Post by s***@gmail.comLuther,
My professional advice is to NEVER shop at Sam Ash unless you already
know exactly the product you're looking for and you've verified they
carry it for less than anyone else. Gina made a big mistake buying any
of that crap, it's on the border of consumer gear. In addition, NEVER
trust a piece of Behringer equipment. The price may be tempting, but it
is a reflection of their quality. I've used about 7 different Behringer
products, four of which failed in the first year of use, two of those
failed in the first month. Behringer is happy to send you a
replacement, but when you lose your console in the middle of a show,
are they going to pay for the income/reputation you're losing? Their
gear is great if you're a highschool student in a garage band, but if
you want to sound professional I suggest you take Nathan's or Craig's
advice. Allen & Heath are great sounding, rugged boards with routing
capabilities that rival studio consoles. Digital boards are amazing,
Tascam and Yamaha make great products (Yamaha makes good analog
consoles as well). However digital can get expensive when you need a
large number of mic pres. If you go with digital, be sure to ask about
the quality of the A/D converters, these sample the analog signal and
convert it to digital information. Sample rates refer to the number of
times a second the sampler measures the signal, so the higher the
number the better. Digital word length is refered to in bits, this
determines the amount of dynamic range/detail that the sampler can
measure. Again the higher the number the better. A CD is sampled at
44.1 MHz (44100 times a second) with 16bit word length. Professional
audio recordings are usually higher (96 or 192 MHz and 24, 36, and 48
standard. Just remeber that when it comes to professional audio, you
get what you pay for (shopping for the lowest priced brands usually
ensures poor quality gear, like Gina's stuff)
Good luck
Travis
A few more words about the digital consoles with respect to Travis's
comments. The Yamaha 01V96 is the only one of the three I mentioned that can
do true 24/96 with full processing. The DDX3216, which I think is a great
console (I have one, and given the price, was willing to take a risk), is
limited to 24 bits/48 kHz. But, the advantage is that it has the ability to
support 16 busses, which is really great if you plan to do recording of live
stuff. You can actually send separate mixes to your FOH amps and to your
digital or HD recorder while still sending four discrete monitor mixes. The
DM-24 has 24/96 capability in theory, but you loose channels and FX at this
sample rate; you only get to its full potential at 24/48. The 01V96 was
designed from the start with 24 bits/96 kHz. It is really an outstanding
console in nearly all respects (save that it's an 8-buss console if memory
serves me). It's also considerably more expensive than a DDX3216. But, when
you look at what each of these digital boards has to offer and compare the
feature list to the analog boards you would be looking at in that price
range, I think you would also come to the conclusion that one of these
digital boards will probably suit you better in the long run. Yes, you will
need to add some additional preamps (again, for a cheap solution, caveats
notwithstanding, the Behringer ADA8000 seems to be getting good marks from
many here; more expensive ones are also available, such as the Octopre's or
the Presonus units). But, you can have some flexibility in this respect,
including picking up some AES/EBU or SPDIF input boxes so that you can run
keyboards, PODs direct in digital to the console. I reiterate that a major
advantage to the digital boards is the fact that you can save your settings
as snapshots. With more complex work, you can even automate your board to
track MIDI or SPMTE, a real plus for any theatrical work that may show up in
your venue.
A couple more words about what the OP asked for, namely the Carvin boards. I
have not mixed on the SL/40, but I have worked with some of their powered
mixers (the PA1200?). I've not been very impressed by that box. It seems to
have plenty of power, but skimped on things that most would need for live
work. For example, the pre's on it lacked any real headroom (which I think
was the root cause of feedback problems we encountered before getting better
consoles). They also lacked channel inserts or useable EQs/FX. I realize
that the SL/40 is their top of the line range, so they may have much
improved pre's and the DO have channel inserts and 4 band channel EQs with
sweepable mids. Overall, we have never had any problems with Carvin gear. In
my opinion, the gear they build seems to be fairly solid. As mentioned, we
have some of their amps, PA heads, speakers, wedges, etc. All have performed
admirably. I've been especially impressed with their power amps (especially
the DCM2000 + range). I think they are priced quite well for what they
offer. I'm not certain about any rider requirements, but I'd think that
their gear might not be as friendly to outside acts as other brands such as
the A&H board mentioned, or the 01V96. In that case, you'd probably want to
fill out your amp racks with Crown or QSC and not bother with any Carvin or
Behringer in your signal chain. In our case, we make our own rider ;) so it
doesn't count.