Digidesign Offers Control|24 Bundles

[benrachor]

Hello everyone, I was wondering about the new offers from Digi on the C24 bundles. I was considering a purchase of the LE|24 Pro Tools Studio Bundle, as I am on a budget. After reading all the horror stories on in this forum about the C24 I'm questioning myself if thats a good idea or not. I'm a audio student that just finished two years of training with the SAE Institute of Technology and I'm looking for an entry level startup system. I've worked on the C24's, Pro Controls and Icons, but for me the C24 seems like the best value for the money. I'm currently running LE 7.1 with the Music Production Toolkit on a Dual 2.0GHz G5 and I want to expand my system from my old M-box.

Cheers,

Benjamin J Rachor
Student at SAE World Headquarters
373-391 Ewingsdale Rd
Byron Bay, NSW, 2481
Australia
http://www.sae.edu

Visit my website at http://www.audioengineer.biz

[Scott Goldberg]

Hi Ben,

I have had my C-24 for three years and "knock on wood" I've had almost no problems, and those that I've encountered I've been able to fix myself or with some minor support. It's a kick butt console, especially for the money. I got mine on a trade in and saved a lot of dough, and I would get D-command now, but only if I had the money to burn. They are better surfaces overall for their ability to perform some cool automation and more, but where can you get 16 mic pres, and all the functionality and speed of a C-24 for that kind of money? I could be wrong but even the D-commands don't have preamps, and you still have to buy an extra fader pack to get more than eight faders. I have a friend who bought a Pro Control when they came out, and he could buy anything he wanted, but he would have purchased a C-24 if he had waited for them to come out. Now that the power supply issue has been addressed, they appear to be pretty stable. I know all my friends with ones love theirs...24 faders, 16 microphone preamps, automation of all types except for having to push one or two extra buttons to automate plug-ins all at once.

[benrachor]

Scott,

Thanks for the reply, your right in the fact that both the D-Control and D-command don't have pre-amps and a D-command with the fader expansion is still $30,000. I get so spoiled at school working on our Icon in our post pro studio that I wish I had my own. I'll be moving back to the states about Mid-October, in fact I'm looking at the LA/Hollywood area. Anyways here is a link to promos Digidesign is offering on the Control 24's, I want to get a something going if I'm going to be finding any work in So. Cali.

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...=c24bq306promo

Cheers,

[Scott Goldberg]

Have at it dude! I love mine! I wish you the best of luck. I know several people who have D-commands and most of them work at Digidesign, and they all tell me that they even would not have bought them if it were no for the fact that they can afford them now. I still would get one too as I have plenty of mic preamps, but I can't afford one yet. Maybe one day.

[jre3132]

I'll second that...I've had my C24 for 4 years and never had a single problem (I'm not counting the whole power supply thing because that was a global problem for everyone). I wouldn’t use the pres for anything but a talkback on tracking day, but I love it. It allows speed and flexibility in tracking, editing, and mixing. It’s a great middle of the road console

There are a couple listed on eBay right now too.

[Studio Dweller]

I've had mine for about a year and it's been great. I would hate to go back to working without a control surface. I haven't needed to use the mic pres so I can't comment on them, but honestly, the only thing I wasn't terribly thrilled with was the sound of the talkback mic. I know that may sound silly, but it just sounded terribly compressed and "in your face" in an obnoxious kind of way so I use an external mic.

I've heard complaints about the monitor section and when I first fired it up it was fairly noisy, but once I set the input sensitivity on my Genelcs to match it, things improved greatly. I made a passive volume attenuator a few years back so I still use that since I like the idea of a minimal signal path to the monitors, but I have everything going to a patchbay so I can use either.

[stainless]

aside from some minor issues and having clean-reset the power supply contacts I've had no problesm.

...so with this sudden promo, any idea if Digi will once again take up future development of C|24 features that are "currently not implemented"?

[jre3132]

the only thing I wasn't terribly thrilled with was the sound of the talkback mic. I know that may sound silly, but it just sounded terribly compressed and "in your face" in an obnoxious kind of way so I use an external mic.

I guess it does kind of sound silly when you hear it out loud, but I totally agree. Everyone I know (including me) that has a C24 use an external. I wonder what the actual ratio is...probably outrageous.

I've heard complaints about the monitor section and when I first fired it up it was fairly noisy,

this has bothered me a little too. its not very smooth. moves in steps and is a little dirty.

Its good to know I'm not the only one that has these issues.

Overall it is a great unit though.

[Scott Goldberg]

I use just the talk back mic myself but you are all correct in that it is semi-lame. I use the words "semi"-lame because, i can't complain when you can get a 24 fader ethernet powered board, with automation, sends, inserts, plug-in assignments, blah blah blah, AND a talk back system that actually works for under $10,000. I think I only paid 5440 for mine on a great trade in they had going on at the time. I got rid broken a HUI that would have cost me over a grand to fix at the time, and instead, I got a new C-24!

I personally don't care if their talk back doesn't sound like a Klaus Hein modified U-87, or even an Sure SM-57, just as long as my clients can hear me. It's fairly robust as far as I am concerned. I've had 2 instances where I though it failed me, but it was just plain operator error, and I fixed it with the board's utility function. I simply reset the talk back microphone while in utility mode, and both times, and somehow it just got reset by accident. I think my dog ate it the manual.

I actually had the same problem on a Pro Control as well. It also fixed itself when I ran a utility test from the board, and I just reset it. FYI, the PRo Control talk back sounds like doo-die too. It's really not that bad of a mic, even if you are paying for a $!0,000 surface. Hell...It works! The whole board (The C-24) with it's 16 mic preamps that actually work if you finesse them a bit, coupled with all the bells and whistles of a total and reliable control surface, simply kicks ass on anything in it's price class out there.

I had a HUI 8 channel control surface when they first came out and it was a good surface too, but this is the whole ball of wax! No preamps to buy if you don't wish to, you have Digi Technical support for a year, a fixed power supply (the old ones had problems) and a much faster surface than any of the" Midi" garbage that was really no big problem anyway. sheeeit! I'd probably continue to run an 8 channel HUI if this C-24 surface were not so affordable, but to get this surface, and run it with the 802.11 protocol????Compared to the next step up, $10,000 for a Pro Control eight channel faderpack. What's not to like? I,m sure if I had 16 killer microphone preamps instead of 8 or ten, I'd have a D-Command or something like that, but for the dough, you can't beat this with a stick, IMHO. I dig 'em!

[Ed Kish]

I will continue to jump in whenever someone says the powersupply issues are fixed. They are not. The new powersupplies fail just like the old ones. I think they are on rev 4 or 5.....