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This topic contains 45 replies, has 18 voices, and was last updated by Profile photo of Jgrift Jgrift 4 years, 4 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 46 total)
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  • #87013
    Profile photo of GCumbee
    GCumbee
    Participant

    Well. Point is. Say you have 3 stereo playback sources. That’s now 6 of the 12 XLR inputs. That leaves 6. Your customer has 6-12 local RF mics. Guess you relocate those to the stage to hit the stagebox.

    #87014
    Profile photo of Mfk0815
    Mfk0815
    Participant

    So, in fact the problem is now that there is no possibility to have a second SLink port. Ok, you can place a SQ5 with a SLink Card beside the Avantis to have extra analog inputs on FOH. But is that something you like when you bought a 10.000 bucks console from 2019? Maybe A&H will release a SLink card for the Avantis in future. One feature request for the next generation: add more than one SLink ports, or whatever comes next, to your consoles right from the beginning. Even the cheap X32 comes with two AES50 port out of the box which allows you very flexible and complex setups. Sometimes it would be helpful to lok behind the plate;-)

    #87025
    Profile photo of GCumbee
    GCumbee
    Participant

    How about talking to the people who actually use these? This is a FUBAR. Guess SQ will live. The most versatile console they have ever built next to QU

    #87026
    Profile photo of TJCornish
    TJCornish
    Participant

    I think you’re being a bit over-dramatic. The Avantis is the successor to the GLD which only had 8 surface inputs – four of which were XLR, and four were RCA, which I argue is way more annoying than if they were 8 XLRs – it’s a lot easier to adapt a line in to an XLR input than it is to try to use a mic into an RCA input. The Avantis has 12 on the surface. Even the DLive only has 6 inputs on the surface. Both of these models are designed to be used with remote IO. If you need more IO at FOH than is available on the surface, then add more. The Avantis supports two GX4816 racks so you can have 60 inputs at FOH and 48 more on stage (limited by the maximum IO count of the board, of course), among other configurations.

    Or, if the SQ fits your needs better, then use that.

    #87027
    Profile photo of GCumbee
    GCumbee
    Participant

    Not being over dramatic. Just making my point. I’ve been doing this almost 50yrs. I’ve seen everything. I still own a GLD. RCA ins for playback was ok. I made it work. It had built in expansion port. Didn’t have to buy another card. I was thrilled when QU came out and they gave us many local ins plus stereo 1/4″. Same with SQ. So in some ways this is a step backward. They didn’t fully consider the church or other smaller market in my view.

    #87028
    Profile photo of TJCornish
    TJCornish
    Participant

    I think you’ll find that Avantis is following the path of most mid-tier mixers to go to XLR-only IO. This is true of the Yamaha CL series (only 8 XLR inputs on the surface and no RCA or 1/4″) and others. If you like all your IO on the surface, the SQ is for you.

    There are lots of ways to get playback IO to XLR – various stereo DI boxes from Radial, Whirlwind, and others, or driverless USB audio interfaces like the excellent and inexpensive Peavey USB-P that give you real balanced line outputs so you’re not stuck using the noisy, fragile 1/8″ output of your computer.

    I would love to trade up my GLDs for Avantises (Avantii?). I am interested to see how the price shakes out once the tariff issue is settled and once we’re past version 1.0 of the software. Right now I’m much more concerned with the lack of the editor and no mention (that I’ve heard of yet) of remote control apps for FOH or musician use than I am about surface IO configuration.

    Nothing is free – A&H has to strike a balance on what to spend the BOM on. If most users only need a small amount of local IO, loading the surface up with unused inputs adds unnecessary cost which gets multiplied up the supply chain and passed on to us customers.

    I don’t argue that a second SLink port on the surface would have been welcome.

    #87029
    Profile photo of GCumbee
    GCumbee
    Participant

    Thanks. As of now I’m not promoting the Avantis for my market. I’m not sure that was their intent. More like iLive and dLive. GLD broke from that. Even had a local expansion port. I was thrilled when QU came out and even had 1/4″ line inputs on every local channel. Made it very versatile. SQ kept 3 stereo ins but dropped the line ins. Now they took all that away. Disappointing.

    #87031
    Profile photo of GCumbee
    GCumbee
    Participant

    Well technically not a proper interface method but if it works then so be it.
    My vote. AH develop a card with 3.5mm and 2×1/4″ stereo ins. Associated circuitry. That would solve it

    #87033
    Profile photo of Jgrift
    Jgrift
    Participant

    The only thing you would have to do to fix this “issue” is purchase a few cables. There is no reason you can’t use a XLR to 3.5 or RCA plug, or just use a DI as mentioned. The desk is far more versatile with XLR. Because you can at least plug anything into an XLR input. Not so easy to plug your mics into a line level only 1/4″ input.

    #87039
    Profile photo of GCumbee
    GCumbee
    Participant

    Totally missing my point. Eats up the XLR inputs needed for RF mics local. 3.5 to XLR technically not correct. I haven’t tried turning on 48v with pin 2 and 3 hitting the LR of the sending device. Plus not proper match. Those 12 inputs should have been left solely as microphone inputs.

    #87040
    Profile photo of Jgrift
    Jgrift
    Participant

    If you need more local I/O consider a DXLink card. That gives you access to 128 more local inputs with the 7 racks they make.

    #87047
    Profile photo of Mike Storm
    Mike Storm
    Participant

    Or simply put the RF mics where they should be (on stage, close to the antennas)? Most can be controlled remotely nowadays.
    And good point about the DXLink card! It actually allows more DX boxes than a single Slink port!

    #87048
    Profile photo of GCumbee
    GCumbee
    Participant

    That just runs up the expense. I use antenna systems and master antennas anyway. More versatile I/O should have been standard. Opens up larger market uses.

    #87051
    Profile photo of Jgrift
    Jgrift
    Participant

    I still struggle to see how XLR is not the most versatile I/O. But…you do you.

    #87054
    Profile photo of TJCornish
    TJCornish
    Participant

    There’s nothing wrong with 1/8” to XLR adapters if they are wired correctly – phantom power is between the signal pins and ground. If you wire the sleeve to pin 3 of both XLR connectors, and the tip and ring to pin 2 of the left and right XLRs respectively you will not have any phantom power issues. You don’t have any isolation this way, but it’s no worse than a dedicated 1/8” jack on the board.

    XLR is significantly more flexible than any other input type, and the Avantis has more on-surface IO than the board it is replacing (GLD), so I guess I’m satisfied for my purposes. The larger question is if the Avantis offers enough features at a low enough price to justify it. As you mentioned, the SQ is a powerful board.

    The other issue is the closeness in price of the Avantis to the DLive. At the moment, MSRP of the Avantis with the 48×16 rack and D-Pack is $15,000 (I’m sure street price will be significantly less than this). You can get into the C2500 DLive surface plus mix rack for not a heck of a lot more than that. I’d like to see this at $10,000 for that package. I suspect it will get there – I bought my first GLD very early on and paid ~$10,000 for the GLD-80 system with expanders. In 2015 I bought a GLD-112 with a promo for a free AR2412 for just over half that amount.

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