SYDNEY — Having owned and used analog Soundcraft consoles for more than 10 years, Alan Jurcan, managing director of GenX Productions, had more than a passing interest in experimenting with their digital consoles.
“When I was invited to see and hear a demo of the Si Compact, I went in there with pretty high expectations especially after reading all the hype,” he said. “It didn’t take long for me to realize that this was a solid piece of gear, and I was amazed at how clean the signal path was, yet it didn’t sound harsh and retained all the classic Soundcraft characteristics and quality you would expect from a high end manufacture. I left that demo room saying to myself… I must have that console!”
It wasn’t long before Jurcan purchased his own Soundcraft Si Compact for use in his production work which is mainly live bands and events.
“I feel very confident in the build of Soundcraft products as I have never had a problem with them in the past so once I made the decision to move to the digital world and the Si Compact range was made available, it was quite an easy choice for me,” he said. “I had considered other digital consoles around the same price bracket but concluded that the Si Compact was the right choice for me and my business.
“The first thing I noticed when taking the console on the road was just how easy it was to setup a stage mix and FOH mix,” Jurcan continued. “It’s such a hands-on console – there is a knob or button for just about every control or function. There are no confusing menus or pages to go through – just simplicity and beauty.
“The great thing is that I am able to save absolutely everything I do on the console which I can totally recall at the next show,” he continued. “Whether it’s the FOH mix, monitor mix, EQ settings, compression/gate settings or even just the track names, it will remember everything. This has really cut down on setup times, especially for those artists that I work with on a regular basis. I am able to pre-configure the settings for a particular artist or show without even opening the console case via the Soundcraft Virtual Si computer software which is also a major time saver.
“The DSP power in the Si Compact is unlimited… by this I mean you can’t max out the DSP… run what you like, when like, how you like,” Jurcan added. “The Lexicon effect processors in the console are just magical. Lush reverbs, great stereo, tap delays and many other goodies can be found in an external Lexicon effect unit. I must also note that the compressor section in this console is superb. You can compress pretty hard and still not hear unwanted compression artifacts that you sometimes can notice with other compressors.”
Two days after taking shipment of his console, Jurcan had it patched into the main rig and off it went on a show.
“We packed up the out-board EQ racks and effect processors and replaced them with the Si Compact,” he said, adding that, “surely enough, it delivered the goods. Unfortunately the console left without the gooseneck lamp that afternoon and I soon found myself working in the dark! Not something I wanted to do with a new console. Luckily Soundcraft had something to offer me in this situation in way of the one and only FaderGlow system. I could easily keep track of where I was on the console just by looking at the colors of the FaderGlow system. Also, just about every button on the console has a backlight and the in-built screen was able to show me exactly what I was dialing in. Apart from using the most important thing (my ears) this was enough to work the console in complete darkness – I was amazed.”
Jurcan admitted that at first he felt naked without all of his out-board gear but he soon discovered that by having all the processing on-board and no external gear, it simplifies the patching and cut down setup time dramatically.
“Even though the console is digital it still has that element of analog sound and still carries that signature Soundcraft sound,” he added. “I absolutely love this purchase and I would highly recommend anyone.”
For more information, please visit www.jands.com.au.
