Soundcraft series TWO - is it any good ?

F

fgonza2

New member
There is a local deal on a Soundcraft Series 2 32 channel. It has one bad channel and bus subgroup 1 & 2 not working. I can't find a service manual online. Does anyone knows if this console is fixable ? or is it all proprietary ICs ? i wonder if anyone has experience with this one around here.

thanks in advance
 
I don't know what the opamps are in that board but I'd be REALLY surprised if they were proprietary. If they were then this board would be a much more popular board. It would have a following like the Yamaha PM-2000, for instance, which didn't have "proprietary" opamps but discrete 2520 type amps. I suspect the Soundcraft opamps are likely primarily TL072 or 5534s. That is just a guess. This is not bad...the TL072 has been used LOTS and lots and in a well designed circuit is good. I've got nothing at all against the 072. I like the 5534 better. I'm clearly not a "newest/bestest/fastest" kinda fella if you couldn't tell. I suspect it is transformerless I/O...probably sounds nice and it does have a good feature set, but was built to meet a certain price-point.

What is a "good deal"?

Something to think about from somebody that went through a similar vintage 32 x 8 British console...40 x 8 is a good sized console. Do you need that many channels? I ask because if its got a problematic channel and two groups that are n/f, those issues may either be isolated or indicative of more to come. You might get to spend a lot of time getting very familiar with that mixer...and the strips aren't individual...all nutted to the single-piece steel control surface dress panel. That means if you want to get something out of it to work on it you gotta tip it up and remove a bottom panel, remove all the knobs and remove the pot nuts. PITA.
 
Do you need that many inputs and auxes?

And if so are you prepared for a lot of work if the known issues are the beginning of a trend of work that needs done?

If so, and you really need that feature set, okay. But for a board that doesn't have much of a following, and presents price-point engineering at a glance, I'm not sure $1,000 is a good price. I also don't know anything about the power supply. Both Soundtracs and Sound Craft power supplies had issues from that era. I paid $300 for my Soundtracs MX. It needed work. Some elective and some not, but even though it wasn't as robust on its feature set, I think it was a more robust and serviceable design...less price point engineering. I think I sold it for...sheesh I can't remember if it was $700 or $900, but a LOT of good work and upgrades went with it at that price. That Soundcraft looks like good studio eye-candy with some nice bells and whistles, and likely good but garden-variety sound. It's a FOH mixer. I bet the power supply will need attention and who knows what else. Not trying to rain on the parade, but just asking some probing questions both for my own curiosity but also maybe to prompt some analysis on your end of what you need and why you need it, and what you are willing to tangle with. The Series TWO is not in the same arena as the popular 400 and 800 series mixers.
 
thanks for the advice, so i have a 16 track and 8 track recorders. They dont necesarily need to be connected at the same time, but at least for the 16 track, plus effects, i would say a 24 channel is the minimum that i want to get, i currently have a mackie 16-8 where i am finding limitations at mixing, so i want to move up in terms of numbers for channels. So which inline console in the 24-32 range do you recommend to look for ? yes, i think this soundcraft is expensive for that price. I also saw an Allen & heath GL4000, but it was sold, is that a good option to look for ? thanks for the advice again.
 
Selection of a console is as much a personal thing as one of just specifications. Get your thoughts together on exactly what you want to do with this thing. You can find the operations manual for most any console online. Download and read. Does the one you are looking at make sense after you have gone through the manual? How much of a hassle will it be to interface to what you have? Balanced, unbalanced, +4, -10?, Split or inline?

This particular console isnt much of a change from the 8 buss Mackie you have, other than more channels. You could even consider the Mackie 8 buss extender that would add 24 more channels to your existing mixer. just a thought.

Then there is the personal part. Can you listen to this one or one like it? Everyones taste in what a console should sound like is different.

I've been through this a couple of times myself (Yamaha to Mackie 8 buss to DDA). I would offer that the more time you spend reading the manuals, the more you will learn and your decision will become ever more informed.
 
so i looked at the manuals of those two consoles (A&H GL4000 and Soundcraft TWO). here are the features that i am looking for:

1. Inline (so i can minimize repatching and # of channels)
2. phase reverse switch (not existing on the mackie 16/24/32-8 bus consoles
3. Ideally meters per individual channel
4. 24 or 32 channels, so i can fully hook up my MS16 and TSR8s as well ideally, along with effects
5. Mute groups (not critical)
6. Something in the sub $1500 range ideally.

So i've seen several consoles and see that soundcrafts and allen & heaths are in that feature set. But i dont have a lot of experience on multiple console brands, so your input/recommendation will be a good pointer. I like the routing features of both soundcraft and allen & heath (which i have an 8 channel version and i love it).

some of these consoles have the flexibility of doing -10 or +4 which is nice too, but not critical. What are good units to be looking after with similar feature sets ?
 
Sounds like you have answered your own question in a way. Item 1 in your requirements is going to seriously narrow your choices at the price point you want to be at. Generally you wont find that until you climb the scale to mid price and up consoles. However if you have found it on a A&H, and you like their product already, i think you are good to go.
 
Well that depends on whether or not the OP is talking about true inline architecture (where input, group and return functions exist together on each strip), or semi-inline where input strips have routing flexibility for tape returns and/or line inputs allowing control surface repatching of said inputs to the main input path and cue feeds for the different phases of the recording process. In that case the groups are often still in their own section physically. A good example is the Tascam M-3000 series.
 
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