I totally hear you. There were times where I thought I would need to boost 2k to cut through, but it was really just her falling back in the mix. When she wanted to be upfront, she was right there and stayed there the majority of the night.

Also, I tend to do mostly cutting to shape my tone, especially on vocals. And what ended up happening was I had a low shelf for proximity since she worked the mic super close, a wide band in the low mids cutting mid (200 ish), another in the mids for clarity (400-800 ish), and a high shelf to tame cymbal bleed (5k ish) and the result was that 1k-3k was emphasized by not being cut, if that makes sense. I got into the habit of doing vocals this way and find I get a very natural sound. Maybe I would have been better off cutting the gain and just boosting the mids, but I've never had a problem with this approach and do find I have more control with being able to adjust these bands in freq and gain as needed to pull out anything that colors the sound in an unflattering way.

I just went to Dale and it looks like it is $623. Is that blowing them out? I could have sworn they were quite a bit cheaper last year. I was thinking about getting one back then - and I am pretty sure if it was $623, I would not have been considering it.

PM'd you.

OK this post is going to be another angry rant about crappy deliveries. This one really annoyed me because I took measures to insulate myself from the usual grief but they still thwarted that and screwed it up. As usual.

My order for the Tannoy Gold 5's arrived today, or so I thought. What I got was ONE speaker.
I called the retailer and it seems they had one in stock and one display model, which they didn't want to send me. Someone told me that someone should have called me but that got forgotten so, sorry about that... but they still accepted the money and there hasn't been a refund. I thought it was odd because they told me I had to order each speaker separately and they would each get their own tracking, but then I only got one confirmation and one tracking number. I figured since both transactions had gone through (ie I'd been charged for both) then they must have sent them together. But not so.

Next, they told me they'd send me one directly from the wholesaler. Hmm, OK, but now they haven't got a tracking number for me, that was sent to, um, someone, but not me. I need that, because I don't know what day it's arriving, and besides, without it I have no proof i'm the one it's supposed to go to. And you know what these delivery turds are like, they slow down just enough to let their GPS register they were there and call it undeliverable. So you've got to be outside waiting for it. If/when I don't meet the driver and claim it it'll go to the warehouse. I won't be able to claim it without tracking. I live in a high rise block of flats so I know they aren't going to call or use the intercom or actually attempt to find me, you know how it goes.

I was lucky to collect that one. Despite my request they neglected to add that it had to be signed for. I was waiting outside for it, I learned that lesson early. An AusPost van arrived, the woman just sat poking at her phone, then drove off. At that moment the AusPost app updated and told me they'd tried to deliver it but the gate was locked and nobody was home and blah blah so it was undeliverable. I was standing outside waving at her!! But she never looked up. Fortunately she then delivered to just across the road so I blocked the driveway on the way out, and asked about a delivery to my place. Yes, she had it, but no, there weren't two, just the one. That's when I called and found out about them only sending the one speaker.

This stuff just outrages me. I HATE this lazy, unprofessional, dishonest garbage that you get all the time now. And you have to expect it. The store could have told me they didn't have stock after all and I could have cancelled it. The site tells you, yes there's stock, no problem. I even called ahead by phone and confirmed it with them and the delivery arrangements I wanted and the guy assured me that's all cool, then they didn't do the signature on delivery I wanted and they didn't have stock after all, and they neglected to tell me.

Then moments later they wanted me to review my new speakers, 1 to 5 stars. OK I've got ONE speaker so I can review that... stereo imaging, one star. Consistency when switching to mono, no problem, 5 stars. Sound staging, a little one-dimensional, lacks width.
Delivery experience - N/A, Undeliverable!! Says right there in the app!!

That was the price I saw, and when I searched for MBHO mics that appeared to be the major supplier - I couldn't actually be sure anywhere else had stock. I take it this is a small manufacturer, one of those cool little engineering-driven companies that you want to be part of before they get swallowed by some conglomerate who only wants the brand name.

A couple of Australian studios are using some of the condensers. I'm interested whether their modular and other mics are turning up for broadcast and location work, they look like the right type of thing and the price looks good, so long as they have the performance. It's a brand I'm interested to know more about.

TBH I don't think I'd take a chance on the dynamics for my live work, not for my personal mic kit at this stage. That price in USD is pretty high and for that there are others I'd get first, I can get DPA 2028's for less. But if as David says they can be had for a low price then I'd take a chance.

I think of my live mic kit as complete now. Except that I think I do actually have a place for a real nice supercardioid dynamic vocal mic. The M88 is a great mic but not for every singer. Sometimes they really work out well, sometimes not. That can be a lot to do with the way the singer uses it but that's just as important as the FR graph or any other factor - it's got to suit the purpose. And I don't think condensers are always right either - that detailed top end and off-axis response can sometimes make life hard, once again depending on the user. I think the up-close performance of a good dynamic vocal mic is like an electric guitar - so imperfect on paper yet so suited to the task. Music isn't always about the highest performance statistically. The MOST important thing they taught me in the course I started out in was "if it sounds right, it is right" and to me that rule is golden.
Anyway, that just means if I came across the right high quality SC dynamic I'd take a chance on it. But $US 623 plus shipping right now to try out a mic I've never heard before is a little over my threshold

Well yesterday and today were hot but not as bad as it has been. All the same, when I got in from work yesterday, and today just coming back from shopping and that palaver with waiting for a delivery, my body temperature must have risen and when I got inside I felt like I was boiling over inside. It's a horrible, sick feeling. I had to get under a cool shower and in front of a fan because I was on the edge of collapsing.
Yesterday worked out well because while we were crewing on a big concert at the Perth Arena, I just happened to be working right in front of the huge air conditioning outlet - perfect! But when I finished at 2pm the hottest part of the day was on us. I got lunch nearby then rode home and I was really boiling by then.

So while it's like this I've decided, I'm only doing night and indoor work, or I'll do myself a mischief. Fortunately it's also the busy part of the year so there's plenty of mixing work - lucky it's what I do, right? - and I've got more cable orders, so I'm just hanging out at home. Electricity for the air con isn't cheap but it's worth it to me.

I'll try not to bore everyone with too many posts about cables but it's how I'm filling my days until it's time to go to work at night. I've decided to make 4x 15m 4-way XLR looms out of that nice Canare star quad I bought - the idea is I can string them around churches or school halls as needed, or run all four together as a 16-way splitter loom for certain venues where I can record. I over-engineer my cables, I don't try and compete with the cheap ones. And it's relaxing to set up in front of the TV / PC and work at a comfy pace

The only explanation I can think of is that more filters is more distortion - surely a carefully tuned monitor send where everything is corrected and dialed in has to be better in theory, yet when I use a couple of broad bands and the fewest possible narrow ones, I like the sound more. It has to have some peaks and troughs still in there that I'd normally tweak, yet a rougher/less flat response using fewer filters seems to be preferable to a more corrected one using a higher number of them.

I don't know enough about it to be sure but I would think it's got to be something to do with the inherent phase distortion of each EQ band - maybe when you've got a couple of dozen of them overlapping the total phase distortion is getting so bad it chokes the response somehow.

Whatever it is, I consistently find I like it better this way, it's a major feature of fully-parametric EQ's on mix/monitor outputs on digital mixers. It also REALLY helps being able to see what you're doing on a nice graphical display

Guys, I suspect the links I sent to a couple of you who asked about that MBHO sale price are for a fraudulent site. They are for daleproaudio.shop whereas Dale Pro Audio has a legit website at daleproaudio.com

Paypal button does not work and you can't register a new account from the login dialog. I suspect they are trying to steal people's credentials for the real site in hopes of finding customers who have open account agreements with Dale. The front page of this fake site features lots of sale items, all at 25% of list price. Too good to be true! It looks like they are running a very simple scraper algorithm to build this fake site from legitimate content on the real one.

David

What parasites these types are. Well thanks for the heads up, and it sounds like what you suggested, just a place to pinch people's info and credentials. That's a real lesson, even if they don't get your money straight out, just having enough information about you and where you shop is enough to set you up to rob later. Nasty.
Thanks for the tip. Sounds like someone went to a lot of trouble to set that one up, but it surprises me how specifically targeted it is, just the people buying certain products from a specialty brand. I guess they decided it was vulnerable enough. Gotta watch out. In this case I guess the too-good-to-be-true rule is one of the few clues as to what's going on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cZtFEYdfEw
--scott

Hopefully I'll be recording this week at that church again, but right now I have ONE recording monitor speaker. That really burns me.

Like I said it's too hot to go out much so I've made lots of cables lately. I've had more orders for cables to sell than I expected, quite a lot more and yet more coming, which is great. But I still need to make some more for myself (including at least ONE from my interface to ONE monitor speaker, but enough about that).

I made and sold 2 orders of 2x 4ch XLR looms, out of that nice Canare star quad. I made a bunch of single leads too, to sell and for me. I want at least 2 more looms to use this Thursday at the church but on top of work and family I haven't found the time yet. Sitting down to make looms number 5 and 6 on top of all the others feels like a lot. It's easier to do it in stages, I cut the lengths and do the construction one day and all the prep and soldering the next.
Those 4 sales were great to get but it means I might need to buy another reel. I've got 60m left, just enough for the 4x 15m for myself I want, and I'd like to be able to sell some more. And then I'll need more XLR's...

I wouldn't have bought star quad if it wasn't on sale and used MR202-4AT instead, but with that discount star quad is my preference. Most of the time it's unnecessary but these are to last me the rest of my career. I over-engineer them, without going into detail they are the same construction as the rental and touring companies use. My live experience convinces me this is the way to go. Almost all the faults and problems I get are cables and connectors, it's why I bring at least some of my own. If I'm hired for a recording I definitely don't want to have dropped tracks or get noise and buzzes due to bad cables. IMO you can only get the standard that the pros use if you make them or have them made, that's what they do. I've never regretted investing in good ones but I've sure regretted not having them and using the garbage provided

Now that type of figurative heat wave I could stand.
There's something about those old recordings that sounds great. Even being so lo-tech with limited HF extension, it just works, and it's easy and comfortable to listen to.
Funny, yesterday setting up for the Matchbox 20 concert a couple of us were singing Ghost Riders In The Sky, just the chorus - I love the old versions, many people don't remember it was around long before Johnny Cash recorded it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsfw9CEQITA

I believe Dale is the only US distributor. The blowout sale turned out to be a scam site, not them. $623 is apparenly the price now. But I think it recently must have gone way up because like you, I can't imagine I would have put any dynamic on my "list" for that kind of money. Unless it was some studio standard/legend. It's almost half again as much as an RE-20.

I saw a completed sale of the MBHO on Reverb for a little over $200. But searching for "similar items" yielded nothing.

Wow. I must’ve gotten it right before the price almost doubled. Should have bought two…

Yeah at that price I probably wouldn’t have sprung for it tbh. You can almost get a 441 for that.

Wow if you could get one of those for half that price then that would be worth a shot.
It shocks me to look at the mics I only bought a year or two ago and see the price rises. I got a 441 for $AU 999 (~$US 650), the best price I can see anywhere in the world now (new) is 40% higher. Plus shipping and taxes, so I did really well to get that for one dollar below the tax threshold
All the good Beyers have doubled in price, I was lucky there too

Turns out they tried to deliver my 2nd Tannoy Gold 5 today, this morning. I got a note to say we rang the doorbell and left a note, I see no sign of either of those things (the "doorbell" is an intercom that routes right to my phone). Anyway I can trek out to their warehouse tomorrow or the next day (predicted to be 42 C / 108 F with an extreme UV alert) and pick it up, so I'd have it for Thursday night. Good enough.

Better than that, I've got gigs on Friday and Saturday at the venue with the old M7CL, their engineer isn't familiar so he wants to rent something more modern. I told him about hat room and how hard it can be to EQ the monitors. I offered to bring my DPA 2028's and he said he'd love to use them. In that room I'd recommend those or honestly just 58's. I don't know why but somehow they are some of the easiest mics to get loud monitors with in that tricky place. It's designed like an old community hall, the stage is a raised platform at one end and with side walls so you really feel boxed in. The ceiling isn't high but the stage is so it's a little close. The floor is polished hardwood (jarrah, I love it in every context except for the floor of a rock venue) and the side walls are glass. When I tried those 2028's in there with double PS15 wedges, finally it tamed that stage. And I also did the broad single LMF parametric cut and just 2 little cuts on the GEQ to get good clear foldback without it feeding, what a breakthrough.

This excites me not just because my mics get used but because it's an important touring act, I'll post who it is after the gig (if it goes OK!) but he's had HUGE hits in every decade since the 70's, a major name in this country. This time his act is an acoustic guitar duo. I'm there again the next night with a full band, another tribute I think.

Sure beats diggin' a ditch

PS Burl Ives did the version of Riders In The Sky that I can't stop listening to. That tremolo on the chorus is hair raising for me. I don't know how anyone else feels about it but I can't get enough. I love the way he just holds that one chord on a resonator guitar the whole way through the song, though it sounds like there's an upright bass playing a melodic backing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2klh2cTa_Q
On the version I played the next song it cued up for me was his version of Cool Water (Sons Of The Pioneers) and that is just gorgeous too. I've got to stop listening to hicky old cowboy songs but the only way I can do it is indulge til I've had my fill

i am making a comeback here, probably limited in time, but certainly limited in scope...

___


your description/assessment of the m7cl is partly/mostly wrong imo!

all graphic equalizers have a 1/3-band resolution and all 'slots' in the 'virtual rack' can be used as geq's so you have a maximum of 8 (eight) 31-band or 16 (sixteen)15-band geq's at your disposal, albeit at the expense of the effects.

even with the 'flex 15-band geq' (in Yamaha speech) you can use all 31 bands, but 'only' a maximum of 15 bands simultaneously - however, if you have to 'bend' a geq like that, you're doing something awfully wrong anyway!

as far as the quality of the console is concerned, listen to the iconic recordings of the late jeff beck at ronnie scott's from 2007 for example (which were done on a m7cl): not exactly bad...

also: as one of the very few live consoles from that time, it had the option of selecting an expander in one of the two dynamic slots - not just a gate wrongly labelled as an expander, but one with proper functions/features/tweaking options - and the sheer amount of faders made for immediate access to all channels in a blink. add the almost indestructible quality, the familiar interface, the fact that they were (almost) omnipresent so everyone and his/her dog knew how to manoeuvre the desk - did i mention it's much faster to set up than the newer series (CL, Rivage, PM7) and not plagued by endless updates? there were only 3 versions (with only minor differences between V2 and V3 btw).

maybe also worth noting that in almost 30 years (i dragged the original 02r to live venues by 1996...) i have never experienced a yamaha desk (of the professional series) that would have crashed!

today, even though i am equipped with an entire fleet of Studer VISTA desks, i still have an M7CL-32 and a 48-channel version (as well as a PM5D, a DM2000 and two DM1000's, besides two PM3500's...) - and i have no plans selling any of the digital live consoles anytime soon; on the contrary actually: i just soldered a set of HA remote cables to add yet another pair of AD8HR preamps/converters to my yamaha/auvitran ethersound rig.

long live the Yamaha M7CL!

____


i don't share david's/scott's idea to get a highly directional pair of premium sdc's for your future location recording projects - for two reasons: 'modern' production techniques do neither rely on the main pair as much nor do i consider a highly directional pair useful in all but some very rare occasions.

i'd rather get a pair of cardioid's for use in ORTF or then a M/S system but (almost) more importantly, i'd get a whole bunch of (more affordable) sdc's for use close to the artists/instruments - i'm reluctant to call these mics 'spots' as the concept of adding a 'spot' or two imo is somewhat outdated: modern production techniques heavy rely on 'section mics' (if not individual mics on all instruments - certainly with smaller ensembles) and much less on the 'main mics' (which then become some sort of 'close ambis')...

if not using section and/or individual mics, i strongly suggest using a directional pair of 'mains' plus a pair of 'ambis' (whatever pattern): ime this is much faster to deploy and gives you/the producer more options than trying to find an assumed ideal positions of a pair of spaced omnis - btw: reading the score ain't necessary anymore either (or if so, it's not your job), certainly not when recording! let the dynamic processors catch the transients when recording - when broadcasting, let the producer adjust a bunch of dca's while reading the score...

___


and yet another topic: you'll absolutely want to use remotely controlled preamps/converters! (i haven't done a location recording/live broadcast with a large analog snake in 20+ years - i'm glad these time are long gone!)

Welcome back, old friend! We've missed you; there's been no one to advocate for film score style recording techniques in your absence.

I must say, I don't share your enthusiasm for old Yamaha digital boards. Admittedly, I rarely got to use the big ones, but there's an 02R in my basement that hasn't been plugged in for about 20 years. Horrible crunchy compressors, grainy EQ, foolish-sounding FX. I quickly learned to use external preamps, (preferably) converters, and outboard reverbs. If I have to mix on a digital board of that era, please let it be a Sony DMX R100.

David

Welcome back! Very happy to see you again... even if I am perfectly happy with analogue snakes especially if someone else is carrying them.
--scott

I suspect you're working in better rooms, and I know you're making mixes that are more reliant on sectional mikes and spots than I prefer. So this seems reasonable to me in your situation.

I think of spots and section mikes as different things. Sectional mikes almost (or completely) replace the overall pair when you are trying to get a closer-in sound. Spots on individual instruments get added to the overall part or to the sectional mike for balance.

If you record entirely with sectionals and spots, you have the ability to balance after the fact (which you don't when you rely mostly on a single pair and a few spots). You also have a much more close-in, much more detailed sound. Adding reverb can make it more spacious but it's still artificially detailed. Some people like that. I grew up listening in the balcony and it is not my thing at all but I am not the producer, I am just the engineer.

This is way faster to deploy and gives you some control after the fact. When you don't have time, this is a great thing. But if you have the time for proper placement I'm not a fan.

I never really liked omni outriggers either... the sound always seems to change undesirably as soon as I bring the outriggers up. I'd rather use fake reverb than outriggers most of the time. But that's just me.

I'm also used to doing the final broadcast mix... no producer's desk. But I am also working on far lower budget productions than you are. Sometimes it's just me and the PA guy. Occasionally it's just me. It's really nice to have a proper crew.
--scott

i still have a DMX-R100 as well...

...but it's neither historically correct nor technically fair to compare the old/original 02R with the 'baby oxford': as its name implies, the latter was a (heavily) downgraded version of the mighty OXF R3 while the old 02R was not much more than a (slightly) enhanced, pseudo-modular Promix 01.

it took Yamaha some time to develop the PM1D, which then laid the foundation for many further developments (and which even had a far-reaching impact on the way we look at digital mixing consoles in general, far beyond Yamaha gear alone: for instance to this day, i happily use the Yamaha SPX-2000 along with my Sony DRE-S777, Quantec-2496, Bricasti M-7, Lexicon PCM-96S, tc electronic System-6000, Eventide H-8000 etc.)

if anything, the DMX-R100 needs to get compared with the DM-2000 which - not at least in terms of price - was its direct competitor at the time; each had their own benefits and quirks though...

in contrast to Sony (which eventually dropped designing almost all pro-audio gear), Yamaha was clever enough to build an entire eco-system of gear and (maybe besides Euphonix) was the only manufacturer which took interfacing different digital formats seriously (think of all the then emerging network formats such as Cobranet, Eithersound etc. - in addition to ADAT, TDIF, AES, MADI)

getting back to the old 02R: it's worth noting that these desks used 20-bit A/D-converters! and high sampling wasn't a thing yet: DTRS and bit splitting were en vogue then...
in my assessement, its compressors weren't crunchy but simply more exact (and faster) that most analog outboard typically found in homestudios or live racks at the time (say from Aphex, BSS, Drawmer, Klark etc.). - I'm absolutely with you though that the EQ was crap! and remained to be so for ca. 20 years: it's hilarious that Yamaha stuck to an asymmetrical filter design which 'forced' you to always cut/never boost up until a later version of the CL series iirc - that said, i used the Jünger d01/d02 on the 2mix before hitting my DA-30's! ;-)

...but then again - as with any other gear - it depends on who was tweaking the knobs: ELP sounded plain awful in the mid/late 90's with Keith Emereson's keyboard tech 'mixing' (or rather 'ruining' the band's sound) while James Taylor's album 'Hourglass ' sounds quite fine - both mixed on a pair of linked 02R's!

compared to the original 02R, the 02R96 was a BIG step forward - essentially, it was something in between the DM1000 and DM2000, both of which were extremely successful while the 02r96 never achieved the significance that its predecessor had 10 years earlier.

Regarding outriggers, as defined by Decca (as an addition to a main pair/array) are not for added reverb, but to maintain definition on the outer edges of an orchestra when recording those larger than four desks of first violins.

Spaced omni 'ambis' are an entirely difference matter.

i consider myself lucky that i decided many years ago to stop lugging around large and heavy analog multicores: the only full-body sports i do are pushing around subwoofers - and sex...

i use copper snakes only as submulticores on stages - on large productions, i might even be too lazy to do that but rather deploy a bunch digital stageboxes (with multiple analog and digital i/o's) which i find veeeery convenient! no hf damping from long cables, less points of faillure, no grounding issues either and soft patching is much faster than instructing someone how to patch things.

(the exceptions to the rule are of course festivals/live events, specifically in case bands don't bring their own cabling: correctly repatching signals from various subsnakes between bands is one of the most important tasks! - strangely enough, many younger techs no longer seem to be familiar with this process anymore and end up doing weird crosspatches between subsnakes, rather than getting things right in the patch/splitter world...?!)

Hey Didi,

Great to see you back!

Could you elaborate a little more on this?

not always i guess...

(i'm regularly getting hired because i'm 'all-weather' - and the locations are correspondingly lousy)

...but my point is mainly that i much prefer building a mix from a couple of close mics (and some ambis) rather than to rely on a single pair and to then not have any options in terms of distance, angling, pattern selection, spacing of the 'main' mic system.

they are indeed different animals (and require different processing) - if given the choice, i use them all: close mics, section mics, 'mains', ambis.

correct that the larger the technical effort, the more it aims at (editing and) mixing (and broadcasting later; however, i pride myself that in addition to direct and subgroup outputs, i also record a fully mixed version which more often than not is getting used as pre-master...

...so i've been following an approach of 'always mixing' (which to me - amongst other things - means processing on the way in) for decades. ideally, i can even present the producer two (or three) different mixes to select from and which then is the basis for any further proceedings. for this i need different mics, positions - and a desk (plus some efx).

of course, i also get to into the situation where i'm the only one in charge - in this case, getting things domne right on the spot becomes even more important.

it's less that i wanna have a choice after the fact - it's more that i (mostly) simply don't like the typical soundstage stemming from a single main pair (or trio or whatever).

you're not alone! i've got no love for typical decca tree with outriggers - and neither for this modern approach of using 4 mics on a bar...

...but as mk50 mentioned, the outriggers on typical decca 5-mic setup imo were less for catching ambient sound but rather for looking deeper into and to the sides of the orchestra.

i find increasingly difficult to find and/or to keep qualified/experienced people to form an efficient crew...
...but maybe i should blame myself because i have long since left the beaten track and no longer care or want to bother with traditional techniques, strict protocol, inferior equipment etc. so that i sometimes work on my own and hence become my own roadie, sound tech, producer and whatnot (and feel quite alone, both literally and figuratively)...

Quote:

(the exceptions to the rule are of course festivals/live events, specifically in case bands don't bring their own cabling: correctly repatching signals from various subsnakes between bands is one of the most important tasks! - strangely enough, many younger techs no longer seem to be familiar with this process anymore and end up doing weird crosspatches between subsnakes, rather than getting things right in the patch/splitter world...?!)

i wanna ask bernie if he's okay with that - after all, it's a bit off-topic and better belongs in the live sound forum...

Oh ye veritable Yamaha 02R. At work we had 12 of those used as live radio broadcast boards. Lasted for 12 years powered on 24/7/365. Only failure modes were an internal molex power connector that would just start falling apart due to heat and an LCD display driver transistor that would eventually fail. Both were easy repairs.

Workhorses

Aha! Then this is the fundamental point where we differ. Which is fine, but interesting.
--scott

Fine by me, I've been posting about cabling anyway so it's topical to that.
If you haven't seen it my current plan is to set up my interfaces and laptop in a side room at a church for the next recording and run 4-ch looms to near the mics, and single mic leads from there to the mics. I won't be using a single large multicore with stage box and fanning out from that, rather everything will fan from the recording rack. I have 2x 2-ch TRP2 pre-amps, I could place these at the foot of the mics stands I use them with and I don't care if I have to do a rehearsal to set good gain. But I use great cables and also don't mind running long length to the mics and having the pre's in my rack - at most it's 20m. Yes I would love to be using remote operated pre-amps with Dante etc but that will have to wait until I have an income stream from recording to pay for it. The unit I like is the Millenia HV-316 with Dante option

More - M7CL at that venue has no expansions fitted, no external pre-amp. The company no longer owns them, they sold that gear and kept just the basic console. It has all XLR input and output, like old PM1500's. I have no complaints with their sound, the room is the big limitation there and makes it hard to really assess how this desk sounds. I gather that these days the Digico stuff is considered more like the standard for pre-amps in live sound but that is probably just because they screen print the high sample rate in big letters across the road case.
I had no hand in configuring its mix rack. If you review my post I did word it that you can't have all 30/31 band EQ's but I said I understood they are 1/3 octave but you can only use 15 of the filters. The trick is to also use the parametric filters on those sends so you don't need to use up your 15 GEQ filters so quickly. The stereo main mix and one send for the stage are full 31 simultaneous filters or whatever we want to call that, there are 3 more with 15 bands available only. The last 4 slots are taken up with FX.

A main stereo pair with support from outriggers, distant/ambient pairs and spot or section mics is what I waited years to do, and it is to my tastes as I like that traditional sound. I also wish to avoid miking up classical, choral and chamber groups like a rock band, time corrected or no. I believe that just because there are new technical means to do something does not mean the old ways become invalid - I've been listening to old cowboy music this week and I love the sound of the singers or even the whole group gathered around 1 or 2 mics. You could have less bleed, higher DR, clearer definition and total control if you isolated every performer, put them on their own tracks and carefully constructed a mix from that material. I don't care, I like the authentic old sound for old style music - that sound is part of that artform and so is the technique. If I was producing 80's style electro-pop I'd produce it in authentic fashion too, preferably with contemporary mics and maybe even tape. These days the style is somewhere in between, using a more natural room acoustic and few if any close mics, into modern high-performance non-linear recorders. And that will be the "2020's sound". That's not always the sound I want, sometimes it is.
FOr the church music I'll be recording next, my style will be as I've planned for, a main pair with minimal extra mics. Some of the best I got the first time were with nothing but a distant pair. But it didn't suit every piece so for certain others I'll also use other mics with them

Yeah me too, it's just personal taste. It's to do with the music you love but also a sound, and for me it's also knowing how that sound came to be.