Soundcraft Spirit Folio 4

W

Whale Bone

New member
Does anyone have any experience with a Soundcraft Spirit Folio 4 console? I'm specifically wondering about warmth or preamps (I hear good things in general about Soundcraft), overall noise, and reliability.

I've been close to getting a Mackie 1202 for practicality (like that Alt 3/4 buss), but then thought I should investigate something with a little more character, specifically vintage.

I'm having trouble finding something that has well regarded (musically and electronically) preamps that has flexible routing at a reasonable price. I also read fairly regularly that at this price range it doesn't differ that much, so maybe I'm making too big a deal over this...

Anyway, I'd love to hear comments on the Folio 4, or something with at least 2 busses beyond the main mix and with decent preamps.

Thanks
 
Guess I have a better idea why I couldn't find much user experience info about this board. I passed on it for lack of info and because I couldn't try it first.
 
I saw your post but refrained from commenting because I had only experienced this mixer for live work. A friend owns one and we take it out for small acoustic gigs. It sounded ok, but nothing to get excited about. On a couple occasions he managed to overdrive it with an acoustic guitar pick-up, but that was probably operator error. (I wasn't driving)
If it's not over-budget, look at the Mackie Onyx series. They sound very nice. Much better than the Mackie VLZ's and the lower line Soundcrafts that I have heard.
 
Went with a 200B

Thanks for weighing in nonetheless. After finding loads of buzz about 200B's and little about many of the Spirits I went with a 200B instead of a 1202 VLZ Pro or the Folio. I've found the article on star grounding a 200B and some other posts here and on gearslutz about recapping for better low-end (I'm a bassist).

I just decided to go with a mixer with an 'sound'. Figured it would match my '65 Ampeg, flatwound strings, old-style Fenders and a '75 Gibson EB-3. I just hope it doesn't become more of a project than a tool. Heard loads of reports of their being perfectly good mixers with the ground and cap mods. Going to feed it into the computer, and later if I get an interface with 8-out I can even try mixing with it.
 
i've owned and worked on 200B's it's a way better board... start with rebuiding the power supply... use about 1 1/2 -2 X's the capacetence for the primary filters ... and then the master section (not that there's much of one) before doing the channels... you mentioned GS... jim williams posts over there and he's the man on things like this...
 
Dementedchord,
Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I saw Jim Williams posts in all the 200B threads I read. Though I had thought I saw a post commenting on, surprisingly, the stability of the stock power supply.

And good idea on the master section. I was going to start on the channels, but I guess if I don't do the groups, mix and aux's, what's the point of doing the channels?

Have you used the channel strips with the sweepable mids? While in theory, they should be much better, are they?

Thanks
 
the problem with the power supply is the filtercaps as they age they dry out and you get hum throughout the whole system as a result...

there were 2 eq's they used on that board... the one with the swept mids is the prefered... once you learn to work the sweep you'll understand and wonder how you got along without it...
 
i havent used the folio 4 but have extensively used the Spirit8. i would reccomend this console for live work to anyone on a budget (well, kinda-budget) and thats looking for a quality console.
 
Isn't the Spirit 8 a 40-channel (or something big) large-venue console? The Folio 4 was the only other Soundcraft board I could find in the price range that had at least a 4-buss config.
 
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