Ecler Sclat 100, Sclat 200vs review

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Well,
i've been wanting to try one of these out for a looooong time, but the £2000+
price tag was slightly (majorly) out of reach
It
looks like a great studio mixer, a great mixer for systems, although no good
for hard/snappy/scratchy mixing as theres too many channels, it’s too wide, and
the 100mm faders are too long.

The Sclat 100 came 1^st, which
then got updated to a Sclat 200VS, which is fundamentally the same, but some
changes. Notably, they must have realized that up to 8 phono (vinyl) inputs was
ridiculous, so each phono input on the 200 is also assignable to line input, so
2 line input options on each phono channel strip, as well as the mic/line
inputs on mic/line channels.

So, one bored day many months after I gave
up searching, I banged ‘sclat’ into the ebay search, and lo & behold there
was one there. In fact, he had 2 of them in separate auctions, although the 2^nd
one had no power supply. Both sold as seen etc, no guarantees. This said to me
that it was most likely out of an install, where the seller most likely took
them out as part of a P/X thing when a club got re-installed, or maybe closed
down. A bit of research later found that an Ecler FA50 power supply would cost
just over £100 inc delivery & vat, So, not very tempting for the 2nd 9yr old
dj mixer. The 1^st one though was worth the risk though, I
thought.  

So, I won the 1^st one (yay) but
no-one bid on the 2^nd one, so I offered the guy some money for the 2^nd
as spares, and he accepted. (yay)

what's that saying? you wait for ages,
then 3 come along at once? And so it was that a 3^rd sclat 100 turned
up at the same time. A bit more tatty looking, and with some undisclosed
problems, but with a power supply.

Even better that 1 mixer out of 2, how
about trying to get 2 good mixers out of 3?

Yay, won that too 

Whilst gooogling the sclats, I found that
there was very little in the way of proper reviews, just quotes from the ecler
site’s marketing blurb, and the occasional ‘wow, fantastic’ from someone who’s
just spent lots of money on a mixer, and wouldn’t be expected to be critical. 

That’s one of the reasons I’m going to do
a proper review here of the mixers. Hopefully Google will find it for other
people interested in the mixer, especially from the ‘rig control’ side of
things, for which decent mixers are very hard to come by, and maybe some people
on here might find it useful too. 

So, 1^st I’ll do a test of all
the functions, and do any repairs necessary, then I’ll do a few modifications,
and test the various internal settings for optimal rig control, and optimal
studio control/sound quality. 

number 1 just arived:

1^st impressions:

a lot of similar components to what we use
in opus electronics. Same rotary pots, TL072’s, TL074’s, NE553’s, although the
eclers are all microscopic surface mount components rather than the big bits we
use. I don’t know if that affects the sound. I expect so – everything does.

quick test shows 3 of the ALPS faders a
little scratchy, and the crossfader needs replacing.

all pots, switches & everything else
are absolutely fine. Good physical condition. Reeeeezult.

lovely EQ's. total kill to +5dB
(switchable to +15). pad switch on back panel for nobber DJ's, which makes it
fully raggable. lots of red lights, but not distorting, massive amount of
headroom. Ideal.

In an A/B test for sound quality against
the A&H V6 rotary mixer it was sadly lacking in the vocal test on the opus
test rig. Tbh, I’d never expect it to sound better than the Allen & Heath V6, it is over £3500 worth after all, but I had hoped
it would be a bit better. The difference was: the sclat lost all the
spacialness heard on the V6. Then, a fairer comparison with my aging but highly
modified Vestax PMC500:

On straight through sound quality test the
vestax was better, but not by much. What was better though, on the sclat, was
that the EQ’s remain musical when turned up. The Vestax starts sounding very
shouty, especially when the mid is turned up, even just a little bit. For some
reason that I’ve never worked out most djs seem to like to turn all the eq’s up
‘just a little bit’ so this has been a problem for me in the past.

I’ve replaced all the audio ribbon cables
in my Vestax with silver-laced SPOFC van damme mic cable. I wonder if that’s
what makes the difference. I’ll try replacing the ribbons on one of the sclats.

Then a test of padded vs non padded on the
ecler sclat:

Definite improvement in openness on the
non padded, although this was with the dreaded vocals test, and without the
subs that we normally use on the test rig. This also was as expected.

Sclat's No's 2 & 3 are now here and
things are about to start getting confusing I expect, with channel strips &
faders all over the place.

Sclat No.3 arrived 1^st, the one
with the psu.

All functions work, but there is an earth
buzz going on. I noticed that one of the standoffs that hold the psu cable to
the mixer was missing, and the other loose, so maybe that’s part of the earth
connection. We’ll see.

No.2: all works fine, but all but one of
the faders are scratchy. The crossfader however is fine, so got swapped
straight into No.1 for one fully functioning mixer, and…. The 1^st
gig test!

1^st gig:

a weekend party in the woods near Taunton.
7k rig. I set up different channels with different internal switch settings on
different channel strips, so I could just swap them if there were any problems.

The sound was great! Really chuffed. The
bass was really solid, deep & clean, which more than made up for the
not-quite-so-good-as-the-V6 vocal range. Strangely, unlike the V6 A/B test, it  sounded really spacial. Not
sure what’s going on here. It might well be that the PSU on the test against
the V6 was cold, where as the V6 had been on all day.

I’ll have to go back & re-test that,
with the test subs this time.

It was really well behaved with the
levels, helped by the extremely accurate 13 bar LED displays. 4 of them,
assignable, but most useful with the 1^st 2 for PFL (cue) levels, and
the 2^nd 2 as master out.

All DJ’s looked a bit worried at 1^st,
but quickly got used to it, and really appreciated the good sound.

Some re-arrangement of the channels is
required to make it easier to locate the correct channel for a DJ.

I’m thinking I should put the output
section & crossfader in the middle, so I can set up 1 or 2 channels on each
side for decks & cd’s, and a couple of extra channels on the outside for
mics & lives. That then puts the headphone cable dragging across the mixer
surface, so I reckon I’ll install another jack output on the ½ strip spacers at
the side of the mixer. Problem solved.

Anyone else use Scats?

To be continued.

Edited by opus jody - 07 November 2010 at 11:08am

Author	Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic
opus jody Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 06 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1246	Post Options Post Reply Quote opus jody Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Ecler Sclat 100, Sclat 200vs review Posted: 18 August 2010 at 10:28am
	Well, i've been wanting to try one of these out for a looooong time, but the £2000+ price tag was slightly (majorly) out of reach It looks like a great studio mixer, a great mixer for systems, although no good for hard/snappy/scratchy mixing as theres too many channels, it’s too wide, and the 100mm faders are too long. The Sclat 100 came 1^st, which then got updated to a Sclat 200VS, which is fundamentally the same, but some changes. Notably, they must have realized that up to 8 phono (vinyl) inputs was ridiculous, so each phono input on the 200 is also assignable to line input, so 2 line input options on each phono channel strip, as well as the mic/line inputs on mic/line channels. So, one bored day many months after I gave up searching, I banged ‘sclat’ into the ebay search, and lo & behold there was one there. In fact, he had 2 of them in separate auctions, although the 2^nd one had no power supply. Both sold as seen etc, no guarantees. This said to me that it was most likely out of an install, where the seller most likely took them out as part of a P/X thing when a club got re-installed, or maybe closed down. A bit of research later found that an Ecler FA50 power supply would cost just over £100 inc delivery & vat, So, not very tempting for the 2nd 9yr old dj mixer. The 1^st one though was worth the risk though, I thought. So, I won the 1^st one (yay) but no-one bid on the 2^nd one, so I offered the guy some money for the 2^nd as spares, and he accepted. (yay) what's that saying? you wait for ages, then 3 come along at once? And so it was that a 3^rd sclat 100 turned up at the same time. A bit more tatty looking, and with some undisclosed problems, but with a power supply. Even better that 1 mixer out of 2, how about trying to get 2 good mixers out of 3? Yay, won that too Whilst gooogling the sclats, I found that there was very little in the way of proper reviews, just quotes from the ecler site’s marketing blurb, and the occasional ‘wow, fantastic’ from someone who’s just spent lots of money on a mixer, and wouldn’t be expected to be critical. That’s one of the reasons I’m going to do a proper review here of the mixers. Hopefully Google will find it for other people interested in the mixer, especially from the ‘rig control’ side of things, for which decent mixers are very hard to come by, and maybe some people on here might find it useful too. So, 1^st I’ll do a test of all the functions, and do any repairs necessary, then I’ll do a few modifications, and test the various internal settings for optimal rig control, and optimal studio control/sound quality. number 1 just arived: 1^st impressions: a lot of similar components to what we use in opus electronics. Same rotary pots, TL072’s, TL074’s, NE553’s, although the eclers are all microscopic surface mount components rather than the big bits we use. I don’t know if that affects the sound. I expect so – everything does. quick test shows 3 of the ALPS faders a little scratchy, and the crossfader needs replacing. all pots, switches & everything else are absolutely fine. Good physical condition. Reeeeezult. lovely EQ's. total kill to +5dB (switchable to +15). pad switch on back panel for nobber DJ's, which makes it fully raggable. lots of red lights, but not distorting, massive amount of headroom. Ideal. In an A/B test for sound quality against the A&H V6 rotary mixer it was sadly lacking in the vocal test on the opus test rig. Tbh, I’d never expect it to sound better than the Allen & Heath V6, it is over £3500 worth after all, but I had hoped it would be a bit better. The difference was: the sclat lost all the spacialness heard on the V6. Then, a fairer comparison with my aging but highly modified Vestax PMC500: On straight through sound quality test the vestax was better, but not by much. What was better though, on the sclat, was that the EQ’s remain musical when turned up. The Vestax starts sounding very shouty, especially when the mid is turned up, even just a little bit. For some reason that I’ve never worked out most djs seem to like to turn all the eq’s up ‘just a little bit’ so this has been a problem for me in the past. I’ve replaced all the audio ribbon cables in my Vestax with silver-laced SPOFC van damme mic cable. I wonder if that’s what makes the difference. I’ll try replacing the ribbons on one of the sclats. Then a test of padded vs non padded on the ecler sclat: Definite improvement in openness on the non padded, although this was with the dreaded vocals test, and without the subs that we normally use on the test rig. This also was as expected. Sclat's No's 2 & 3 are now here and things are about to start getting confusing I expect, with channel strips & faders all over the place. Sclat No.3 arrived 1^st, the one with the psu. All functions work, but there is an earth buzz going on. I noticed that one of the standoffs that hold the psu cable to the mixer was missing, and the other loose, so maybe that’s part of the earth connection. We’ll see. No.2: all works fine, but all but one of the faders are scratchy. The crossfader however is fine, so got swapped straight into No.1 for one fully functioning mixer, and…. The 1^st gig test! 1^st gig: a weekend party in the woods near Taunton. 7k rig. I set up different channels with different internal switch settings on different channel strips, so I could just swap them if there were any problems. The sound was great! Really chuffed. The bass was really solid, deep & clean, which more than made up for the not-quite-so-good-as-the-V6 vocal range. Strangely, unlike the V6 A/B test, it sounded really spacial. Not sure what’s going on here. It might well be that the PSU on the test against the V6 was cold, where as the V6 had been on all day. I’ll have to go back & re-test that, with the test subs this time. It was really well behaved with the levels, helped by the extremely accurate 13 bar LED displays. 4 of them, assignable, but most useful with the 1^st 2 for PFL (cue) levels, and the 2^nd 2 as master out. All DJ’s looked a bit worried at 1^st, but quickly got used to it, and really appreciated the good sound. Some re-arrangement of the channels is required to make it easier to locate the correct channel for a DJ. I’m thinking I should put the output section & crossfader in the middle, so I can set up 1 or 2 channels on each side for decks & cd’s, and a couple of extra channels on the outside for mics & lives. That then puts the headphone cable dragging across the mixer surface, so I reckon I’ll install another jack output on the ½ strip spacers at the side of the mixer. Problem solved. Anyone else use Scats? To be continued. Edited by opus jody - 07 November 2010 at 11:08am
	Improvised Hardware Music http://vimeo.com/user9389813/videos

opus jody Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 06 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1246	Post Options Post Reply Quote opus jody Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 August 2010 at 8:18pm
	Yay, all done for now. As expected, it got a bit confusing, but now, out of 3 there is apparently 2 fully working. during: after, mixer 1 at the back, with 6 x mic/line channels, and 2 x phono/line channels, in a live desk type set up, with the longer faders, and un-padded for maximum quality. then in the front, number 2, in DJ mode, with shorter faders, 2 phono/line channels on each side of the central output section, and 2 x mic/line channels for mics or laptop type lives on each end. i've padded all the central 4 for the dj's, and left the outside ones unpadded for more mic control, and any CD dj's i trust with levels: oh, and number 3. hmmm. £offers anyone? I'm off to test the number 2 this weekend, and probable at notting hill next weekend, so i'll be back later with the real life test results. see ya. Edited by opus jody - 07 November 2010 at 11:10am
	Improvised Hardware Music http://vimeo.com/user9389813/videos

The Builder Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 03 January 2010 Status: Offline Points: 3107	Post Options Post Reply Quote The Builder Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 August 2010 at 8:27pm
	Used these lots in Ibiza, 1990ish. I loved them. No crossfaders then, not even in Space IIRC. ;)

opus jody Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 06 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1246	Post Options Post Reply Quote opus jody Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 August 2010 at 8:35pm
	TBH the crossfaders are so 'snappy' that they must be intended for crabs & lobsters(!) or whatever. but then the real scratchers would want a different mixer, i would have thought. need variable slopes really.
	Improvised Hardware Music http://vimeo.com/user9389813/videos

opus jody Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 06 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1246	Post Options Post Reply Quote opus jody Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 August 2010 at 9:26pm
	Gig went well. the mixer was solid. totally well behaved. 1st act was bizarrely 2 violins & a talking drum player. I needed phantom power for the DI's for the violins, so that was a result, actually having phantom power on the dj mixer! it's nice to be able to say 'yes, no problem'. I played some phat electro basslines & hi hats (pulled out the mid) over the top of them, and it really kicked the party off. electro folk. coool I didn't like the push button crossfader assign. some of the DJ's messed them all up, and i had to reset them all at least 3 times. the only other FAIL was having channel mute buttons just under the cue/PFL buttons. there was some very confused looking dj's at some points. pissed up djs just don't need buttons on the control surface that can mess the sound up. I think what i'm going to do is see if i can cut/sand down the crossfader assign & channel mutes so that they don't protrude out from the mixer. they'll still work, but will need to be pushed with a pointy thing (technical term) like the headphone jack. Speaking of headphone jacks, putting an extra headphone socket on the front edge of the mixer was definitely a good move. no problems with a dragging the cable over the mixer causing havok with the faders. Other than those problems, it was ace. really dependable levels. no distortion even when abused. the mic pre's sounded great with the violins, although i haven't tried proper voices yet. i'll do a test with a Neuman condenser next week. When testing the mixers I found a hell of a lot of noise & static on one, then the 2nd, then checked the 1st one again. still there. PSU? Ahhh, groundlift switch. mUUUUch better. really quiet now. That is what was messing up the midrange in the earlier tests. I got to test it on the rig last night, no music, but all faders & masters up. really quiet. better than my vestax which has a 'SHHHHHHHHH' sound when you turn everything up to max. that might well tip the balance on sound quality. This week I'll have another go against the V6, and the vestax, and some other mixers that are at the factory. this time through a big rig as well as the opus test rig. with warm PSU this time too. I'll try & get some pics this time. I'll put the mixer through the spectrum analiser too, so i can see where the EQ's operate. it is different to the vestax EQ's, which operate more like a crossovers level controls, ie frequency band level controls. the Sclat's mid bands low pass is possibly a touch too high, as when you cut the top, there's still a touch of hi hat going on. So, a few more mods to try, a bit more testing against other mixers, a bit of measuring, a studio test, then some conclusions. see ya. Edited by opus jody - 07 November 2010 at 11:14am
	Improvised Hardware Music http://vimeo.com/user9389813/videos

The Builder Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 03 January 2010 Status: Offline Points: 3107	Post Options Post Reply Quote The Builder Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 22 August 2010 at 10:12pm

	It just is.

stereo Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Registered User Joined: 19 March 2004 Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote stereo Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 September 2010 at 10:53am
	Great mixers,been using the 200vs since 2006,got it as a display unit from a shop in harrow for a very very good price

opus jody Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 06 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1246	Post Options Post Reply Quote opus jody Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 September 2010 at 7:58pm
	hi 'stereo'. did you get the fx section with yours? I'm intrigued to know if it will work in the 100's. more reviewing to follow shortly.
	Improvised Hardware Music http://vimeo.com/user9389813/videos

stereo Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Registered User Joined: 19 March 2004 Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote stereo Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 September 2010 at 11:46pm
	nope,no effects on mine

Louder than loud Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 13 May 2010 Location: Guildford Status: Offline Points: 2377	Post Options Post Reply Quote Louder than loud Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 September 2010 at 11:50pm
	nice

Louder than loud Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Old Croc Joined: 13 May 2010 Location: Guildford Status: Offline Points: 2377	Post Options Post Reply Quote Louder than loud Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29 September 2010 at 11:51pm
	Bet the DJM boys go mad about it

opus jody Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Young Croc Joined: 06 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1246	Post Options Post Reply Quote opus jody Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 11 October 2010 at 9:22pm
	i'm probably quite lucky in that i have a day job, so i don't need to take every job available, so I don't generally do gigs which involve DJM's. So, to continue... I found a great solution to the mute/crossfader assign button problem. on careful inspection I found that the offending buttons can just be pulled off with a pair of pointy plyers, leaving the base of the switch neatly just below the surface of the mixer. The switches can still be switched quite easily with a suitable pointy thing, like the smaller of the stereo headphone jacks normally found under the minijack-normal sized jack adapter on most headphones. consequently the mixers can quite easily be set up as required in advance, and switches switched as required. So crossfaders can be assigned, or bypassed, and not messed with if you're not there. extra channels can also be muted, to protect against any MC's that decide to plug themselves in whilst you're not looking. ideal! problem solved. I took them both out to a 2 room techno gig, which went really well, but for a couple of minor problems: one of the crossfaders vanished inside the mixer! obviously I hadn't done the 4 screws up tight enough! luckily it was somewhere in the middle position, so it didn't affect mixing with the vertical faders. the other problem was with one of the channel strips on the other mixer. for some reason, when rammed up to the top, the sound went really loud, scaring the s*** out of a few people! I'm guessing the switch that switches between +/_ 5dB and +/_ 15dB was dodgey, or dirty. not too much of a problem though - there's plenty more channels after all. i just plugged into the next door channel. it was right at the end of the night, and no harm done. I measured the eq's on the analizer, and the mid & top eq's do indeed overlap quite a bit. I'm guessing that the curves were chosen to give a flat response when all eq's are at the centre dent. after a bit of playing on the mixer I did get used to it. it's just not what I was used to. it's really noticable that boosting eq's doesn't mess the sound up, making it a very forgiving mixer when abused, and giving you a lot of scope for sound shaping when used properly. I've had a good go in my makeshift studio now, and really like all the mic inputs. really useful for putting mono sources into a channel without having to make up mutant splitter leads. eg, kick drum comes out of an assigned out of my sampler/sequencer, into a mono compressor, then into a mic channel via a DI box (powered by the mixers phantom power). mono synth doing basslines goes into the other channel of the compressor, and into another mic channel. aaaand, the uber fisherprice xylophone benefits from lovely powered condenser mics, aux sent to delays & reverbs. it really does do everything i wanted of it. ideal. I'll probably sell one of them, and look at getting the 3rd one up & running. it only needs a bunch of faders. I might possibly cut the chassis down, and make a 4 or 5 channel one for tight spaces, and leave me a few spare channel strips, just in case. cheers.
	Improvised Hardware Music http://vimeo.com/user9389813/videos