The rental company had originally been invited by Soundcraft's Latvian distributor Audio AE to test the Si Compact 24 console on the recent tour of top local rock act Brainstorm, as the FOH mixing console for support band, The Sound Poets.
After using it on various shows they were highly impressed with the feature set. Although USB senior sound engineer Maris Liepa had never previously worked on the desk he was surprised at how easy it was to navigate. "I instinctively knew how to use it without referring to the manual," he smiled. "The tour was a great test for a new product and we were able to run both FOH and monitors from a single Si24."
They were all set to purchase the desk and add it to their extensive inventory of Soundcraft analogue boards…until the Si Performer hybrid desk, which is based on the same platform, was announced.
“When we learnt of the Performer 3, we were particularly impressed with the bigger channel count, the two option slots, which allow I/O expansion…and the more attractive appearance,” said Maris. “And so we didn't hesitate to place the order for this instead.”
As touring veterans, experienced in running Soundcraft legacy consoles, they are familiar with the legendary signature audio and desk ergonomics. They have seen how easy it is to retain the feel of analogue within a digital board—a tradition that continues with the Si Performer 3.
The Si Performer is the first digital audio mixer with integrated DMX for lighting control. With a total possible capacity of 80 inputs, it takes the popular Si Compact platform as its base but provides almost twice as much DSP power and increased functionality. The Si Performer 3 itself offers 32 mic and eight line inputs, offering 14 aux/group mix busses, as well as four FX return channels; and with the aforementioned input cards it is possible to patch up to 80 inputs.
In addition, the integration of a DMX512 port offers core lighting control, with the initial release of software providing four scene masters (A-D) with associated slave channels on the ALT fader layers. This makes the desk thoroughly unique.
HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.
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