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  #1  
Old 05-04-2016, 03:06 PM
stucker stucker is offline
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Default Soundcraft Signature Series Mixers

Does anyone have experience with any of the new Soundcraft Signature series mixers? They appear to be Soundcraft's response to the popular Allen & Heath ZED series mixers but with some more features and a better price point.

I'm most interested in the Signature 16 (12 XLR inputs) but can't find one locally and found only a few reviews online.
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  #2  
Old 05-04-2016, 04:49 PM
lschwart lschwart is offline
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These don't seem widely available yet--and the multitrack versions seem not available yet at all.

I've been waiting, too......

Louis
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Old 05-04-2016, 07:09 PM
smoky smoky is offline
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I've got my eye on the sig10. There is a lot of features at a decent price. Availability hasn't been there for past months, but is shipping now. I'll probably Own one soon. Smoky
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Old 07-27-2016, 04:32 PM
mrmurph mrmurph is offline
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I've got a signature 12 (non multitracking) on the way, it should arrive Thursday or Friday this week. I'll try to post a first impression sometime this weekend.
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Old 07-31-2016, 06:28 PM
mrmurph mrmurph is offline
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My Sig 12 came in yesterday, so I spent a couple of hours messing around with it last night.

First impression...I really like it ! I've been playing my acoustic gigs through a Bose LT1 series 2 with the T1 mixer (4 channels) and have gotten channel-restricted when playing duo gigs with 2 vocals and multiple guitars, so I was looking for a compact mixer with: great sound, at least 8 inputs, straighforward operation etc. I also considered the Allen and Heath Zed 12, as I've had a GL2400 for many years and love the way it sounds.

Anyway, I plugged in 3 guitars: an early 70s Martin D-35 with K&K mini, a Collings SJ with K&K mini and internal mic (stereo), and an early Rainsong with the onboard Fishman US and internal mic blender system. I tried the Martin and Collings both with pre-amps (K&K and DTAR Solstice for the Collings) and both of them plugged directly into the mixer. Just some fiddling with the EQ and I got great sound out of all the guitars.

Speaking of the EQ, I really like having the knobs there where I can see approximately where the EQ is set on each channel--without having to scroll through a bunch of settings they way you have to on the T1. The EQ is intuitive to use and I was able to dial in a great sound for each channel pretty quickly.

The vocals were XLR into the board and sounded great. I think the sound is a bit more "refined" sounding than I've been getting with the T1. This may be due to the excellent Ghost pre-amps that Soundcraft is putting into the Signature Series.

The onboard effects are by Lexicon and sound great as expected. There are a lot more effects than i'll ever use, I tend to use reverb and just a touch of chorus sometimes. But there are a lot of choices of reverb-types (ie plate, hall, spring etc.) and some combinations like reverb/delay, reverb/chorus etc. that are useful.

Signal routing is pretty robust for a small mixer, with groups 1/2 and aux. I used the aux channel and routed it to the Bose LT1 via the 1/4 aux out.

The mixer itself is pretty small (15"x15.3") and lightweight and made out of sheetmetal. It's light and compact enough that I set it on a Manhasset music stand right next to my mic stand, to have it "at hand" while playing. I think I'll just go with that setup at my gigs, very convenient.

The faders and buttons etc are pretty nice, again for a small mixer. They are not in the same class as a large console mixer like the Allen & Heath GL2400, but it's not targeted at that market so... There is a mute for each channel and separate faders for groups and well as a Master. The Groups can be kept separate for stereo signal output or summed for mono.

So overall, I'm very happy with it. The things that caused me to go with the Sig 12 over the Zed 12 were the upgraded pre-amps and the Lexicon effects, and a better price-point. I'll start using it on gigs next weekend and we'll see how it does over the long haul..but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone based on what I've seen and heard so far !

Hope this helps anyone who is considering one.
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  #6  
Old 08-01-2016, 05:36 AM
canerod canerod is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmurph View Post
My Sig 12 came in yesterday, so I spent a couple of hours messing around with it last night.

First impression...I really like it ! I've been playing my acoustic gigs through a Bose LT1 series 2 with the T1 mixer (4 channels) and have gotten channel-restricted when playing duo gigs with 2 vocals and multiple guitars, so I was looking for a compact mixer with: great sound, at least 8 inputs, straighforward operation etc. I also considered the Allen and Heath Zed 12, as I've had a GL2400 for many years and love the way it sounds.

Anyway, I plugged in 3 guitars: an early 70s Martin D-35 with K&K mini, a Collings SJ with K&K mini and internal mic (stereo), and an early Rainsong with the onboard Fishman US and internal mic blender system. I tried the Martin and Collings both with pre-amps (K&K and DTAR Solstice for the Collings) and both of them plugged directly into the mixer. Just some fiddling with the EQ and I got great sound out of all the guitars.

Speaking of the EQ, I really like having the knobs there where I can see approximately where the EQ is set on each channel--without having to scroll through a bunch of settings they way you have to on the T1. The EQ is intuitive to use and I was able to dial in a great sound for each channel pretty quickly.

The vocals were XLR into the board and sounded great. I think the sound is a bit more "refined" sounding than I've been getting with the T1. This may be due to the excellent Ghost pre-amps that Soundcraft is putting into the Signature Series.

The onboard effects are by Lexicon and sound great as expected. There are a lot more effects than i'll ever use, I tend to use reverb and just a touch of chorus sometimes. But there are a lot of choices of reverb-types (ie plate, hall, spring etc.) and some combinations like reverb/delay, reverb/chorus etc. that are useful.

Signal routing is pretty robust for a small mixer, with groups 1/2 and aux. I used the aux channel and routed it to the Bose LT1 via the 1/4 aux out.

The mixer itself is pretty small (15"x15.3") and lightweight and made out of sheetmetal. It's light and compact enough that I set it on a Manhasset music stand right next to my mic stand, to have it "at hand" while playing. I think I'll just go with that setup at my gigs, very convenient.

The faders and buttons etc are pretty nice, again for a small mixer. They are not in the same class as a large console mixer like the Allen & Heath GL2400, but it's not targeted at that market so... There is a mute for each channel and separate faders for groups and well as a Master. The Groups can be kept separate for stereo signal output or summed for mono.

So overall, I'm very happy with it. The things that caused me to go with the Sig 12 over the Zed 12 were the upgraded pre-amps and the Lexicon effects, and a better price-point. I'll start using it on gigs next weekend and we'll see how it does over the long haul..but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone based on what I've seen and heard so far !

Hope this helps anyone who is considering one.
Thanks for the input. The MTK version is readily available these days, as well. I'm most likely going to pull the trigger on one very soon. The ability to use it for multi channel tracking in my home studio, in addition to using it as a live mixer, makes it a no brainer.
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