A
Impressive - still getting used to it, with some digital vs analogue nervousness
I bought this in November 2014, when the first consignment arrived at Thomann (to give me more channels than my combination of 14-channel analogue Mackie and Allen & Heath ICE-16 recorder, which works well).
Since then I've been exploring and getting used to it. It works well, sounds good, records fine so far (I use a solid stage external drive), and has so many facilities, more than I'll ever need, that I'm still exploring its possibilities.
It's very compact and light, smaller than the Mackie and even with the external power supply it's lighter; and the case that comes with it is very good, very light but well protective)
Unlike other digital mixers, there are plenty of aux sends so it can be used with external FX processors, not just the internal ones.
The taper on the gain pots is strangely different from most other mixers, but that seems to be intentional. So, with that and other obvious digital/analogue differences, transferring from an analogue mixer does involve some readjustment of one's norms.
The file structure of the multitrack recordings is different from the ICE-16, too, so that involves some re-learning.
With analogue equipment one just buys it and uses it; here as with much new digital equipment there has been an ongoing series of firmware upgrades. In the course of them most teething bugs seem to have been eliminated.
I'm still nervous, though, that one day at a critical time, far from home, it'll just have a digital glitch and refuse to work - this seems to be rare, but there are incidents reported on the Forum (which are dealt with very thoughtfully and helpfully by the QSC engineers), so at present I'm carrying the Mackie too as a backup, though if the glitch were to be in the middle of a gig that wouldn't be much help)
Since then I've been exploring and getting used to it. It works well, sounds good, records fine so far (I use a solid stage external drive), and has so many facilities, more than I'll ever need, that I'm still exploring its possibilities.
It's very compact and light, smaller than the Mackie and even with the external power supply it's lighter; and the case that comes with it is very good, very light but well protective)
Unlike other digital mixers, there are plenty of aux sends so it can be used with external FX processors, not just the internal ones.
The taper on the gain pots is strangely different from most other mixers, but that seems to be intentional. So, with that and other obvious digital/analogue differences, transferring from an analogue mixer does involve some readjustment of one's norms.
The file structure of the multitrack recordings is different from the ICE-16, too, so that involves some re-learning.
With analogue equipment one just buys it and uses it; here as with much new digital equipment there has been an ongoing series of firmware upgrades. In the course of them most teething bugs seem to have been eliminated.
I'm still nervous, though, that one day at a critical time, far from home, it'll just have a digital glitch and refuse to work - this seems to be rare, but there are incidents reported on the Forum (which are dealt with very thoughtfully and helpfully by the QSC engineers), so at present I'm carrying the Mackie too as a backup, though if the glitch were to be in the middle of a gig that wouldn't be much help)
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