chasing your tail and using their larger consoles (Melange, MC-2448) is not a fun experience. Also, if the real world doesn't have quite a few of them out there, why is Compulite still making them as a product?
Also, I am far from the first to mention the
LSC consoles. They've been mentioned by a few folks here, and they're making significant headway in the US market now. Applied NN (da folks who make Applied trussing & towers) and All Pro Sound (retailer and installer based in Florida) are the folks behind this effort, and the
console is really an excellent
console, and it's easy to use.
And no, I wouldn't have them work on Amiga machines, but rather Sun/Unix/Linux machines, to get used to working on other platforms, but they'd also work on macs and PC's. I made a
point of doing that myself, and it weirdly ended up helping me understand more
console programming logic.
Just like I think that if your school doesn't have an
ETC or
strand, you should make a
point of working at/volunteering for venues that do.
I usually live in the niche environments of the real world, but I've seen old
manual boards, Lightronics boards, NSI boards, and
Colortran boards in quite a few real world locations. I've also seen shakespeares and SL's in real world locations. But this thread is not a place to have a battle over those!!!!
Also, in college, I made a
point of digging out the old LP-90 to use for a student showcase show just so that I got experience on it, and could add another board to my resume.
However, I do see your
point on the board philosophy. I wouldn't make the students work on
just sun/unix machines, I'd have them work on all platforms. So, basically, if you don't use an
express/expression/obsession/newer
strand board in another
venue, then get an
express. If you do, then get something different, but still just as easy to learn. But, as I also mentioned, why would Compulite, an amazing
console designer and manufacturer, be making the Dlite if no one was gonna buy it??
Dern, that was a long post!