Soundcraft serie 200

[guhlenn]

hi all,

i can get one of these for pretty cheap but info on the net is very poor. I'm guesing this is the older model of the 200B? Anyway. my question is wheteher this is a decent desk (compared to say mackey VLZ or whatever) and if i understand correctly that i can use the jack inserts as a direct out (post fader) to an AD interface... I believe the jack needs to be inserted only halfway, am i right?

First console so i'm excited. Be kind

 

[deepwater]

Much better board then the Mackie. Yes you can use the inserts as direct outs. However, it will cut the signal from that channel. You can Use a TRS plus and put a jumper between the Tip and shield to route the signal back into that channel.

 

[guhlenn]

thanks alot deepwater.

much appreciated, anything i should be careful of when i go and check out/buy the board?

 

[deepwater]

Just plug a mis in each input and move it move it a round a little to make sure all of the onboard connections are tight. Once I got it home I'd remove the back and get some canned are and blow all of the dust out. Also blow down all of the inputs and out put holes.

 

[guhlenn]

will do , thanks alot!

Btw this is a bump also wanna know what to compare it with. man it's great having 24 mic/line channels. The look alone was worth the 380,-( with case!!)

 

[xstatic]

The older Soundcraft 200b is much different than all the new current budget offerings. The preamps are nice and "warm" sounding. Very smooth. What they don't do well is a lot of the really smooth high frequency extension that people now seem to like alot. The EQ is very natural and smooth sounding on the 200b, but will lack some of the options of a lot of newer consoles. I personally think that the 200b makes a really nice affordable front end for people on tight budgets. Much nicer than the new Soundcraft stuff in my opinion, minus some of the bells and whistles though. I would imagine you will be very happy with it

 

[Cave Dweller]

If I remember correctly, the inserts on those old soundcrafts are backwards in comparison to modern inserts. the Tip is return, and Ring is send.

 

[guhlenn]

it's the 200 console not 200b , not sure where the difference is. The guy that sold had a 200b too and told me that there was no audible difference. I'm gonna use it for rock and metal stuff so what high freq? LOL I like ther somewhat darker stuff, and while i only heard it in full action at the sellers house, it sounded fat and warm. seriously. Liked it alot.

I've been using crap from dasy one so I guess obnce i get it cleaned and hooked up properly I will be nothing short of very happy. LOL the look alone is making me smile. It does agravate my gearlust, for now i want a 24 track digital recorder. and that blue sky system sounded sooo nice

 

[xstatic]

i wouldn't be worried about the high end stuff, it's just a little different on the older consoles. Often times they offer completely different frequency selection than is available on consoles today. I guess you just have to remember that PA's were much different back then than they are now. The capabilities of live sound cabinets back then were pretty limited compared to what they are now, not to mention that driver technology has come a long ways.

 

[guhlenn]

I'm not worried. As i said, i like my music to sound dark. main use is for my own band so i could care less what others think. Hooked it up yesterday and considering that it hasn't been cleaned yet nor do I know how to operate this monster it sounded great! Silent smooth preamps loved em, maybe loved the eq even more. Untill now i exclusively used digtal eq, but man! this thing rocks . Bass is set at 60 Hz and 1-2 DB made my speaakers go OOOMPH!!! that was great. I used about 3-4 db in digtal and it still soudned thin. can;t wait to mix a drumkit with this beast.

 

[xstatic]

Keep in mind that it might be useful (depending on the rest of your setup) 2 get one or two channels of outboard preamps capable of clean high gain amplification. The one thing the older Soundcrafts are known for is not having really clean high gain preamps. When compared to certain newer budget consoles they may seem clean. But if you get into recording a source signal that is not very loud and are using any kind of low gain microphone, you will start to hear the noise in the preamp circuit. For most tracks it really won't be an issue and can actually make a lot of tracks sound more natural, a little more "analog".

 

[guhlenn]

Yeah i did notice that even the sm57 required a lot of gain. Not as bigf thing though. singer will want a compressor anyway... might as well get one with preamp as well...

Thanks!

 

[lansingxcore]

i use a 200b... if the 200 is anything like it, then:

1. yeah, it sounds fricking sweet. classic, dark and warm.

2. the insert jacks are pre-fader

3. if you half-jack the insert points (with TS cables, anyway) it does NOT cut the audio from the channel, so you can continue to use the faders to set a monitor mix.

you can hear what i've done on a 200B board if you care.. http://www.lansingscene.com/studio

 

[guhlenn]

yep although it's more like the 200SR, i suspect it IS the SR really, but the desk doesn't have any indication.

Will check your samples and let ya know! very excited!