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[Hawk]

So is the sound quality difference that obvious as Art stated?

[Art]

I had to guest engineer at a festival Saturday afternoon (the engineer who had been running it had to leave for family reasons). It was an X32 with a DL32 stage box. First band was fairly straight-forward. 4 people – drums, bass, guitar and 3 vocals. 2nd band was 5 people – drums, bass, guitar, acoustic guitar, (2) congas and 4 vocals. Not as straight-forward, but added congas in vacant channels on the DL32. Unfortunately, they were nowhere near the other drums on the console, but not a big issue.

The 3rd band was 10 people – 2 keys plus a B3 with Leslie, guitar, bass, drums, (3) congas, 6 vocals, sax. There was no simple way to re-layout the inputs for the board to make sense, so we added inputs where we could with only 45 minutes to change over. So I had 3 layers of inputs with nothing where it should have been.

On the GLD, I could have put them on any input and dragged them EXACTLY where I wanted them on the console.

And I wouldn’t have had to listen to what I consider a very harsh sounding compressor on the X32.

All during that set I kept wishing I’d had the GLD rather than the X32.

[John-S]

I totally agree that the ergonomics and change of fader positions on the GLD are superb. This is the biggest frustration with the X32. I would say if you are doing the same band repeatedly then side-chain compression is a must. If you do festival style you never get enough time to fine tune your mix and will never use side-chain compression. Also the X32 cannot fade between scenes like the GLD can. The touch screen is wonderful on the GLD too. GLD scene recall is inelegant though.

I use a digital console in a church environment and use side-chain to slightly dim the guitars and keys during vocal peaks to keep the vocals on top without allowing the mix to get very loud. The vocals also have a bit of compression on each channel, self keyed of course. A multi-band compressor on the main mix just doesn’t cut it here.

I use side-chain compression to significantly dim the reverb and echo (about -18dB) when vocals are dominant and as they stop the effects being overbearing. This keeps the vocals up front and clear. This can sound gorgeous when used correctly.

A GLD with side-chain compression would be my ultimate weapon. I can dream, can’t I?

John

[Scott]

John, you can use the Dave Rat method with compression on subgroups to achieve what you want. He has a video posted on YouTube describing the setup if you are not familiar with it.

[John-S]

Scott,

Very interesting video. I will favorite it on my browser. Thank you for the pointer. I will probably incorporate a few of his techniques into my next mix.

What cannot be done here is to reduce the level of the instruments that compete spectrally with the vocals. You only have the option of things going louder from your threshold.

John

[John-S]

To the OP,

Personally I still would not purchase a console without side-chain compression. With it available on the todays cheapest digital consoles that feature being absent on the GLD would be a deal killer for my purposes. I really do like my GLD80 but don’t use it much anymore.

Hopefully a GLD80 MK2 will be modern so just my console needs replacing. I would like to retain the rest of my GLD ecosystem. As soon as a new GLD is announced I guess my present one will go for sale. Feel free to PM me anyone.

John

[John-S]

With respect I say…

As far as the statement of what console sounds better, I am a bit of a Doubting Thomas. I would need a controlled test environment where there is less than a second between listening to the two consoles with the exact same complex sources, room and loudspeakers. Aural memory has a few second half-life. To say that console A sounds better than console B I heard yesterday at the other venue has too many variables and prejudices for my mind. Even when listening to sine waves on the same system, when two bursts are separated by 20 seconds it is rare to have someone tell repeatedly which is louder with a 2dB difference in level.

Good luck with your console of choice. I can’t think of a “BAD” console that is sold today.

John

[Author]

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