-Show off your FOH-

Something a little more down-to-earth ....

Smiter wrote: Bet the TAC desk sounds nice too :)

Sure does - got some noisy preamp chips in it now that are unobtainium.... not sure what I am going to retrofit in there yet.

I havn't got a shot of our FOH set up, but this is a phone shot of our GL3300




And this is a picture or the FOH in a local theatre:

Soundcraft MH3.

There is a nexo PS system on the other end of this.



Edited by lgosdset - 25 January 2012 at 6:33pm

SamV wrote: It's like an unspoken rule. Are they the best regarded desks on the market?

Well I don't know any other live production console with automation like J with these modules has.

With few reasonable exceptions, every button in the J is recallable and can be programmed into cues either by the console or by SAM software. That means preamp settings (on/off, polarity invert, +48v, pad etc individually for both preamps per channel), group routing, pan on/off between odd & even groups and between stereo auxes, each aux send on/off and pre/post button, eq on/off, hpf on/off, lpf on/off, insert on/off, mute on/off, vca/dca assign, vca controlled aux sends on/off.

Automation doesn't end with that. It also saves pot positions for each pot from gains through pan and aux sends to EQ's and filters. Every pot has a red led next to it that is lit when that pot is in wrong position related to current cue. When operator grabs that pot, one of two leds in lower end of module is lit, showing if the pot needs to be turned clockwise or anticlockwise to reach the saved setting, bit like with some radio tuners showing with two lights in which direction you need to tune to reach optimum frequency, quite neat system and imho as good as it can get, I would NOT want to have a Cadac with motorized pots, maintenance would be real nightmare (and the noise they would probably make).

Preamps, channel strip, group and matrix parts and fader modules are all equipped with individual isolate -switches if operator needs to make part of the console not follow cues, and use the console in more traditional analogue way.

Naturally motor fader positions are also saved into cues. Master modules also follow automation fully. Our console is equipped with 16 subgroups to 32 matrix sends -matrix that not only saves and recalls the routing but also the individual levels of each matrix point. Each bus (group & matrix) is equipped with Inject in with on/off switch and level pot, Bus out and insert send & return with on/off switch. Inject & bus out are XLRs and inserts are TRS. This makes this console ideal for repertoire theatre like ours, standard week on our stage consists of 6 two part days, mostly it is 5 rehearsals in day shift on weekdays with shows in the evening and on saturday we have two shows. There are quite a lot of exceptions but on same week we may do/rehearse four to six different shows, each with different requirements. If I have understood it right, this master module was pretty much custom made for out theatre's specifications. Most J's are loaded with unprogrammable matrix, which is fine (and more reliable...) for most musical theatres that may do same show for several years, but we have to be able to take shows like Wicked or Mary Poppins down and build some other show in few hours between 16-19 o'clock. That includes full stage set, lighting, wireless microphones and patching. No other analogue console would do.

SAM also makes it possible to do global updates for settings and setting groups, on one cue, range of cues or all cues, copy settings from channel strip to another etc... It really is quite a piece of engineering and really well thought out.


Edited by pfly - 26 January 2012 at 8:50am

Centauri wrote: Something a little more down-to-earth ....

now thats a drumfill!!

I didn't want to post anything after seeing that stuff either. Makes me feel like I got tonka toys.
-Halloween Party last year.