OK, I went and done it. I ordered a new Midas Venice 240 yesterday. I'm excited about that but, sad to say, that's going to displace the Sadowsky for the foreseeable future. Sorry, Nino. I'm going to have to get by on nine basses this year.
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Ordered the Midas Venice.
- Thread starter Munjibunga
- Start date
Great choice. It's by far the best sounding small format desk out there. Ah, the Midas EQ. I think you'll dig it. You sure you'll be ok with 9 basses? 
I'll get by with nine for a year. It's called sacrifice. I'm really excited about what the Midas will do for my band's sound. We've been using a Mackie 1604 VLZ, which isn't too bad, and our outboard effects was an old Digitech Studio Twin. I just upgraded the effects unit to a Lexicon MPX-1. I've already tried out the MPX-1 and it's worlds apart from the Digitech. Hopefully the Midas will be noticeably better than the Mackie. It'd better be, at three times the price.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,076
- 46,032
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Passinwind said:
OK, OK, already. I mixed a jazz concert with three acts (not counting the comedian, Bubba Loc) last month. The first act was a sax player, Jeanette Harris, and four pieces behind her, bass, keys, guitar and drums. The second act was an organist, Deryl Winston, with drums. Act three was a pianist, Billy Wallace (from Seattle), with drums and bass. We had five minute changes, so everything had to be ready to go from sound check. Sound check was at 11:30 a.m. and, after a little initial tweaking of the fabulous EQ on the Midas, it was real clear that the sound was going to be worth the expense.
The gig went real well, with just a little problem with some bounce-back on Mr. Wallace's vocals when he moved downstage from the acoustic piano to the electric at the front of the stage. We didn't know he was going to switch at sound check because he hadn't brought an electric. He ended up borrowing one from the sax player's band. Ultimately, we got it rung out and it was cool.
I was walking on air when we loaded out, because at breaks and after the show, people from the audience and the musicians had a lot of nice things to say about the sound. I even heard "perfect" more than once. We were using four Mackie SR1530's and two SWA 1501 subs in the auditorium, which seats about 500. Plenty of sound. We lucked out and got them pointed in the right directions, so there were no nodes across the room.
As for the board, it has a very intuitive layout, and the EQ section rules. Bass and treble shelves with two sweepable mids give mondo control over tone. The sound far surpasses my 1604, and the layout is about as easy. I really like the separate faders for monitors (2) and effects (2). I have done the post EQ modification on the monitors, and there were no complaints about the mix.
All in all, a fantastic board, well worth the three times Mackie price.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,076
- 46,032
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
All in all, a fantastic board, well worth the three times Mackie price.
Thanks for the report. Have you tried recording with it yet?
I looked pretty hard at a Venice a couple of years ago when I was replacing my Mix Wizard. Luckily (for my wallet, at least) I couldn't readily find one to try out. I ended up going for the Crest XR-20, which elicits the same sort of responses you mentioned. The XR-20's ergonomics are a bit funky, but the sound is definitely sweet.
Audio's a funny deal; once you hear a certain level of quality, it's all over for the stuff that once seemed fine. I'm dreading the next step up in consoles, since that'll mean my car is worth way less than my board.
PS: I mix jazz and jazz-grass type acts a fair amount, and most of the calls I get are for gigs where people are listening somewhat more critically than your average raWk club scene.
Thanks for the report. Have you tried recording with it yet?
I looked pretty hard at a Venice a couple of years ago when I was replacing my Mix Wizard. Luckily (for my wallet, at least) I couldn't readily find one to try out. I ended up going for the Crest XR-20, which elicits the same sort of responses you mentioned. The XR-20's ergonomics are a bit funky, but the sound is definitely sweet.
Audio's a funny deal; once you hear a certain level of quality, it's all over for the stuff that once seemed fine. I'm dreading the next step up in consoles, since that'll mean my car is worth way less than my board.
PS: I mix jazz and jazz-grass type acts a fair amount, and most of the calls I get are for gigs where people are listening somewhat more critically than your average raWk club scene.
Munjibunga said:
I thought you might say that.....
The Venice sounds as good as many large-format consoles (better than some even!) and is sonically lightyears ahead of anything else in the small-format area. Glad you dig it!
I'm spoiled. In my program, everyone is required to take a sound recording/production class. There's seven workstations, and they all have a Midas/DigiDesign/ProTools setup. The Midasae blew the doors off of all the other consoles I've used, even though they are more suited to live performance.
Yeah, I haven't recorded with it yet, but the boss is champin' at the bit to do a new demo, so I'm gonna fire up the ol' xt20 and run everything through the Midas. Should be a kick. I'll get back to you on this. Now, don't bug me, it'll be a month or so.
