Soundcraft / Ghost
TSC:
How long was this console in development before
it actually came hit the market?
Soundcraft:
About 6-8 months. Which is fairly short by our
standards.
TSC:
Was there a special R&D team for this project?
Soundcraft:
One of our best analogue designers, Mike Griffin,
was assigned to the project.
TSC:
What where some of the things they needed to
over come?
Soundcraft:
The key objective was do deign a console with
high performance and powerful features, to a very strict cost target. As
a result, the console was not a 'copy and paste' from existing designs,
but was a ground-up redesign to maximise the cost/performance ratio.
TSC:
Why the new 'Pro Mic' pre amp and not just something
off the DC2000, Europe etc. Do you feel the new pre-amp out performs any
other pre-amp in the Soundcraft line. Has the R&D for the new 'Pro
Mic' pre-amp been used in other Soundcraft products?
Soundcraft:
In accordance with the general 'ground -up redesign'
philosophy described above, the mic amp was a design which the designer
had worked on for a while but had never got the chance to put into a console.
In electronic measureable performance, this mic amp is almost identical
to others we have used on larger products like Europa, but subjectively
it certainly seems to sound better. The difference is most noticeable when
you wind the gain up and deliberately clip the mic pre -the distortion
sounds a lot smoother than if you do the same thing on our other designs,
and its behaviour in this region may give some clue to the reason it sounds
better in its normal unclipped state. We certainly got a large amount of
positive comments from people who regularly used expensive rack mic pre's,
saying they were amazed at the Ghost's sound. We haven't yet used the Pro
Mic on another product yet, primarily because all our recent products have
been for live sound, where we have a requirement for high input capability,
and the Pro Mic was not designed to fulfil this requirement.
TSC:
How different is the EQ of the Ghost from the
EQ's found in other large format Soundcraft's or competitors? Where there
any corners cut in developing this EQ?
Soundcraft:
The parametric mid bands were done using the
full state variable filter design which we have used on all the higher
end consoles (3200, Europa, Series FIVE etc) primarily because we had measured
the performance of certain competitors' EQs where they had cut corners,
and confirmed that there are preformance losses when you do this. For instance,
with other designs the 'Q' factor can vary depending on which frequency
is selected, and boosting at a certain freq can actually result in a simultaneous
cut at another frequency, giving unpredictable results!
TSC:
The Ghost is in a tuff market level..... are
there any plans to upgrade the Ghost or add to the Ghost line of consoles?
Any complaints or corks from users regarding this console? Any other interesting
things about the development of the Ghost?
Soundcraft:
On balance I think we made a pretty good job
of the Ghost, considering the price target, we had to make some compromises
in terms of leaving off features we would have liked, trying to basically
provide a good selection of features which would be useful to the majority
of users, etc. If we did it again I think we would maybe improve the headphone
foldback system, as it seemed more people end up using the Ghost in pro
studios, as well as just the project studios that we expected.
Soundcraft / K2
TSC:
This console is becoming very excepted in the
professional market. Has the K2 done as well on the market as it was hoped
too?
Soundcraft:
Yes, I think the K2 has almost exceeded our expectations,
being the first time we have offered a non-modular console at this level.
TSC:
How much of the R&D for the K2 was handed
down from say the Venue or Vienna?
Soundcraft:
The K2 really is the insides of the fully modular
K3 (Standard, not Theatre version), but packaged in a non-modular chassis.
We changed a few things about the layout of the output section to get the
stereo returns and matrix built in, and get the 'swap' function on the
groups/auxes.
TSC:
What if any have been the complaints that people
have had with the k2? Will we see any updated versions of the K2?
Soundcraft:
No real complaints as far as I know -we will
look at updating the K2 at some point when the sales start to die off,
as we do with most consoles, but there are no immediate plans.
Series FIVE
TSC:
Having done numerous events on a Series 4, I
was really excited to hear about the Series 5 being introduced. What were
some of the requirement or needs that needed to be met in order to be competitive
in the market place. Souncraft has already established a good name in the
industry but how does the Series 5 fit into it? How has the industry accepted
the Series 5?
Soundcraft:
We lost some continuity after the Series 4 -we
could have gone on to really dominate in the mid and upper range PA console
market, but due to a lot of organisational changes and the expansion of
the company around that time, we lost momentum, and that coincided with
the some good products from competitors. So the brief with the FIVE was
to rewind to where we were at with the Series 4, and make an all-new successor
which would put the Soundcraft name firmly back at the forefront of bread-and-butter
live sound mixing.
This feature was made possible by the
cooperation of Allan Nichols of Soundcraft USA. Thank you Mr. Nichols!!!
