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AMSR
04|06
I
n amongst the digital live console launches of late
there as been an obvious one missing. Surely Midas
must go digital sometime? Finally, the answer is here,
accompanied by the typically bold sell: “Digital Goes
Midas.” Inside that clever cliché reversal is an
important statement, emphatically backed up
by the decision to replace the XL4 analogue
with the XL8 digital – Midas claims it has got
the new flagship so right that it doesn’t need
the old one.
The first thing to note is that ‘XL8’ is the
name of a complete system, not just a board
and a hunk of DSP – open the box and find
everything that you need to rig an FOH or
monitor position from stage to stereo.
The standard package includes four DL431
System Input splitters – each with 24 mic/line
inputs. Each of those inputs has three mic pre-
amps. The two variable gain amps feed two sets
of ADCs and two sets of rear panel balanced analogue
splits and three splits, while the set of fixed gain amps
supply a broadcast/record split on the front panel.
Then there are five DL451 modular I/O boxes – each
capable of 24 input and output channels depending on
how they’re loaded. Other standard features here include
MIDI and GPIO.
System connections are all taken care of with
cable or fibre. While the details of the network are too
detailed for this article, a couple of things stand out.
First, all connections are dual-redundant at the system’s
96kHz sampling rate. The DL451 system
router (two supplied for each system), for
example, features ten fully redundant AES
50 connections for local I/O.
Second, the decision to go with AES
50, and specifically the Sony SuperMac
and HyperMac standards is wrapped up
with ambitious requirements for capacity,
latency, timing, data tunnelling, and
more. Latency is listed as ‘70µS per link,
and the specified total latency, including
A/D (often the weak point) is 2ms – which
for SR monkeys everywhere, is peanuts.
In addition, Midas says it has the whole
system phase and sample synchronous. If
you want a comb filter you’ll have to use the EQ.
Even the DSP rack in this system is modular and
includes ‘n+1’ redundancy (you only need nine DL471
DSP Engine modules, but you get ten... just in case). In
a conversation with Midas it turns out that to lose a DSP
module would be the worst failure as recovery for the
affected channels can take around 20 seconds. Losing
A U D I O M E D I A A P R I L 2 0 0 6
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M I D A S X L 8
L I VE PE R FO R MA NC E S YS T EM
Some assumed Midas had a
little catching up to do. Has it
finally come out in the lead?
PAUL MAC previews the new
XL8.
‘XL8’ is the name of a
complete system, not
just a board and a hunk
of DSP – open the box
and find everything
that you need to rig an
FOH or monitor position
from stage to stereo.