Digital Surfaces 48 or more channel consoles, who is using what?
- Thread starterLextech
- Start date
Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
Oh. This wasn't 96khz audio into an audio input; it was 96ks/s digital into a digital input?
Got it.
Got it.
Here is some more fodder for that opinion, posted at PSW by Ivan Beaver.
http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,164511.0.html
The engineers were in the JBL consumer division, not the pro/touring division.
I think Harman is doing essentially what every other "group" owner is doing or has already done: offshore manufacturing, use J-I-T production scheduling, and set up subsidiary corporations in tax-haven locations.
The day to day costs that can be controlled involve humans and support is where that gets reflected. My "night gig" is running a regional sound/lighting company, we're heavily invested in Harman group products. At the top end of the their biz the support is good - I can get a human with answers on the phone whether it's JBL, Crown, or AKG.
Also note that these 2 engineers (yeah, a tempest in a teapot; might be diff if Harman sent half the staff away) left just prior to Harman's sale to Samsung, so there might be something external involved. I wouldn't read much into the departure of retirement age staff.
Fountain Of Euph
Active Member
Ancient Engineer
Well-Known Member
Great Googly Moogly... I have used everything in venues from MCI JH-600s to every kind of Yamadog out there. I +1 the Digico recommendation. It is getting really common... I am finding road engs are at least able to ramp up to the interface pretty quick.
We had a rider once that came through that said something like: "...we will tolerate any audio console in the venue, except for a Yamaha PM series anything." We were going to test them as we had an oooold Carvin 32ch FOH that we were going to deploy. We took the high road (that one time anyway) and left the Soundcraft in place. It sounded pretty good at the time...
We had a rider once that came through that said something like: "...we will tolerate any audio console in the venue, except for a Yamaha PM series anything." We were going to test them as we had an oooold Carvin 32ch FOH that we were going to deploy. We took the high road (that one time anyway) and left the Soundcraft in place. It sounded pretty good at the time...
I think we have a Peavey MK IV-24 somewhere near the bottom of the recycle heap....
Several year ago I was a stage hand on the build, show and out of a Rolling Stones tour stop. Their FOH mixerperson carried his own personal console, a Yamaha PM-4000. Good enough for stadium tours of the world's most famous rock band? Yep. Oh, the sub-mixer for the "B Stage" was either a Mackie or Allen-Heath analog board...
Most of the console snobs blame the "brand X" desk for their personal operational deficiencies, IMHO. What separates the good from bad consoles are noise floors, funky EQ responses, and how much headroom has been designed into the buses. Kind of like the Midas snobs who can't understand that blinking red lights usually warn of a problem and use the resulting distortion as a 'feature'. If you're Big Mick from Metallica that's okay, but not in theatre, folk/jazz/etc. I suspect most of the initial dissatisfaction with Yamaha's PM series was the result of folks who expected those mixers to respond like an XL200/250...
Ancient Engineer
Well-Known Member
I agree! Purt-neer all reasonably professional consoles can be used well, if understood by the operator. I had a PM-1000 (crap I am ancient...) in use in a theater environment and it was more than up to the task with careful EQ. Some modern operators/engineers are not open to learning the differences between what they know and what they have been given. I used that PM-1000 in ways the MCI JH-600 could not ever be practically used. The proper tool for the job is the one that gets it done well...
@Ancient Engineer Some of us remember the PM1000 when it first came out in a 16 channel format and was the hot new toy! Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
@Ancient Engineer Stratford Festival Main Stage, Monday evening jazz series in the 1970's. The music administrator booked an A lister who sent a rider demanding we supply a brand new PM1000-16 in a factory sealed carton and a case of 24 Brador beers (from neighboring Quebec). They weren't planning on arriving until very close to doors. I had my Yamaha PM430, with added phantom, slaved into two inputs of my Yamaha M512 driving my standard concert speakers, via a stereo pair of Yamaha F1030 x-overs and a rack of BGW's powering four JBL 15's in a pair of rear loaded double scoops, a pair of wooden 40 x 140 degree 2" horns (2397's comes to mind) and an array of four 2305 slot radiators. House tuning was by Orban and limiting by DBX. I had the two mixers shoe-horned in to the landing of aisle 4, one of our short aisles. Aisle six would have been centre but fire egress prohibited the blocking of aisle six. By the time the talent and the mixer arrived, most of the house was in. The music administrator and myself met the talent and the mixer at the stage door. The administrator guided the talent to a dressing room and the first thing the mixer wanted to see was his sealed case of chilled Brador (Sp?) which I showed him in the crew room fridge and then we headed out to my mix location at the bottom of aisle four where I had pre-show playing and showed him his factory sealed PM1000-16 per his rider.
First questions: Why was it still sealed, why wasn't it powered and tested?
That'd be because that was how his rider specified.
Second question: Where were we going to put it where he could mix on it and hear the mix?
That was the tougher query as there was no where to put it without blocking patron's sight lines and him being able to mix and hear. In the end, he drank a couple of Bradors, took a few with him, mixed on my PM430 and M512, had a great show and went away happy. The . . . uh . . . 'gentleman' insisted upon our opening the factory sealed PM1000-16 to prove there was actually one in the box and Tuesday morning the music administrator had to return the PM1000-16 to a music store in downtown Toronto. The PM1000 was never plugged in, its power supply was never even unpacked.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
Ancient Engineer
Well-Known Member
Erh mah gerd, I had forgotten about those Orban parametrics! THAT was some powerful mojo. I did a gig at some little theater and the front end was all digi-frambis, but it left the console on a balanced set and off to the backstage rack (briefly locked) with Orban parametrics for tuning and 2 MC2500s for the mains and a pair of BGWs for the stage monitors. I still have a BGW750 lurking somewhere. That was a pretty sweet amp back in the day. I offered to "upgrade" the amp rack to some bleeding-edge QSC stuff, but they politely declined indicating I wasn't the only engineer passing through to make such an offer... I'd have loved to have been a bug at the music store that Tuesday!
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