Studiomaster?

[James HE]

Anyone ever tried/heard a Studiomaster mixer. I'm eyeing The Studiomaster club series C2000-102. For under $350 it looks like a good deal (and something that I could afford)
It dosent have inserts on each channel unfortunatly- that and the fact that I've never heard anything about these mixers is keeping me from buying it. (which is probably a good thing)

-jhe

 

[sonusman]

Years ago I owned a Studiomaster console. 16 channel 4 sub group, stereo master. 4 aux sends. Quazi Parametric Mid's and Low's with a fixed High Shelf that started at 10KHz. You know, it was a nice sounding console. The only problem was that at the time, since it used electronically balanced outputs it wouldn't work with transformer balanced gear like the old Yamamha 1027 EQ's and their crossovers. But, that was a simple work around.

Otherwise, the EQ's were warm. The console generally lacked any headroom for live purposes, but I was usually overpowering the sytems I was running, so that was not that much of a problem.

Anyway, I really don't know what their new stuff is like. They have kind of been out of the game for quite some time in the States here, but, you may talk to some of our British Brothers here and see what they think. It is a British company. I am sure that mostly you will find agreeable EQ's, and possibly warmer preamps, but, this is supposition and based upon a generalization of British sound gear. So, it may be totally a false assumption. Like all this vague wording? My clever way of saying I have no clue!!! LOL

Ed

 

[James HE]

Well if you don't have a clue and you can't be clever about it, well... that's just no fun is it? The c2000 series is supposed to be the "improved" replacement series for their diamond series. Was the board you had a "diamond" series perhaps? This has 6 mic/line 2 stereo/line inputs and only has two aux sends one pre on post fader and it does have inserts on the master section. Well what can you exspect for $350!!

 

[gaffa]

I've got a Studiomaster Diamond 12-2 mixer, which I can't complain about. It's pretty low noise, the EQ's aren't too bad. The only problem I have with it (apart from a noisy pot on Aux1 send) is the lack of channel inserts. I'm not sure if the Club series has them. Otherwise, its a good mixer - built like a brick shithouse, so it'll take a bit of punishment. Oh yeah, and in the diamond, the slider knobs were a bit shitty, and I think the slider shaft is a non-standard size, so I've had some problems replaceing them

- gaffa

 

[sonusman]

Right, no question that it will probably have a problem within two years of purchase.

I have never shared this, but I will now.

Everyone is so fond of Mackies and of course I have never been shy about expressing my distaste for them.

Without fail, every single Mackie I have worked on had a problem with a knob or fader. One example, and there are many; A club that I used to mix at a lot had a 32X8 and that thing had a mind of it's own. Channels cutting in and out, scratchy pots, solo buttons that didn't work, pan knobs that weighted sound to one side more than the other.

The club had only two house soundmen who were both quite competent and really kept good care of the equipment. But that Mackie was hopeless.

Let's not even go into the lack of headroom on the preamps, or the stale EQ's. These are givens with a Mackie.

For the price of a Mackie, you can get an Allen & Heath Mix Master, a console with a much warmer sound with loads more headroom on the mic pre's, and those nice warm sounding British EQ's....

Ed

 

[James HE]

It seems like buying a mixer is a guessing game. Unless you are in a position, like being a soundman (or a sonusman ) you really don't have a chance to actually compare a lot a mixers. So we are left to rely on the opinions of others, and a products reputation. We can look at specs and features and go from there and that's all you really get to go on.

Imagine this: you go into Mars or somwhere tell them you want to try out a board. They might give you a mic and let you hear how it sounds, but then you say "well hey lets set up a kit and mic it and a bunch of amps and get a couple of singers and musicians and let me record somthin so I can make a good decision here" HA! They might laugh at you, but other than that you'll get NOTHING. Even if you could do this, if you don't have experience anyway then your working blind!

Where I am now a mixer period would be an improvement! I don;t think I'll go with the Studiomaster now. It will probably be a few months anyway before I jump into the mixer thing. Those Allen and Heaths look nice, they cram a whole lot of stuff on to those boards and have a lot of features. I'm thinking more towards flexbility when I do finally get around to it.

The search will continue...

-jhe