soundcraft spirit m series...anyone using?

[djc8902]

I want to get the spirit M12 board for my digi 001 setup...but im wondering if anyone out there can give me a testimonial from experience. I know the mic pres and EQ are great but im also concerned about headroom on the mix bus, im one of those guys who finds it VERY NECESSARY to mix out to an analog board to sum my tracks....and I want to make sure the spirit M will handle the task. Any input would be great, thanks.

[BradLyons]

I have mixed feelings about the Spirit mixer. I really got very excited about the pre-release excitement about this mixer. I'm a long time fan of Soundcraft and Spirit analog mixers, they sound wonderful and offer an incredible value at the same time. The M-series has a very nice EQ with full-throw 100mm faders. The problem I have are the mic-pres, they are said to be the same as the Soundcraft Ghost but after careful review... I don't know how that is possible. The amount of gain I get out of them should be said as the amount of gain I DON'T get... that has been the disappointment to me. However, it's still a good alternative to the sterile sound of a Mackie... but sometimes the Mackie is still the better solution.

Now don't take this the wrong way, but I wouldn't worry about the mix-bus of ProToolsLE if you're on a Digi001. If you had an Apogee AD8000 w/8-ch D/A strapped on then I would say yeah... mix externally. But you'll get better results inside the ProTools LE environment by investing in a Control Surface and some good quality plugins such as WAVES, McDSP, Bombfactory, etc. The problem with mixing externally is using the Dig001 D/A converters. You also only have (8) outputs unless you have an ADAT Optical to D/A converter to give you (16) outputs. If you want to mix externally on a console in the ProTools world, get a MIX or HD system with multiple 888/96io/192io/xx or whatever and a true studio board. Personally, I would recommend to go the plugin route with a control surface.

If you still feel you want to mix 8-channels out to an analog mixer and you'll be using this mixer SOLELY for mixdown.... then the Spirit M12 would be just fine. Of course you're going toneed externally effects and dynamics processing and will not have automation, but that will depend on what you're mixing as well.

Hope this helps....

[djc8902]

Thanks very much Brad. I have to disagree with you on your theory of mixing analog with digi 001 however. I dont use the board to set and "mix" levels when i send the tracks out, I just use it to sum the tracks while still usingthe pro tools automation and plugs.This is a topic of great debate and I can see why, but in my experience at the project studio I work at occasionally and in my own project studio...sending my mixes through the board and back into pro tools not only gives me hotter levels going back in (more signal=better sound quality), but I find that the mixes totally open up and especially in my drums I hear a more punchy result. Its all about the mix bus math...and in most cases if you do it right and send your mix out to a board, you'll see that the headroom will increase dramatically on the mixer and you wont peak out going back in. I know theres plenty of people who come from the opposite angle and talk conversion this and that and its degrading your mix to send it out and back in again, but for me I wouldnt even consider summing in pro tools ever again since I started mixing out analog. Thanks for your heads up on the spirit though, I greatly appreciate it.

[soundboy69]

...don't forget about tracking...I used to track w/ the M 12...better sounding pres (much) than the 001.
But then we got a Ghost. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
But we still have it for a sub...