Midas Siena Mixing Console
By Mark Amundson
Midas does not give the competition a rest when it comes to new console introductions. Just when you thought the Midas Verona was settling in to dominate the sub-$20,000 console market, out comes the Midas Siena to augment the Verona in monitor mixing and dual FOH/mon applications. And Midas had the good sense to leave the great Verona mic pre's and strip EQs alone, and then add a pile of monitor mixer creature comforts into the master section. And those 16 aux sends are plenty for most shows. In reviewing the Siena 40-channel console, I started with a typical monitor beach configuration with 24 channels of inputs and an EV Xw12 wedge for cueing, in addition to my trusty headphones. I was provided with several mixes worth of Klark-Teknik DN9340 Helix digital EQs for inserting on the monitor mix outputs. With the RS-232 serial port cable attached between the Siena and the Helix, each mix appeared on the Helix frequency response display using the Solo Tracking System (STS) feature as I would solo the mixes, thus making overall mix tweaks and feedback hunting a quick task.
See the Knobs
Each of the 40 input channels has a TRS line input and XLR input, with the line input already having a 15dB pad in line. Another switchable 15dB pad is available, in addition to the now-standard polarity and phantom switches. The pre-amp gain control is from +15 to +60dB, with plenty of numeric legends for precise settings. And an insert switch permits activation of the insert jack, making the TRS jack simpler and more reliable, and you do not have reach over and pull the plug out when pulling an insert.
The Midas Siena EQ section is right out of the Verona design, but with a tight one-octave sweepable passband on each of the four EQ bands. And each channel has an additional high-pass filter that is switchable, plus a corner frequency control for 20Hz to 400Hz selection. Two switches at the bottom of each EQ strip are for total EQ bypass or EQ insertion on pre-fader aux buss selections.
The 16 aux sends are grouped into pairs and located with two switches for pre/post selection. While the master section chooses the aux pairs for mono or stereo configuration, the top switch handles mono pre/post fader buss selection, and the bottom switch for the stereo pre/post fader buss selection. When in stereo mode, the top control is the pan and the bottom control is the stereo level. This is important to remember when frequently confronting different brands of monitor consoles.
While each channel still has 100mm faders, five auto-mute groups, L-R master routing and four-LED metering (-18, 0, +12, +18dB), the master section is where it all happens. To conserve space, one through eight aux masters are above the nine through 16 aux masters, plus each master buss has an associated 16-LED (-24dB to +21dB) meter bargraph. To accommodate the FOH/mon configuration, the nine through 16 aux busses also get L-R route switches and pan controls if subgroups are important for FOH control. Each pair of aux masters has a stereo/mono selection switch, and each master also has a single auto-mute switch for that instantaneous "kill all mixes" reaction when the feedback devil arises.
The monitor section contains the full complement of talkback flexibilities, like the Verona, to grab each aux buss individually or in combinations. A sine-wave generator also cohabits the talkback buss to inject test tones to check lines or excite mixes on the verge of ringing.
The other powerful monitoring feature is the soloing function. Instead of latching PFL/solo switches, your solo selection will follow your latest whim, or add the hit of the solo-add switch and pile on channels or masters to your cue mix. And the solo-clear switch is handy to erase the cue mix and start all over again. In normal cases, you can just ride the L-R stereo buss until you need channel or master adjustment; the solo hierarchy will hold the L-R below the masters, with individual channels having priority over everything else. All this in a 143.3-lb chassis with built-in redundant power supplies.
At the Beach
When mixing up things up at monitor beach, the Siena spoiled me rotten with the precise EQ sections and metering everywhere. Running line checks and setting up mixes was very intuitive and a joy. And with the Helixes tracking my every solo move, feedback had no chance when rung out before the show and tracked during.
Looking for niggles, everything kept pointing back to me and my limited familiarity with the Siena. But once you have a gig's worth of time riding monitors on the Siena, it is the lap of luxury. And the mid-upper price range of this console is appropriate for the quality of mic pre's, EQ section and complete routing and monitoring of the mixes. The Siena should be your "trapped on a desert island" console, as it can do so many things well.
What it is: Midas Siena Mixing Console
Who it's for: Monitor beach denizens wanting every feature to handle a lot of mixes and FOH engineers who want flexibility.
Pros: Great monitoring and metering, clean mic pre's and EQ.
Cons: Just the human at the controls.
How much: Midas Siena 40-ch $27,895 (touring package); $24,326.67 (install package)
dbx DriveRack 260
By Bill Evans
In the beginning, there was the drive rack (note the lower case, non-branded designation). Okay, to be fair, in the beginning, you were lucky if you had a single system EQ, but as pro audio marched on and toys like compressors and system delay and variable crossovers became more common, the lower-case drive rack was born. This was an actual rack of anywhere from four to 20 spaces that contained all of the control goodies you needed to tame a system and tailor it to the room. But after a while, some savvy Brits at a company called Brooke Siren Systems figured out how to put most of that into one unit, which they dubbed Soundweb. It was expensive, not really intuitive, and found mostly in high-end installs.
As digital power increased and DSP got cheaper, manufacturers figured out they could do all that and a bag of chips with a mess of, well, chips, and today, system controllers abound. There are excellent system controllers made by a slew of companies, but the undisputed market leader–at least in terms of sheer number of units in use, especially in the live sound arena–is dbx, and their line called DriveRack. Unless you have been living in a cave for the past few years, you have seen and likely worked with at least one of these units. It is getting pretty rare for me not to see some sort of system control on every show I cover, and DriveRack is easily the most common. With that in mind, we are gonna keep this short and sweet.
The Gear
The 260 lies pretty much in the middle of the DriveRack line, above the entry-level DriveRack P.A. and below the pro-touring 400 series. On the front panel, you get an LCD screen (nice and bright for those outdoor gigs) and a scroll wheel alongside a console of buttons that allow you to access all of the DriveRack's myriad functions, plus meters for overall I/O and output for each of the six XLRs on the back panel. Back panel also has a pair of XLR ins (actually, three, counting the RTA mic input), RS232 port, Wall Panel Controller port (RJ-45), plus an on/off switch and IEC cable input for AC power.
Everything is metal except the buttons and wheel, and the 260 is built to take it. We used it in and out of a rack and dropped it a couple of times on purpose just to make sure it would make it through typical roadie abuse, and it had no problems.
Upon powering the unit up, you can scroll through a bunch of presets that are written with "typical" system setups in mind. You can probably find a preset that matches your setup as far as basic configuration as a starting point. If you are using JBL and Crown components, there are presets written specifically for many of their models. On the speaker end, there are some (that would be 11) non-Harman (read: non-JBL) choices, but the amp presets are all Crown. Herein lies my first and only real bitch about this unit: The first DriveRack I used was a DriveRack P.A., and I seem to remember that it had WAY more component choices, and there was even talk of an online forum where users could submit presets based on other systems for download. Kudos to dbx for bucking the trend toward the corporate "if it's not made here, it doesn't exist" philosophy; still, it would be nice to see more driver choices and some non-Crown amps included in the presets. OK, anti-corporate rant over…
Once you have gotten your speaker con- figuration handled, you can start diving into the crossovers, EQ, delay, etc. to make your system really hum. The 260 even includes dbx's very good feedback elimination system, which makes it a killer app for monitors.
You also get a CD with software and what I hear is a very nice GUI interface, but it only runs on PCs and I am a die-hard Mac guy. Please, manufacturers of all stripes, please know that Mac software versions would make life much nicer for many of us. Remember, lots of creative types still use Macs. (I was at a big theatre install the other day where anyone listening to me and the sound guys talking about our home networks would have thought he had stumbled into a Mac convention.) Bottom line, I hear it's a very nice addition, but I could not use it.
The Gigs
We used the 260 as both an FOH and monitor controller, and threw some stuff at it that it was never really meant for. First up, Jerry Hogerson from Star Enterprises came out and measured a set of three-way-plussub powered cabs. He found that using the internal crossover in the sub to feed the top boxes left us with some rather large phase issues that we were able to fix once he told us just how much delay was needed. (More about this process in a future article, but for now, thanks Jerry.) The parametric EQ took care of a nasty honk in the high mids, and overall, the system sounded better than it ever has using the internal processing.
Second gig was on monitors where the 260 was pretty much overkill, but it actually saved the gig. Had a couple of old wedges that had not been used since the last time I loaned them out and, of course, being busy with a move and such, did not take the time to check 'em before driving from Vegas to L.A. for the gig. A driver in one of the wedges was toasted and badly distorting. These wedges were to cover a five-piece horn section, and the band leader specified that their wedges had to be very loud to keep them from overblowing. Between a couple of levels of EQ to yank out the part of the spectrum that was breaking up–and the FRS to keep errant squeals under control–we actually got through the gig without a single monitor complaint. Well, almost. The bass player actually kept asking for his wedge to be turned down. Love that.
Conclusion
There are tons of system controllers out there in about every price range you can imagine, and while all of them do basically the same thing, not all EQs (or comps or delays or anything) are equal. The DriveRack stuff works, is built to take it and, considering how deep the 260 is in terms of capabilities, it is intuitive enough that most guys with some experience can figure it out. I mean, you're not gonna give it to a drummer, but pretty much anyone else.
What it is: System controller
Who it's for: Control freaks and anyone needing to take a system or room.
Pros: Good sound, deep capabilities, quiet and as intuitive as you can expect from a unit like this.
Cons: Would like to see more non-Harman presets and a Mac GUI.
How much: $1,299.95 MSRP
Production Intercom HD903 Half-Duplex Operation
By Brian Klijanowicz
As we sound folks grow up and move from the do-it-all-yourself gigs to jobs where we get some help humping gear, and finally to gigs where you have a monitor position and an FOH position and some backline or stage crew, communication becomes more and more important. So why do so many of us resort to trying to yell at each other between positions? I have seen sound crews on a budget trying to use those $20 walkie-talkies you get at Wal-Mart which, invariably, have their frequency range clogged with kids making dastardly plans or their parents trying to figure out where their dangerous offspring have gotten off to. Some try to rely on cell phones, which can work, but in an emergency, do you really want to look up the number, dial it and wait for it to ring, or look down and find out that you have no coverage bars?
Most of you who are above the anklebiter stage have some kind of wired intercom system but wouldn't it be nice to have wireless capabilities? Yeah, it would be nice–nice and expensive. As is often the case with real breakthroughs, a smaller company that makes its own line of wired and wireless intercoms has come up with a system that can add wireless capabilities to your existing wired intercom for a lot less money than you might expect.
The Gear
The unit we got came packed in a fourspace SKB rack that contained two units. The bottom three spaces were taken up with the Production Intercom base station, and the last space with a rack mount interface that goes between the base station and your wired system (in our case, a Clear-Com). Note that the base station can be used as a standalone transceiver or tied into an existing system.
We opened the case with anticipation. The FOH folks had given us the gear, but left out some of the necessary paperwork. Add to that the fact that Production Intercom people wanted to make sure we had everything we could possibly need, and so included some stuff that we didn't. We ended up with extra parts and a little confusion. That, however, was quickly alleviated with a call to Glen and Sibbelina at Production Intercom, who set us straight. Once we knew what we were doing, set up was quick and easy. Options are available for both walkie-talkies (belt packs) and headsets that plug into the belt packs. We used both.
The Production Intercom system is an FM transceiver, and I do not even want to think about how they are handling local licensing issues because this sucker is strong. (Production Intercom says that they have a service which will scout the available frequencies in a given area and do all the FCC stuff. You wind up with four frequencies for 10 years and the total cost is $300.) I am pretty sure they said five watts (Production Intercom also says that it's actually capable of 50 watts, but they usually program it for a lower power) and compared it to a typical college radio station. The range is said to be up to two miles.
The Gigs
The unit came with a pair of 50-foot co-axial cables and two antennae that were mounted on a couple of metal pieces custom- made to zip-tie to a pole. Very handy.
We fired it up, and it just worked. No problems. No dropouts. No dead zones. The "attention" buzzer could be louder as I missed it a couple of times during loud shows but–especially with the headsets–I never had any problems actually communicating with my fellow crew members.
This unit came in especially handy on this particular pair of gigs. We have been doing sound at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, a several-block-long covered area with two stages two blocks apart, and bands playing on both stages all night. The company I work for has had both stages for a while now, and while we have a couple of wired intercoms for each stage, we had resorted to "borrowing" a golf cart from security to shuttle messages back and forth between the stages.
This weekend, we had .38 Special on the A stage on Friday and Saturday night, featured Dickey Betts on the A stage and some cover band opening for an Ozzy Osbourne tribute called Unauthorized Ozzy on the B Stage. It was Bike Week in Vegas, so these gigs were even more crowded than usual, 8,000 to 10,000 people at each stage. The golf cart would have been tough.
To further complicate things, Vegas is not an RF-friendly town. Not only do you have hundreds of channels of wireless in use on dozens of stages, but every casino has a security force with their own walkie-talkies, and things can get weird. But we never had any problems. No idea if the security folks were hearing us, but we never heard them. I am pretty sure I have the boss convinced to buy 'em.
What it is: FM Wireless standalone communications or add-on to existing wireless system.
Who it's for: Anyone who is working multiple stages or needs to extend an existing wireless system.
Pros: It just works. You get seven hours on a belt pack charge and it only takes about an hour to recharge. And there is a cool little LED that changes from orange to green as it recharges.
Cons: Belt packs could be louder.
How much: Five-radio/five-headset system $5,742 MSRP.
