Not having dedicated
channel faders may be a little odd coming from a
conventional board, but I am pretty used to typing Chan 1-4@ 100, store (press
fader). Its going to be a change if you are used to an
express 48/96. However, each of those "submasters" can be a cues stack, and they are editable. Unlike stacks on low-end Zero88 desks, that have "steps" instead of cues, where you have to delete the whole thing if you no-longer want step 5. Or Lepercons where they are chases, and not to mention the
Express where you only get one
cue stack. So already from a
conventional standpoint, It has strong features.
The software is not great, I think it is an off the shelf product from china. There are some odd
layout things. eg. When scrolling with an
encoder, clicking the
encoder dose nothing, another
button makes the selection. There is also no internal memory, you must use a flash drive for
fixture library and show files.(I would get one of those tiny low-profile ones and leave it in the
desk, plus a backup) Scrolling through lots of
fixture profiles is slow, so put only the ones you need
in one folder. However there is no boot time, it is instant ON
- For Fixtures, you are limited to 30. This seems like very few for
LED, but realistically I would not want to be running more than about a dozen moving light on this type of board.
-
Conventional channels are limited to 250, plenty for its intended use.
- The
fixture editor runs on windows, and is very simple to use. You can download it from Strands website. The only odd thing was that the profiles I created ended up at the very bottom of the list on the
console, rather than being in alphabetical order.
- Dimmers are patched 1-1 by default, bringing up
dimmer values via the keypad is very quick, patching fixtures is two part, requiring you to first assign fixtures to buttons, then use the patch menu to actually patch the
address.
- I had no issues with the
monitor, though it looks like a several generation old
Strand desk, not really a surprise
Bottom
line is that I don't think there is any other actual
console that can touch it for the price. If you are going to be doing smaller shows with a bunch of conventionals, a handful of LEDs and occasionally a few moving lights, I think it is a fine choice. To replace an aging
Express or Lepercon , I think It would do a nice job and it adds more flexibility, even with less handles.
If the
Strand listens to its customers, and comes out with some software updates, this
console could go from an okay
console to a really solid performer, but even now what you get is WELL worth the price.
