Here are more pictures from the MIDAS PRO6 rollout on Friday and Saturday.

Club Myth was the setting for the rollout.

“Mr. Midas” Matt Larson knows how to host a coming out party.

Celebrity guest engineer and endorser Howie Linderman.

Invited guests taking notes and placing orders.

Hands on breakout room three.

Club VIP boxes.

All hands on desk.

Day two training at BOSH headquarters.

Bosch Academy Central.

Private instruction room one.

Private instruction room two.

Forbidden picture of the answer man Ethan Wetzell in his lair.

Tags: MIDAS, MIDAS PRO6

Born of the same rarified air that spawned the MIDAS XL8 a scant two years ago MIDAS once again proved today that they intend to continue to dominate the live sound market with the introduction of the new PRO 6 Live Audio System.

OverView

• Dual “Daylight Visible” Screens with 3-way KVM switch
• XL8-Style “Fast Zones”
• XL8-Style Dual Operator “Channel Strips”
• 10 VCAs
• 6 POPulation Groups
• Configurable “Area B”
• 16 Input Faders
• Up to 80 simultaneous mix channels
• 16 Group/Aux & 16 Matrix - 32 Mixes in “monitor” mode
• Surround panning including LCRS, Quad and 5.1
• Dual-Redundant Linux Control Computers
• Dual-Redundant HyperMac (192x192) digital snake included
• 8 Fully-assignable FX engines – with new FX options
• Up to 36 KT Graphic EQs - with optional DN9331 Rapide control
• 3 AES50 Ports on the Control Centre for I/O expansion and XL8 connectivity
• 24 Configurable inputs on the Control Centre *
• 24 Configurable outputs on the Control Centre *
• Three year factory warranty
• Weight and Dimensions
  Control Centre - 1365mm x 924mm
  Weight - 95Kg / 209.4lbs **
  DL371 - 7U, 22Kgs / 48.5lbs **
  DL351 - 7U, 27Kgs / 59.5lbs **

*   Dependant on I/O card options fitted** Note: weights are out of flightcase

Sorry all of you Yamaha PM1D - 5D, Digidesign, DiGiCo owners. The new MIDAS PRO 6 systems only peer is the MIDAS XL8. It has no competition. And for all of you that haven’t already taken the digital plunge you would be insane to consider anything else. Oh yah, and did I mention the price? The word aggressive doesn’t even adequately describe the price. If you have enough money to buy a MIDAS Heritage 3000 you can afford this desk.

You can’t afford not to own this system because your competitor has already placed their order. CareySound is now taking orders. Call us NOW.

Tags: MIDAS, This is the new Heritage 3000 of the digital age. , MIDAS PRO6, MIDAS XL8

It seems like only yesterday, not 2½ years, that MIDAS introduced the revolutionary new XL8 digital system to the world. In that time the XL8 has become the gold standard that all large format live audio digital systems aspire to. Now MIDAS is poised to introduce Act II. It promises to bring all of the digital goodness of the XL8 to us mere mortals. I’m off once again off to roll-out next week, this time in Minnesota.

Stay tuned for more details.

Tags: MIDAS, XL8

Guest editorial by Rick Earl

In the interest of fairness, I must disclose a few things before I get started…  One:  I’ve known Ken for a long time and worked for him for a few years.   Two: I hopped on the digital bandwagon quite a few years ago and cannot remember the last BIG show I mixed on an analog console.  Three: I am a geek, not just an average gek, but a dyed in the wool, pure audio junky geek; I’m always looking for the newest, best, coolest audio gadget, from mics to mixers, I love it all. Four: I am not getting paid for this, but Ken did buy me dinner after I volunteered to help with a show.  Finally, I stand by what I say, if you have questions or concerns about anything I write in here, I will be happy to discuss them in open dialog.

So I came into the V Mixer after seeing and using the S 4000 Digital snake by Roland, It was clean, quiet, had imperceptible latency AND fit in the passenger seat of my truck.  It had its uses, and I thought it was pretty cool, but being a geek I don’t like converting too many times, so I waited. Good product, but incomplete for my uses.

When I found out that Roland was making a Mixer for the snake, immediately I became very interested. This has some potential.  I wasn’t too surprised to see Roland Boxes at Carey Sound, as I mentioned before, I am a geek, geeks know geeks, and Ken is a geek too. The problem is I KNOW Ken, he may be a geek, but he has his standards. First of all, the road case was not purple and it did not contain a product made in the UK. Second, It was digital, and did not have a touch screen. Somehow I did not see a match, especially after hearing some of Ken’s early digital experiences. So when I was told how cool it was, and how good it worked and how well it sounded and how many had already been installed, I knew it was time to take a closer look.

I called Ken up, asked for an opportunity to use it, and then volunteered to help with a MUSEP show that Carey Sound was doing.  The show was the EMF student Orchestra at Guilford College.  We showed up, set up, miced the orchestra according to Ken’s plan.  I ran the snake, all 300’, by myself, did a line check and then Ken took off, leaving me to mix.  

Mixing a symphony is one of my favorite things to do, but it was not what I was expecting to do that night.  In these situations, there is no sound check, it’s usually hand on and GO!  So I did. And what a ride it was.  Granted, I’ve had quite a bit of digital mixing experience, but not on this console, although immediately I knew I would be ok.  First of all, everything sounded fine, the sound was smooth and quiet (not too many consoles are with 30 open mics) everything I needed was right where it should be and responded flawlessly.  The eq was easy to use, I turned the knob, and it worked, I never felt like I had to sit and tweek, endlessly to get the sound I wanted.  Later, when I wanted some compression, I activated it on the channel, set the threshold, and wow, nice smooth compression.  Once I felt comfortable with the mix, I decided to add some reverb to sweeten up the strings; it was easy to access and sounded great too.  Just so you know, I prefer reverb to be subtle, sometimes it is hard with cheap reverbs and down and dirty algorithms used in many units. The Roland reverb, was everything I wanted, I knew it was there, but it never distracted from the mix. All in all, when the night was over, I had had fun, I always felt in control, but knew I found a great product.

Ken was nice enough to let me try the console again the next night at Elon University.  We had the same orchestra playing but  this was my show, my mics, my speaker facing (well, ok, the school’s) I was confident in the console, so I  changed my inputs a bit for my inventory and to experiment with some other mic techniques.  I had no problems accessing the console’s systems settings to re-patch input and outputs,  I was able to achieve every bit of the clarity as the night before.  The best part about all of this, I had fun mixing, I wasn’t lost in the console, I wasn’t fighting the console, I was mixing with it.  Other than the color LCD screen being a little difficult to read in daylight, I cannot think of any real negatives of the design.  I talked to John Carey, who’s been getting his time on the console too, he said he has been TRYING to get it to crash, but with no success.  Knowing the manufacturer, I am sure they had it pretty bulletproof before it was released.

Why is all of this important?   I feel digital is the way to go, it works, you have much more system for the dollar and it offers greater flexibility for the user.  In fact, digital consoles get better with age, new firmware and software increase functionality, user libraries help build shows quickly from past shows and settings.  The problem is, when digital is not done right, it can make it worse.  Compromises in design that make the console sonically worse than analog, limited controls and hierarchical menus that confuse the operator, all take away from the reason we want these things.  Even traditional analog systems offer compromises if your needs exceed your budget.

Roland did things right with the V Mixer, exceptional audio quality, ease of use, a versatile and compact snake system all able to fit in the back of my Nissan Versa.  The analog equivalent would barely fit in a van, require 4 people to lift and would cost at least twice as much.  RoIand has a long history with digital audio and it shows. I would suggest anyone in the market for a new mixing system to look at the Roland V Mixer; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.


About the author-- Rick Earl, a self described audio junky geek, prior to his tenure as HE for CareySound Productions in the 90’s, worked as FOH engineer for national recording artists Firehouse. He left us for a FOH position with Millie Jackson and then spent some time with SE Systems before landing a job with Guilford Tech as a teacher and then to his current position as Technical Director for Cultural and Special Programs at Elon University in Burlington.

Tags: Rick Earl, Elon University, EMF Concert, Roland RSS V-Mix

Click here for Podcast

Digital snakes and mixers are finding their way into churches as a solution to the unique challenges churches face as they double as performance venues. Bennett Liles of Sound&Video Contracting explores this trend with John Broadhead, director of technology for Roland Systems Group, examining the need filled by the company’s new V-Mixing system.

I have a hard and fast rule - only one person mixes at a time. If you aren't ready to take over don't get in the way of my mix. I don't mix/play well with others! Apparently MIDAS didn't get the memo but I guess this one time I'll have to give them a pass in the name of science.

Their quest was to build a system that would have up-time that is as good as their analogue gear. Who can count all of the times they have had to recover their crashed computer much less their fancy new digital console toy. MIDAS decided that if their system was to be used for live audio, IT HAS TO WORK. There are no do-overs in live audio. Thats one tall order.

So they rolled up their collective sleeves and built a monster. Now they had to put it to the test. They gathered up 10 eager volunteers to gang up on the system all at once. Let's see, that's ten engineers times two hands each for a total of twenty hands all groping and grabbing everything they could put their hands on - live - real time - and guess what happened - the system didn't hiccup even once. As The Rock says, "Just Bring It!" Or as his defeated opponent says,"Submission!"

The XL8 not only has enough horsepower to take everything to the max, but room to spare at an amazing super-computer 48 GigaFlops (Gflop). For those of you that never were good at math thats 48,000 BILLION mathematical calculations per second. And as if that wasn't enough, the system is scalable.

Ok, I have to go take a break and catch my breath. More very soon. Stay tuned! DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!

The new MIDAS XL8 uses Linux at its core. No bug-ridden, virus-magnet, blue-screen-of-death Windows crap. As a mater of fact it's an industrial version of an already industrial operating system. All of the unnecessary drivers and extensions have been striped from it, such as print drivers, to make it the most stable platform on the planet. Hoo-Rah!

The Frankfurt Music Messe trade show in Germany is now in its second day and the MIDAS booth with the XL8 has been packed with admirers. The booth has been so crowded that they have had to shut it down several times in an attempt to control the throngs trying to get a look at the new Mixing System.

I've been informed that (how do they say it - from a well placed inside source) only 18 desks were scheduled to be built this year. This represents world wide distribution. I am personally aware of three consoles that are already sold and I predict that the entire first year production schedule will be gone before the end of the show in Germany. Rumor has it that Metalica is scheduled to use the console in an upcoming show and that Paul McCartney's engineer has already placed an order for one at the show. I think it's safe to say that the new system already has achieved legend status. I expect the XL8 will be on allocation very quickly. The XL8 at the show is a preproduction model and final production systems are not even scheduled to start shipping until late May at the earliest.

The first question on most peoples minds is HOW MUCH? Pricing has not been finalized but I think it is safe say that it's not cheep. Since this is a mixing system rather that a mixing console there are many pieces to the system that must be considered in the final price. All you need to add to make an entire audio system is microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers.

We will give quotes only to serious customers. You must first have the financial means and be ready to buy a system before we will give you a quote. First come first served. We will however be more than happy to answer all of your technical questions about the system.

The US introduction tour is being put together as we speak and we will let you know when it is coming to Greensboro.

Click here to download more information.

The MIDAS XL8 was unveiled today at the Frankfurt Music Messe trade show in Germany. This is not a new mixing console; it is a new mixing system.  There are many elements to this, of which the control surface is but one. The XL8 live performance system consists of a control surface and a number of 19” rack modules, inter-connected by a networked data system.  The network carries both proprietary control data and open architecture AES50 digital audio, and uses readily available standard CAT5, CAT6 and fiber-optic cabling and connectors.

Here are a few tidbits:
 

The XL8’s total DSP processing power is 48 GigaFlops (Gflop)
 That is 48,000 billion mathematical calculations per second
 We believe this is the most powerful audio processor in the world 
There are EIGHTEEN other high performance control processors in the XL8
 More than 200 Mbytes of software has been written for the XL8
 
 
The XL8 is the worlds’ most powerful and flexible audio processing system. It is a complete solution for any audio mixing and signal distribution application in a live sound environment.
 
The first XL8 in the US is scheduled to be installed right here in Greensboro, NC at Westover Church in their new sanctuary in the next couple of months.

Click here to download more information.

After years of research and development MIDAS once again sets the standard for live audio mixing and announces their new digital mixing system the new XL8. We've been dying to reveal details on this monumental project and we are finally allowed to talk about and take orders on this new mixing system.

A new standard for live mixing.

[Revolutionary - rev·o·lu·tion·ar·y adv. adj : markedly new or introducing radical change;]

The XL8 live performance system is truly revolutionary and heralds Midas’ entry into the digital mixing realm. However, this is not merely another digital mixing console. XL8 offers an incomparable design combining exemplary sound quality, flexibility and reliability with an ease and familiarity of use unrivalled by other digital control surfaces. XL8 is the first of a new generation of open-architecture, cross-platform, integrated audio control and distribution systems, which brings control of not only audio, but other aspects of a live performance to a single, intuitive control centre.

As well as offering classic Midas audio quality and superb reliability, XL8 actually improves upon the performance of the analogue consoles, which have established Midas as the number one choice of sound engineers the world over. XL8 represents a new generation of networked systems, requiring only mics, amps and speakers to provide a complete audio system.

The XL8’s open architecture ensures that both third-party hardware and software, including “plug-ins” can be easily integrated into the system. The very latest in high-speed networking technology ensures that XL8 will conform to all the classic Midas brand values of sound quality, reliability and longevity; it will not be obsolete in a few years.

• Failure-tolerant of any single failure of hardware or software
• Proven, stable, Linux operating system
• Dual redundant master control processors
• Five individual bay control processors
• 24/7 global telephone support
• Midas customer service and support centers World Wide
• Three year factory warranty
• Rugged design, tolerant of physical abuse

You will find the official product brochure in our Tech Download section to the right.