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04|06
a power supply or the computer in any of the
five mixer bays does not cause a problem for the
audio and you can run the entire system from any
one bay if necessary.
Another standard part of the system is the
Klark Teknik DN9331 Helix Rapide. In this case
it provides control for the XL8’s graphic EQs via
its 31 motorised faders. Indeed, when during
the preview experience I asked if the graphic EQ
plug-ins could be controlled from the faders, the
answer was no: “Our VCA faders are VCA faders
and nothing else; our output faders are output
faders..” You get the picture. The console screens,
however, can do anything you want them to.
So what does all this hardware buy you in terms
of channels and busses? Well, as you’d expect we
have to separate connections from capability. The
mic splitters give 96 mic/line inputs and three lots
of 96 channel mic splits. The five local I/O units
each house three I/O modules, each with eight
analogue channels or 16 digital channels (eight
in, eight out). Therefore a standard system has 504
XLR connections, which can be expanded to 720
with extra DL541 I/O modules.
Internally, capability starts with a full
compliment of 96 input channels, 16 auxiliary
inputs, 32 auxiliary mix busses, 16 matrix busses,
and 12 VCA groups (as these are ‘virtual’ Midas has
re-designated the acronym as ‘Variable Control
association’. The complicated middle ground is
filled by those aspects which use I/O resources
depending on your specific needs, such as insert
sends and returns, effect sidechains, direct
outputs, and direct inputs.
Getting Around
It’s worth stopping here to examine the Midas
philosophy on console navigation. In short, you
can get around by channel numbering if you
want to, but because colouring scribble strips and
grouping instruments is generally more intuitive
– that’s the way the navigation system works.
First, ‘layers’ are a thing of the past. It’s a small
distinction, but the basic way of dealing with
more input channels than faders is to scroll the
channels across the console.
Next is the channel grouping idea – in Midas
terms, the ‘population group’. This is basically
a surface assignment of channels with its own
population group button. Hit the previously
user-assigned ‘drums’ button and a bevy of red
drums channels appear in front of you. And,
good gracious, there’s a red VCA channel that
just happens to group the drums. In practice,
that drums button might bring the bass up on
a channel nearby (coloured blue?), and maybe
stick the brass section (yellow?) right down one
end where they can’t do any harm to anybody
but themselves. Another population group might
configure a set-piece mix beneath your fingers, or
spread the vocals and acoustic parts across the
physical channels – all neatly colour-coded and
labelled in cahoots with the VCAs.
As you can tell, if you put the effort in at set-up,
the gig should be pretty straightforward.
Strip Show
The Midas solution to dealing with extensive
channel strip controls is not new: have one
detailed Channel Strip per bay that gives
comprehensive access to the selected channel,
while putting ‘essential’ controls in line with the
physical faders. It’s the implementation of this
‘assignable’ solution that distinguishes one maker
from another. In the Midas case its fader strip (the
‘Fast Zone’) begins with a gain knob. This can
be either actual remote pre gain or digital gain,
though whichever it is, the Channel Strip will be
the other. Next are HP and LP filters, safe switches
for automation isolation, and direct output level
(plus mute, solo, and source). Single knobs for
compressor threshold and noise gate threshold
come next, then insert control, EQ navigation
buttons, and then onto two auxiliary bus controls.
Obviously you simply assign these to be the two
most important auxiliaries for that channel, and
their colours match the output fader colours.
The Channel Strip on each console bay is a
detailed representation of everything available on
a console channel. Interestingly, the actual fader
NEW M7 HEADS XL8 QUEUE
Frankfurt ProLight + Sound exhibition visitors
were not surprised to hear that Midas had
already got orders on its books for the new XL8,
but they were surprised by the nature of the
first sales.
Seven major UK rental companies (Britannia
Row Productions, Canegreen, Capital Sound,
Concert Sound, Skan PA Hire, SSE Audio Group,
and Wigwam Acoustics) jointly announced the
formation of a new rental company: M7 Audio
Ltd. The company has been formed after the
seven members reached “a shared consensus
that joint ownership was the best way to launch
the XL8 into the UK rental market.”
M7 has already placed orders for an initial
eight systems, worth over one million pounds.
The idea is to create a rental structure that will
maximise the use of the systems and offer all UK rental companies and end users the option to rent from any of the individual
M7 partners, as well as providing in-house training and service facilities for the new console.
www.m7audio.co.uk
THE SONY STORY
One of the protocols that sits at the heart of the XL8’s
technology is the audio network – this forms the backbone
of any XL8 system. The ‘trunk route’ for the system is the
Sony Oxford Technologies group HyperMAC technology, which
can carry up to 384 bi-directional channels, plus 100Mbit/s
Ethernet traffic on CAT6 cable, or fibre. The local networking
for the system uses the Sony implementation of the AES50
standard (SuperMAC), which carries up to 48 bi-directional
channels plus 5Mbit/s of Ethernet traffic.
John Oakley, in a Sony press release, comments: “In live
sound applications, we are confident that the AES50 approach
has significant advantages over other technologies – in
particular, the open standard, exceptionally low latency, and
robust error correction which will assure us of the high quality
and reliability expected of our products.”
www.sonyoxford.co.uk/supermac
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The UK's SR elite gathered in Frankfurt.
The DL431 system splitter - Three mic amps per input for three splits.