Soundcraft Ghost mixer...Use for Live gig?

[coca]

Hi,

Have anyone use the Ghost mixer for live gig? Currently, I own a Soundcraft Lx7 and I love the mixer. A friend of mine want to sell me the Ghost mixer. The question I have are:

1. Can I use the mixer for live gig? I know it have all the feature of studio use.
2. How is the EQ compare to the LX7, midas venice or Allen & Heath Gl2200?
3. How is the bus routing interm of live monitor or FOH mixing?

Please advice.

Thank you.

[AlexW]

I'm sure it would work but it would likely be a pain in the ass to cart around. I think most of the Ghost mixers are fairly large.

[coca]

What is the price for a use 32 channels Ghost LE mixer?

[AlexW]

Depending on the model and condition, could be like $3500. Not exactly something you'd want to be carting around to live shows unless you're doing major prosound type stuff.

[boingoman]

Originally Posted by coca

Hi,

Have anyone use the Ghost mixer for live gig? Currently, I own a Soundcraft Lx7 and I love the mixer. A friend of mine want to sell me the Ghost mixer. The question I have are:

1. Can I use the mixer for live gig? I know it have all the feature of studio use.
2. How is the EQ compare to the LX7, midas venice or Allen & Heath Gl2200?
3. How is the bus routing interm of live monitor or FOH mixing?

Please advice.

Thank you.

I used to see a bunch of these live when they came out. They had the right name and right price and were a way to get Soundcraft sound at a not-so-Soundcraft price. Soundcraft's main live mixers of the time were much more expensive.

I am not familiar with the Venice or LX7, but it for sure is at least the equal of A&H circuits. Do a search for "ghost" on this formum, many have posted about it's sound.

Pros:
Used ones can be had for good prices. It is a good sounding board. You would also have a great recording board.

Cons:
Like Alex said, it is heavy and has a big footprint for the number of channels. There are a bunch of live consoles out there that sound great and are much easier to move around.

Only two auxes can be set pre-fade. If you do mons from FOH, you can really only get two workable mon mixes. If you use a split snake and separate monitor board, no problem.

Also be aware that that though the Ghost has 10 aux buses, two are stereo, and must be used together. This brings you to 8 sends. Two others are switchable, bringing you to a total of six maximum at any one time, only two of which are pre-fader.

[Farview]

Don't forget about the mix b. That will give you another 2 monitor mixes in addition to aux 1 and 2

[xstatic]

A ghost could certainly be used as alive console. In fact, with the exception of the aux sends, you will actually just have extra features, and a funky EQ layout if I remeber right (due to mix b assignments). Quality wise it will sound much better than an LX7. It will be similar in the EQ department to an Allen Heath GL, and probably just a touch smoother. The Midas however will rock the socks off of a ghost. There are some features you will have to give up to switch to a Midas Venice though. The venice has 60mm faders instead of 100mm, no pad, no phase reverse and only four busses. Personally I have never needed a pad yet on a Venice, but the phase reverse can come in handy. I reccomend you pick up 4 phase revers barrels, or even build your own if you get a Venice.

As far as size goes, Ghost consoles really are not any bigger than any of the others, nor heavier. There are some Ghosts that were actually built for live and have a differnt layout. Check to see which one you are getiing

[coca]

Guys,

Thank you for your advice so far. Here are couple of mixers that I have in mind. My budget is around $2200 US dollars. My main purpose is for live gig but I might use it for recording too. I am think to get the Alesis HR24 down the road. So I am looking for more head room. Most important that I am looking for a mixer that have good EQ, preamp, Aux send (the more the better), and sub-groups.

1. Allen & Heath GL2200 24 channels $1500 (brand new at Guitar Center)
2. A used 32 channels Soundcraft Ghost LE mixer from a friend $2000
3. The new 24 channels Soundcraft LX7-II $2000
4. Dynacord 24 channels power mixer $2300
5. Midas venice 24 channels (it is too expensive)
6. Allen & Heath Mixwizard 3 $1000. I use to have the older model, I don't really like to preamp/eq of the mixer.

Any suggestion?

Thanks,

Kevin

[boingoman]

Originally Posted by xstatic

As far as size goes, Ghost consoles really are not any bigger than any of the others, nor heavier. There are some Ghosts that were actually built for live and have a differnt layout. Check to see which one you are getiing

I should have qualified. It is not bigger or way heavier than other similar consoles. But it is certainly bigger and heavier than the others listed here.

A 24 channel Ghost LE weighs a hundred pounds and is almost a foot deeper and ten inches wider than the Venice 320 or the LX7 24, which weigh in at 50-60 pounds. And a GL2200 24 is tiny.

That puts the 24 in a case squarely in two-man lift territory.

The Ghost 32 LE weighs 120 pounds, and adds yet another ten inches of width. With a case, that is probably a four-man lift, and a five foot by three foot footprint.

Coca, be aware that a case for a mixer this size will easily cost you $500, probably a good bit more, and add another 40 pounds at least to the weight. It will also not fit in a car. Time for a minivan at least, and that is if you carry essentially no PA. Carrying a mixer like that around with no case is asking for big trouble.

I'd probably skip the Ghost, unless you are at the point where you are regularly doing gigs where you need a mixer that size, or want to be a masochist. That is a lot of console to move around, and means helpers, every time. And it takes up a lot of space. Moving a couple hundred pounds of mixer and case up and down a narrow set of stairs is a pain in the ass.

The Ghost is a good console, but I'd think long and hard before getting a 32 channel board live board, much less this one.

It's a good price, though.

[HangDawg]

I use the 16 channel A&H gl2200. It's a very nice board and the only one I found that has all the features I needed. Switchable phantom on all chan, phase, direct outs (pre/post), 6 aux, and a pretty damn nice eq.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by coca

My main purpose is for live gig but I might use it for recording too. I am think to get the Alesis HR24 down the road. So I am looking for more head room.

HD24? 0dBFS = +19dBu. Any of those mixers has more headroom, so I wouldn't worry about that.

[xstatic]

Well, if you didn't like the Mix wiz pre/eq's, that severely limits your options. That means scratching the GL off the list, and you may as well take the Ghost off too since the sound is actually pretty similar. Personally, I would buy a Mackie before I bought a Spirit. The Spirit's seem very harsh, they get a very wierd harmonic distortion, and breakdown like nothing else. Too bad the Midas is out of your price range. The sound quality of the Midas is in a whole different ballpark then the other consoles listed. Maybe you should look inot Crest Audio? There new mixers are pretty affordable and really are not that bad. I wouldn't consider the Dynacord either. Pretty nasty muffled sound there as well.

As far as weight goes.... I guess we all have different opinions of weight. For me a 32 channel Ghost in a roadcase would only be a 2 man lift. I constantly used to lift my Allen Heath ML5000 (48 mono channels plaus a 16 channel wide master section and 4 stereo channels) with just 2 people and that is in a full on doghoused roadcase. Maybe the Ghost didn't really seem bigger to me because the only GL's I use anymore are 3000's and 4000's, and I am used to 48 channel + consoles. Probably my oversight. I would certainly get a nice roadcase for whatever mixer you purchase before you start taking it in and out of venues. At the very least keep the original shipping carton (consoles should be double boxed when they ship) and keep the foam inserts until you can get a case. I know there are some decent looking but pretty cheap cases all the time on ebay. I was looking the other day at a case for a Midas 320. It was only like $140 shipped.

Whay I can say is that if you can live with the limitations of the Midas and can find a way to afford it, you will not regret it

[coca]

Guys,

I really apreciate for all of your advice. I think I will save money to buy the Midas. Over the weekend, I had a chance to listen to the midas board along with the Nexo speakers...I was sold. I love the sound.

Is the Midas 16 channels can be rackable?

Thanks,

Kevin

[boingoman]

There is a rackmount kit available for it, so I guess so.

Mmmmm....Nexo.

What are you using? I am looking at a PS15 system currently. I have found them to be about the best 15/2 speakers I have ever heard.

It has made me want to start putting a small Alpha or Geo rig together.

[xstatic]

Once you get into the Nexo range there is a lot of really nice offerings. L-acoustics, D&B, Meyer etc....

I believe the smallest of the Midas's (the 160?) can be rackmounted. Keep in mind though that the 160 will only have 8 mono channels I believe and 4 stereo. The stereo channels have a different EQ on them. That would give you 8 mono channels with full EQ, and 4 more mic inputs with fixed 4 band EQ. I believe each Midas offers 8 fewer mono channels (4 stereo channels) less than the name implies. That is one thing I hate when Manufacturers do

[Fire Dome]

This may be me being stupid but if you really want to buy another mixer why not get the ghost and use the LX7 as your live mixer.

feel free too shoot me down for my stupidity


Dave

[coca]

Hi all,

A friend of mine has a Midas board along with a pair Nexo 15 inches...the sound is incrediable. Even I love my Lx7 and JBl and Bose speakers but I can't compare to my friend's system. They are expensive. I just wonder if any mixer and speaker outthere that come close the Midas and Nexo. Here is my budget.

$2000 for a mixer
$2000 for a pair of 15 inches speakers

I try the following mixer and speaker but I am not too happy with the sound. It sounds good but not execellent.

1. Allen & heath Mixward 2 with Turbosound Speakers.
2. Allen & heath GL2200 with Jbl SR series. (The speakers are too heavy)
3. Dynacord Powermate with JBL Mpro 445 (I like to mobility and quick setup but not enough power and headroom)
4. Mackie VLZ 24 channels with mackie SRM 450. (hate the EQ + pre-amp but a lot of options to run wires and easy to use, light, build a tank)

My current setup:

Soundcraft LX7
QSC plx 3402 amp
4 Bose 802 speakers + 2 502 subs. 2 JBL eon G2 for fill.
Shure Beta 87 wire/wireless, Shure SM58, Akg 535 eb and Blue 8 ball.
Lexicon lxp15-II effect (for vocal effect)
Tc Electronic D-two delay.

Any advice?

Kevin

[xstatic]

For High End Pro Audio, $1000 for a speaker is actually on the cheap end of the market. For pure beautiful sound i am a big fan of Meyer. As long as you don't need blistering rock volumes that is. For a large setup that can sound incredible on any source, I still like the V-Dosc. The thing is, when you go with Meyer or V-dosc you can spend from $2500 a speaker up to like $6500 a speaker. The L-Acoustic ARC speakers are certainly more affordable than other L-Acoustic boxes, and still sound really nice. When most people think of Nexo it's usually the Geo and Tangent arrays which are considerably more expensive. D&B makes another great sounding box that is really small but still has great output.

The thing is that most of the companies offer a wide variety of boxes that have pretty big differences between quality and price. Putting a good console and amp and crossover at the front end makes a huge difference as well. A good FOH chain can seriously change the way any speaker system sounds. For $1000 a pair or less I have heard a few options that sound pretty good. For a good compromise between power handling, volume and sound quality, the JBL 700series is a great performer. Normally I am not a JBL fan, but these new 700 series boxes sound way better than the SRX line they are similarly priced with. The new little Turbosounds have a nice clean clear sound that sounds good, but they won't handle nearly as much power and are not biampable. The Mackie Industrial speakers (I don't remeber the model number and they are not plastic molded, nor are they the same as the standard Mackie 500's) sounded as good as the turbo's to me and almost had as much output as the JBL's. These however are not available anymore since the switch to EAW Commercial. We ordered a truck load of thes speakers right before the switch because they were just trying to get rid of them. We originally bought them figuring we could install them down the road sometime. I did not expect much from them at all, but when we unboxed them they looked like they were designed and built well. That made me decide to try them out at a show. Glad I did. We ended up keeping them all for another rental system

[usernamebob]

an Audio company which I've worked for a couple of times has a couple of those venice desks, Probably the best sounding desk I've ever worked with, thought it was running through a nexo alpha rig... so that would have helped

[xstatic]

A good PA always helps, but the Midas was a good part of why the Nexo's would sound so good as well. The Midas offers engineers the sonic tools necessary to really dial things up. Everytime I mix on a Midas things are just plain old easier to get right. There is a reason why the Midas XL4 and Heritage 3000 are the two most requested consoles on riders