| Re: APB Dynasonics Spectra-T - Show Report [message #133150 is a reply to message #132840 ] |
Sun, 25 June 2006 11:05   |
 Tom Young
Messages: 1694
Registered: April 2004
Location: Oxford CT |
Has No Life |
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While I appreciate Brad's (and others') preference for separate output faders, I harken back to why I recommended (very strongly) to Chuck that these buses be on a single VCA fader: my concern that overzealous and un-technically oriented mixers would corrupt the balance that had been very intentionally achieved between subs and upper-range ldspkrs in a painstakingly optimized system with aux-fed subs.
Bearing in mind that the clientelle I serve is balanced somewhere between secular performance spaces and HOW, the majority of these users do not necessarily understand why upsetting this (crossover) balance is something to avoid. In my experience; screwing around with this without understanding what is occuring to the acoustic crossover is potentionally far more destructuve than simply using liberal channel-strip EQ tweaks and other user-adjustable processing functions.
I respect the reality that many folks here on LAB *and* in the trenches do understand all this (and may chose to not follow the restraint that I do) OR that some folks may simply not subscribe to the concept of aux fed subs. Therefore perhaps it will be a good thing to design a future product that allows either method/functionality. If this is developed further I would prefer to have some method to maintain crossover balance as Chuck has proposed.
Brad -
just out of curiosity, why can't you achieve (the same) alternate mixes via matrix buses or aux buses ? Or is it an issue of the quantities of alternate mixes that you need ?
Tom Young
Electroacoustic Design Services
Oxford CT
Tel: 203.888.6217
Email: dbspl@earthlink.net
www.dbspl.com
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| Re: APB Dynasonics Spectra-T - Show Report [message #134889 is a reply to message #127497 ] |
Mon, 03 July 2006 16:08 |
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John Horvath
Messages: 902
Registered: April 2004
Location: Merrillville, Indiana |
Has No Life |
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Chuck, can you post MSRP and/or MAPP pricing for both the T & C series?
Thank you!
-John
Alan Pro Audio
219-769-3600
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| Re: APB Dynasonics Spectra-T - Show Report [message #136230 is a reply to message #132827 ] |
Mon, 10 July 2006 20:42 |
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I recently had the pleasure of mixing on a Crest V-12 which, at first blush, seems to be the inspiration of a lot of the APB feature set, and certainly one of many past products to be proud of. It had a similar LED tied to VCA activity. Overall a very nice experience... VCA's and audio groups on the same console at the same time... something I don't get very often!!!
[quote title=Michael 'Bink' Knowles wrote on Fri, 23 June 2006 10:38]| Quote: |
...I like the variable intensity LED labeled CV on each input that tells you how much all the VCA assignments on it are opened up--what the effective level adds up to. -Bink
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| Re: APB Dynasonics Spectra-T - Show Report [message #136344 is a reply to message #136230 ] |
Tue, 11 July 2006 11:18 |
Chuck Augustowski
Messages: 111
Registered: April 2004
Location: CT (Home) / NJ (Company) |
Has No Life |
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We are very proud of the V12 console though it was some time since we did the design work on this product in a previous life. The only negatives were that it was a little to late (H3000 was introduced at nearly the same time) and it was a little too big in depth.
Thanks,
Chuck Augustowski
APB-DynaSonics
[Updated on: Tue, 11 July 2006 11:34]
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| Re: APB Dynasonics Spectra-T - Show Report [message #137419 is a reply to message #127497 ] |
Sat, 15 July 2006 13:27 |
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Hey, everyone. As many of you have read in the LAB already, APB were kind enough to lend me a 32 frame Spectra T for a few weeks, and I immediately put it to use.
I have never in my life had a show sound this good this easily. Everything I've mixed through the Spectra so far has been a breeze and sounded great... it gives me every bit of control I need without being complicated, and makes it very easy to get an at-a-glance view of how my mix is going... the metering is fantastic. I purposefully laid in only rough gains for a few channels to see what would happen if I over drove a channel or had to get loads of make up gain from a VCA... the board handled both situations beautifully. I had to clip one vocal 10dB or so before it started to be apparent. Amazing.
If there was ever an EQ strip to fall in love with, this one's it, by the way. Powerful, responsive... I find myself making 2-3 dB boosts and cuts and needing nothing more. On my kick channel I just barely had to get the gain knob off the detent and... snap! There's my click. This is nothing like any other EQ I've ever used in this price range, and the addition of "narrow" buttons next to the swept mids and "bell/shelf" buttons next to the swept highs and lows make it so close to parametric that I certainly wan't missing the additional control.
I am astonished at the clarity of the console... imaging is spectacular, and I don't have to resort to my usual tricks to get separation between instruments in the mix. It's like I've been driving a Ford Focus for the last several years and someone's lent me a Ferrari.
I am very much looking forward to some upcoming shows so I can use more of the capability of the console. For me it's got more flexibility than I have need or equipment for... with four matrices and 10 auxes on faders I can do a big outdoor show with delays and front fill, run a rough mixdown of the mains to the camera guy (transformer isolated!), run a Q&D stereo mix to my laptop, and use auxes 9 & 10 to mix down to a CD or something with a limiter inserted on the outs. Meanwhile I've still got all sorts of outputs left over... man is it nice to not feel cramped.
This console has some extremely professional features for the "power-user" engineer, like pre-fader bus levels on bi-color LEDs for every aux and main out, like VCA unity LEDs, and like control voltage LEDs next to every fader so when your kick isn't coming up you can look and notice you've accidentally assigned it to VCA 8, hence no gain. These features and more make it simple to get a look "under the hood" and see what your signals are doing before they hit an output. Add in the ability to route almost anything almost anywhere and back (including your aux outs) plus a comprehensive talkback section and multiple external inputs for matrices and what have you... well, it's a killer feature set. If I wanted to go over all the little details I've noticed it would take more text than anyone wants to read.
I highly suggest anyone looking into a reliable (dual psu and robust circuit board construction), great sounding, powerful mixing board get a demo. I know it's at the top of my Christmas list.
I'm not going to pretend that there aren't a few little things that bother me, but I think they've been well covered already, seeing as they almost all have to do with either buttons next to the faders or buttons that are hard to tell whether they're engaged or not. Since that's almost entirely a cost issue, I'd rather have unlit buttons and more of them so that I can buy a desk this flexible for what a few years ago wouldn't have landed me much of anything.
By the way, I took some photos from my first APB factory visit a few months ago, thought I'd post them here: http://www.campuspa.com/images/apb/index.html
-- Bennett Prescott
Director of North American Sales
EONA ADRaudio d.o.o.
Cell: (518) 488-7190
An amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices until they can't get it wrong.
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| Re: APB Dynasonics Spectra-T - Show Report [message #137426 is a reply to message #137422 ] |
Sat, 15 July 2006 14:01 |
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Chuck is fond of saying to me: "We can make good products because we've made every possible mistake in the past".
[Updated on: Sat, 15 July 2006 14:02]
-- Bennett Prescott
Director of North American Sales
EONA ADRaudio d.o.o.
Cell: (518) 488-7190
An amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices until they can't get it wrong.
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| Re: APB Dynasonics Spectra-T - Show Report [message #137448 is a reply to message #137435 ] |
Sat, 15 July 2006 15:12 |
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Andy Peters
Messages: 5800
Registered: April 2004
Location: Tucson, AZ |
Has No Life
Contrarian |
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| John Roberts {JR} wrote on Sat, 15 July 2006 12:42 |
That's why console designers have flat foreheads from smacking themselves with the heel of their hand with every new discovery.
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That's not limited to console designers.
Signed,
Dimwit Flathead
PS: two bucks via paypal to the first person who gets that reference.
"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."
"Your band isn't good enough for my PA."
"On the Internet, nobody can hear you mix a band."
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) 4 Vote(s)
That's why console designers have flat foreheads from smacking themselves with the heel of their hand with every new discovery. Like good inventions they're always obvious "after" you see them. The biggest PIA is that so many of the subtle interactions don't show up until you have a frame loaded full of boards. If you knew enough to build an accurate computer model you'd know enough to not need to model it.
