GLD – USB Expansion Card

[dcongdonParticipant]

Now that the QU-24 has USB multitrack capability, when will we see a cheap expansion card for the GLD series for basic virtual soundcheck? The Dante Card obviously provides more up/down stream horsepower, but for quick soundchecks a cheap USB card would be very helpful. Can this be done?

[GCumbeeParticipant]

No offense if this is what you like or want to do but personally I think people are just getting too spoiled with technology. I know a case can be made but as a long time engineer I will be the one to say that the whole virtual sound check is somewhat of a waste of time. It does not account for direct stage volume so only gives a partial method to judge things. I think too much emphasis is being put on things like this and iPad mixing as well. Just stick to the basics. Stay at the console and get the band to do a check. Nothing will sound the same anyway. Too many variables. There are a lot of things we could use more.

Ok. Rant over. No personal offense again

[dcongdonParticipant]

None taken. I asked for thoughts from the forum. I think we agree that having virtual soundcheck is only a tool… not a replacement for engineering fundamentals. I’m simply requesting a feature found on A&H’s QU mixers to be brought up to the larger GLD in the form of an expansion card. When our industry is in an arms-race for features…this expansion card seems like a reasonable request. It doesn’t change the exceptional quality of the GLD series. It does improve its marketability.

For our part, we find virtual soundcheck to be useful for fine-tuning scenes/show files, increasing efficiency during small festival setup, and product demonstration for potential buyers of the GLD (or training H.O.W. volunteers). When we have clients moving from studiolives or x32s, this feature makes the GLD an easy transition.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

Understood. I have just been wanting to vent on that for awhile. As a 40 yr recording engineer also I certainly appreciate the virtues of multitrack. I started at 2 and ended up at almost unlimited. They have had that in Ilive always I think. I did an iLive seminar years ago and they were running a multitrack. Not sure if it was Dante or what. They had a prototype GLD there that day. It would create another reason to buy.

George
Mid-America Communications A/V.

[John-SParticipant]

From another point of view:

The virtual sound check (VSC) is a great way to experiment with sound effects and program scenes without tiring the talent. There are times I wish I could experiment with 10 different reverbs (or what ever) on a voice or instrument. It is handy as heck to have the signal on the exact channel/gain you will be using in performance then write a scene memory for in-performance recall and have a darned good idea it will work artistically.

Unless the audio engineer running the mixer is isolated from the sound source during performance, of course the stage bleed will be missing unless clever use of extra record/playback equipment is used. I would only experiment once and probably not again try to capture stage bleed but it would be fun once.

Maybe in the application I describe VSC is the wrong term but since it is included in allot of systems why not get the most advantage out of it.

By the way. I would like to add my voice for an inexpensive option card adapted from an existing product that would record 18 channels to a USB device. That would be the cats meow or the bees knees. There can still be more expensive cards for full channel count recording.

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