Mixers/Consoles Soundcraft console

[Northland Techie]

Looking for your pros and cons about Soundcraft's SI Performer 3 and Expression 3 or Yamaha O2r consoles.

Funds are approved for a new sound system that will include a pc, sound program and board. Moving us out of the analog world into the digital. The sound system (pc, program and board) will primarily be used for theatre productions. Mainly plays and about 1 musical every 2-3 years. Looking to stick with 16-24 channels. (I am researching the pc and sound FX programs...the last piece is the board and to ensure it all works together).

Thanks all! Board choices are more of an opinion and preference. Nevertheless, your thoughts are needed to try to find the right fit.

 

[AlexDonkle]

The Yamaha O2r is pretty out of date at this point, so I would avoid it. There current line is CL- and QL-series, however personally I'm only a fan of the larger boards in those series (I don't the buttons and knobs they removed the make the board fit into a smaller format).

Performer 3 has DMX control, which I've never seen a reason to have (lighting people are generally not sound guys, so you'll generally need a separate light board anyway). Expression 3 I'm a big fan of, and think it's a great console. Get the new USB / MADI expansion card with it, so you can plug your computer directly into the sound board within needing an external audio interface. Look at the Allen & Heath QU32 as well, since it's very similar but includes the USB jack into the board instead of as a separate card. Both of those have remote stage boxes if you need it.

Standard for sound FX playback at most theatres is Qlab running on a Mac computer. Free version gives you most of the needed functionality for a small to medium show, but there are additional features you can upgrade to if needed.

 

[Dan0010]

i got the expression 2 and it good. first time I used the aux for output to cameras that were brought in to film I had them complaining that their was tone while we were setting up. finally realized that it has a tone generator for the auxes so that was something I missed in the manual. the funny thing was when we put the system in and got the board we had a technician from Harman who was suppose to help setup our system and we got a blu link card for some I/o expanders and they couldn't figure out how to set it up and even they said the expansion cards were a pain for setting up. but once it was setup it solid.