ssscientist said:
Where did you get the idea that a Soundcraft Ghost is in the junior league? A well set up and maintained Ghost will give more than professional results, and the .05% improvement you'll get by spending twice as much will be lost on all but the Clearmountains, the Vigs and the Floods of the HR dot com community.
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Actually, I got that information from years of experience and having used a Ghost as well as some of the other options I mentioned on numerous occasions. We could start with the preamps. They sound OK. Once you get past about 40 db of gain though you can really start hearing the noise. They are a kind of slow sounding preamp, which can be good, but it is not a slow sound in the Neve way. Then there is the EQ. Again, the EQ sounds OK, but is certainly nothing to write home about. It works, but there is no real "power" to the EQ like you get in the other vintage desks. Personally, I also do not like the shortloaded inline design either. I really was not trying to say bad things about the Ghost, because for an inline studio console still in production, it is a pretty good value. It's a great studio starter desk in my opinion. As far as
the GS3000, I would rate it right there next to the Ghost. However, if you have ever worked on a nicer console than the Ghost, you would know exactly what I mean. I have worked on Neve's, SSL's, several different Amek's, Harrison's, D&R's, the older soundcrafts I have mentioned, Trident's, MCI's, Sony 3036 etc... All of those consoles have a character that can not be touched by the Ghost. Ask NL5 what he thinks of the difference between his Ghost that he just sold and the series 80 he just bought. I am sure that he will not say bad things about the Ghost, but I am also sure he is not regretting his series 80 sound either
The point is that virtually everyone who has worked on the nicer consoles will tell you that the Ghost does not even come close. Even to the older Soundcraft models like the TS24,
TS12 and series 6000 (some of which can be had used for about $2000). Micter mentioned he had spent a lot of time on a series 80. Knowing that I felt like he might have a hard time working on a Ghost. Having a nice console is akin to having racks full of nice preamps and EQ's. Having a Ghost is more like having a deluxe Mackie, had it been built like it should have.
As far as not wanting vintage desks because of the labor and TLC (which can often mean $) is understandable. That is one reason why I suggested calling Blevins. They are THE MCI guys. They almost always have a few MCI consoles in stock that they have already completely gone thorugh and that have all the necessary looms even. If you look at it that way, there should not be much maintenance involved in keeping an MCI in good shape. The MCI has a big warm sound to it that reminds me a lot of the stock MCI sound. The real differences are in the EQ. The MCI's offer several different types of EQ that sound very different. I still prefer Trident EQ, but the MCI consoles are very modular. You can add Forsell stuff to them, Hardy preamps, API preamps and EQ's, and if you can find them, there are some Avalon cards floating around that can go into the MCI consoles. I suggest at least talking to the Blevins guys. They are straight up people and can help address your questions. They may even have something else you are interested in.
As far as the Midas venice goes... I like the sound of the Venice much more than the Ghost. The preamps and EQ's are awesome, but the Midas venice feature set is very limited. It is a traditional live format which means no inline or split channel structure, 4 buss, 60mm faders, no pad, 48v on the back (easy to get used to and there is a light on the channel side to show you it is on), no phase reverse, and only two of the 6 auxes are switchable between pre and post. 2 others are always post, 2 are always pre. The direct outs are also post EQ and post fader, but there is an affordable mod that can be done at Midas repair in Minnesota that can address this issue for you. Sonically, the Venice sounds like much more than it costs. Midas did a great job releasing an awesopme sounding console that hits a low price point by stripping a lot of the features.