posted 06 March 2002 12:26            

Yesterday I saw an Allen-Heath 32 channel mixing console for a pretty good price. Anyone have experience with A&H? Or should I sit back and save my pennies for a Mackie D8B or a Sony Cambridge?

Cheers,

posted 07 March 2002 13:57            

I don't know if you're talking about a digital desk here, if so my comment is completely worthless... It's over ten years since I used an A&H analog desk, and maybe the design has changed since then, but I found its EQ rather disappointing - imprecise and not very much cut or lift. It was all a bit woolly.

posted 07 March 2002 15:06            

So please excuse my ignorance here. I do realize that the D8B and Sony Cambridge boards are digital mixers. And ultimately I think that's where I want to go. The price I was shown on a new 32 channel A&H 3300 was somewhere around $2500 USD. That seemed unbeleievably low to me. But perhaps, in light of your comments, and the new wave of digital boards, these are closeout prices of soon to be discontinued products?

Thanks for your critique!

posted 08 March 2002 07:31            

with regards to analogue desks.

It took us 6 months to get rid of our good condition 48 channel Amek Angela, and that realy was for free.

posted 13 March 2002 15:53            

The problem I have with most hardware digital mixers (and even protools)is the poor surround implementation (for live diffusion/projection etc.)

I currently use the capy-320 as my digital matrix/mixer for live surround work....although not the most elegant solution...the capy along with a motormix/timeline does the trick. . .

All we need are a few more surround tools for Keema

I have always been curious how other Keema users work with multi-speaker setups. (I use powered monitors str8 out from the cappy....both live and in the studio)

posted 13 March 2002 16:27            

That A&H 3300 (analog, no mixer automation, and uses analog VU meters!) was just too good a thing to pass up for sentimental reasons. It looks and feels just like a console I used nearly 20 years ago for mixing documentary sound tracks. I guess someday, I'll have trouble unloading it too...

But digital mixing is still on the horizon for me. I have a little DPS-16 from Akai that I like, but no competition for these other boards you all mention!

Thanks,

- DM

[Maybe someday (in my dreams anyway) I can get one of these hybrid analog/digital systems?
http://www.ams-neve.com/prod/88r.htm

]

posted 15 March 2002 12:55            

Reminds me of the early days in computing when you had to walk about inside the computer replacing triodes all day long. Mean time between failures for the whole was a couple of hours. No doubt they have more advanced technology today, metal tubes and such.

But, Holy Cow!

- DM

[ I guess I'm not the only one feeling nostalgic about boards, eh? Also good to see that my early years spent learning tube technology won't go to waste! ]

[ I see they have a really fancy cooling system, but I would be concerned about all that heat packed so closely to the electrolytic caps. Won't that cause them to bleed and dry-out, making for frequent servicing of all the channel strips? ]

posted 19 March 2002 05:10            

I´ve got a A&H GS3000 mixer in my homestudio and it´s just brilliant! The EQ just kisses the sounds and the hands on feeling of the knobs and sliders are firm yet smooth. The newer 3300 is definately worth the price you got.

OT on this thread, but does anyone know how to rackmount the Capy? Is it OK using standard rack-mounting "ears"?

posted 19 March 2002 08:56            

symbolic sound sell a rack mounting kit for the capybara - the supporting plates are extra long so they run along the whole side of the chassis to support it and avoid any torsion on the chassis itself.

posted 19 March 2002 11:14            

I have to agree about the quality of the A&H board. I have been using it now for almost a week. I really love it, despite the low-tech behavior. I just don't tend to do much automated mixing here, and Kyma can certainly do what I want ahead of the board.

I suppose if I were back in the business of mixing sound tracks then an automated board would really be better. Even though this board is intended mainly for live performaces as an FOH mixer, I find it works very well here in the studio.

I have to say that I am impressed about the mechanical and sonic qualities of the A&H board. The EQ also sounds pretty good to me. I really like having all the routing options it offers. So despite my nostalgic tendencies, I ended up with a very good board at a very good price.

Cheers,

posted 19 March 2002 12:53            

David, good to hear that you bought it. Do you have tube-patches on yours?

posted 19 March 2002 19:40            

Tube patches? Do you mean as in 12AU7 triodes? No this console is entirely solid state as far as I can tell. 20 mono channels, 4 stereo channels, 8 groups, 8 aux sends, 4 mute groups, 2 stereo returns, a matrix A/B out. Each mono channel has 48V phatom switchable, input gain trim, 4 band EQ with sweepable mids, but the Q's are fixed at 1.6. The stereo channels have 4 band EQ but not sweepable. The mids are 250 Hz, and 2.5 KHz. VU meters on all 8 groups as well as main stereo output bus. There are also numerous Pre/Post fader options for the aux sends, and a bunch of PFL/ALF switches for cueing.

It has talkback on 8 channels, but there is nowhere in my little studio to use these... It was really meant as a FOH board or as a stage monitor console, not for the recording studio per se. But it seems to be working just fine here. The channels are about as clean as I could hope for.

Unlike a lot of CODEC specs where they rate the THD+Noise at some low level like -60 dBFS, this one shows around -80 dB noise floor when all faders are pushed to nominal 0 dB, and the THD+Noise is rated for nominal output levels. All in all I am very impressed with it both sonically and mechanically. These pots are firmly mounted on the top surface and exhibit no wiggle.

Tubes look like they are making a big comeback. In addition to the big console pointed out by Mathis above, I have seen a lot of press about the HHB consoles and TLAudio consoles from England. It appears that everyone is making assurances about tube supplies. The tubes appear to be triodes manufactured somewhere in Russia. Here in the states, I think we shut the doors on our last tube plants back east (Sylvania) sometime in the mid 80's.

I like the way all the old stuff is making a comeback but with a twist. All the old ways of doing things have been supplanted by embedded computer systems to extract the best performance of the old analog technologies. We get the best of both worlds that way. I hear a lot of complaints now about the "brittleness" of the sound from solid-state systems and the lack of warmth from digital recodings. Personally, I am a neutral observer and I am here to learn.

It does crack me up a bit that we have all worked so hard to progress from the early analog days, with the inherent component and temperature drifts, to our newfound rock-stable digital technology -- only to have today's kids wanting that old stuff.... The kids always want something besides what the parents want to offer. It was that way for me too as a kid...

Cheers,

- DM

posted 20 March 2002 05:38            

I do agree that a lot of things that has been left behind still can be of great use. Like tubes. My console, which I believe is older than yours, has two tube"patches" - which can be patched into any channel or group. Really handy - and something I was hoping they would develop further.