Hello, I have been thinking of replacing the FOH mixer at the concert hall
that I work at. I have been researching and I came across the Carvin SL40
mixer. I read a little and it's got the right features, but I was just
wondering about the overall quality of Carvin and their products. Has
anyone used this mixer or another Carvin mixer. Are they durable, do they
have good mic preamps, do they have good quality pots and sliders?? Feel
free to give me your comments or suggest other mixers that would do the job.
I am looking for a mixer that has at least 40 channels, preferably a Center
Mix slider in addition to L & R sliders, 8 aux outs, 8 subgroups, direct
outs, a quasiparametric EQ (I am replacing a Mackie SR40-8 and I believe
that had a quasiparametric). I have a budget limit of $6,000.
-Luther in ND

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 20:11:33 -0600, Luther Bell wrote:

Hello, I have been thinking of replacing the FOH mixer at the concert hall
that I work at. I have been researching and I came across the Carvin SL40
mixer. I read a little and it's got the right features, but I was just
wondering about the overall quality of Carvin and their products. Has
anyone used this mixer or another Carvin mixer. Are they durable, do they
have good mic preamps, do they have good quality pots and sliders?? Feel
free to give me your comments or suggest other mixers that would do the job.
I am looking for a mixer that has at least 40 channels, preferably a Center
Mix slider in addition to L & R sliders, 8 aux outs, 8 subgroups, direct
outs, a quasiparametric EQ (I am replacing a Mackie SR40-8 and I believe
that had a quasiparametric). I have a budget limit of $6,000.
-Luther in ND

HI Luther!
We just did a similar thing here and we went with a Behringer, Art and
Samson system provided to us by the Pros at Sam Ash NYC. We almost went
with an Alesis RA-100 but the Samson sounded so much clearer for the same
money.This system kicks and it sounds so much sweeter than the old
Mackie/Carvin Bryston/Crown set up we were using and the best part is Sam
Ash took the Bryston and Crown stuff on trade and gave us a great price.
Any pro will tell you that Art stuff rocks and Samson is tops for
amplification.
I can honestly say that our sound has never sounded like this before. For
once we can really hear ourselves.
Email me for details
Gina

Any pro will tell you that Art stuff rocks...

Hey, that's a good one...

--
Steven Sena
XS Sound Recording
www.xssound.com

"Gina Goiter" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 20:11:33 -0600, Luther Bell wrote:

Hello, I have been thinking of replacing the FOH mixer at the concert
hall
that I work at. I have been researching and I came across the Carvin
SL40
mixer. I read a little and it's got the right features, but I was just
wondering about the overall quality of Carvin and their products. Has
anyone used this mixer or another Carvin mixer. Are they durable, do
they
have good mic preamps, do they have good quality pots and sliders?? Feel
free to give me your comments or suggest other mixers that would do the
job.
I am looking for a mixer that has at least 40 channels, preferably a
Center
Mix slider in addition to L & R sliders, 8 aux outs, 8 subgroups, direct
outs, a quasiparametric EQ (I am replacing a Mackie SR40-8 and I believe
that had a quasiparametric). I have a budget limit of $6,000.
-Luther in ND

HI Luther!
We just did a similar thing here and we went with a Behringer, Art and
Samson system provided to us by the Pros at Sam Ash NYC. We almost went
with an Alesis RA-100 but the Samson sounded so much clearer for the same
money.This system kicks and it sounds so much sweeter than the old
Mackie/Carvin Bryston/Crown set up we were using and the best part is Sam
Ash took the Bryston and Crown stuff on trade and gave us a great price.
Any pro will tell you that Art stuff rocks and Samson is tops for
amplification.
I can honestly say that our sound has never sounded like this before. For
once we can really hear ourselves.
Email me for details
Gina

"Luther Bell" wrote in message

that I work at. I have been researching and I came across the Carvin SL40
mixer.


While you are at it, take a look at the Allen & Heath GL3300M-840B. Big ol bang for the buck mixing board. The AH GL3300 ( or the older GL3000) are very flexible boards, that sound great ( really quiet) and have excellent routing. I used to recommend the Midas Venice 320's...but my experience with them is while they do sound good, and have a lot of useful features, they tend to be a bit weak on the engineering side. I had some funny channel crap happen with them on the road.


I Haven't seen the Carvin out and about too much, aside from Christian Church's. My Opinion of Carvin varies too...definitely on par with your former Mackie, but not much of an improvement, they don't sound that great to me, but in live rock situations it's a passable board. The cost of the Boards is simply amazing though. The 56 Chnl board is only $3700. At that rate you could buy another as a backup.


Nathan

"Luther Bell" wrote in message
...
Hello, I have been thinking of replacing the FOH mixer at the concert hall
that I work at. I have been researching and I came across the Carvin SL40
mixer. I read a little and it's got the right features, but I was just
wondering about the overall quality of Carvin and their products. Has
anyone used this mixer or another Carvin mixer. Are they durable, do they
have good mic preamps, do they have good quality pots and sliders?? Feel
free to give me your comments or suggest other mixers that would do the
job. I am looking for a mixer that has at least 40 channels, preferably a
Center Mix slider in addition to L & R sliders, 8 aux outs, 8 subgroups,
direct outs, a quasiparametric EQ (I am replacing a Mackie SR40-8 and I
believe that had a quasiparametric). I have a budget limit of $6,000.
-Luther in ND

I've seen this board in one of their Southern California shops. Not a bad
deal for a 40 channel/8 buss board with built-in meter bridge. I'm not
certain about their pre's and I think the faders feel a little weird for
such a large board (they don't seem to have the same feel or resistance as
higher end boards). But, the feature to price ratio seems pretty high.
According to their website, they have a 10 day trial period that starts when
you receive the board. The only down side is that if you don't like the
board, you'd have to pay return shipping (which might be a considerable
cost). You might also inquire with them to see if there are any SL series
boards in North Dakota that you might be able to check out.

If you aren't dead set on having a large format mixer, but need this many
channels, another option would be to pick up a small format digital mixer
like the Yamaha 01V96, Tascam DM-24 or the Behringer DDX3216. In some cases,
it is possible to slave them together. These all have outstanding features,
and with a modest learning curve, can become very powerful FOH tools. Plus,
you can automate your mixes and save snapshots which can be handy when you
have multiple acts. As for price, a single 01V96 or Tascam DM-24 would be
about the price of the SL40, but you could easily buy two DDX3216 desks
(along with the ADAT expansion cards) from MF, and have money to spare for
Behringer ADA8000 preamps (you would need these for all of the digital
boards mentioned, since they come with 12, 16, or 12 mic preamps,
respectively).

Craig

Luther,

My professional advice is to NEVER shop at Sam Ash unless you already
know exactly the product you're looking for and you've verified they
carry it for less than anyone else. Gina made a big mistake buying any
of that crap, it's on the border of consumer gear. In addition, NEVER
trust a piece of Behringer equipment. The price may be tempting, but it
is a reflection of their quality. I've used about 7 different Behringer
products, four of which failed in the first year of use, two of those
failed in the first month. Behringer is happy to send you a
replacement, but when you lose your console in the middle of a show,
are they going to pay for the income/reputation you're losing? Their
gear is great if you're a highschool student in a garage band, but if
you want to sound professional I suggest you take Nathan's or Craig's
advice. Allen & Heath are great sounding, rugged boards with routing
capabilities that rival studio consoles. Digital boards are amazing,
Tascam and Yamaha make great products (Yamaha makes good analog
consoles as well). However digital can get expensive when you need a
large number of mic pres. If you go with digital, be sure to ask about
the quality of the A/D converters, these sample the analog signal and
convert it to digital information. Sample rates refer to the number of
times a second the sampler measures the signal, so the higher the
number the better. Digital word length is refered to in bits, this
determines the amount of dynamic range/detail that the sampler can
measure. Again the higher the number the better. A CD is sampled at
44.1 MHz (44100 times a second) with 16bit word length. Professional
audio recordings are usually higher (96 or 192 MHz and 24, 36, and 48
bits), I wouldn't go for less than 44.1MHz @ 16bits, which is Red Book
standard. Just remeber that when it comes to professional audio, you
get what you pay for (shopping for the lowest priced brands usually
ensures poor quality gear, like Gina's stuff)
Good luck
Travis

wrote:
capabilities that rival studio consoles. Digital boards are amazing,
Tascam and Yamaha make great products (Yamaha makes good analog
consoles as well). However digital can get expensive when you need a
large number of mic pres. If you go with digital, be sure to ask
about
the quality of the A/D converters, these sample the analog signal and
convert it to digital information. Sample rates refer to the number
of

= = = snip some digital chatter = = =

I am old school, and I feel that digital has no place
in live SR except in very unusual and specific cases.
Totally unneeded and more things to go wrong.

To OP: I recently made some live recordings of The Woolpullers
at a show where the SR guy was using a Carvin that looked
like the SL40. Most of the channels I recorded from sends off
the Carvin except the overheads. Decent results. About half
the songs on their independent release were from that show.
Made in USA, right ? Sometimes that is an incentive for me ...

rd

wrote in message
ups.com...
Luther,

My professional advice is to NEVER shop at Sam Ash unless you already
know exactly the product you're looking for and you've verified they
carry it for less than anyone else. Gina made a big mistake buying any
of that crap, it's on the border of consumer gear. In addition, NEVER
trust a piece of Behringer equipment. The price may be tempting, but it
is a reflection of their quality. I've used about 7 different Behringer
products, four of which failed in the first year of use, two of those
failed in the first month. Behringer is happy to send you a
replacement, but when you lose your console in the middle of a show,
are they going to pay for the income/reputation you're losing? Their
gear is great if you're a highschool student in a garage band, but if
you want to sound professional I suggest you take Nathan's or Craig's
advice. Allen & Heath are great sounding, rugged boards with routing
capabilities that rival studio consoles. Digital boards are amazing,
Tascam and Yamaha make great products (Yamaha makes good analog
consoles as well). However digital can get expensive when you need a
large number of mic pres. If you go with digital, be sure to ask about
the quality of the A/D converters, these sample the analog signal and
convert it to digital information. Sample rates refer to the number of
times a second the sampler measures the signal, so the higher the
number the better. Digital word length is refered to in bits, this
determines the amount of dynamic range/detail that the sampler can
measure. Again the higher the number the better. A CD is sampled at
44.1 MHz (44100 times a second) with 16bit word length. Professional
audio recordings are usually higher (96 or 192 MHz and 24, 36, and 48
bits), I wouldn't go for less than 44.1MHz @ 16bits, which is Red Book
standard. Just remeber that when it comes to professional audio, you
get what you pay for (shopping for the lowest priced brands usually
ensures poor quality gear, like Gina's stuff)
Good luck
Travis

A few more words about the digital consoles with respect to Travis's
comments. The Yamaha 01V96 is the only one of the three I mentioned that can
do true 24/96 with full processing. The DDX3216, which I think is a great
console (I have one, and given the price, was willing to take a risk), is
limited to 24 bits/48 kHz. But, the advantage is that it has the ability to
support 16 busses, which is really great if you plan to do recording of live
stuff. You can actually send separate mixes to your FOH amps and to your
digital or HD recorder while still sending four discrete monitor mixes. The
DM-24 has 24/96 capability in theory, but you loose channels and FX at this
sample rate; you only get to its full potential at 24/48. The 01V96 was
designed from the start with 24 bits/96 kHz. It is really an outstanding
console in nearly all respects (save that it's an 8-buss console if memory
serves me). It's also considerably more expensive than a DDX3216. But, when
you look at what each of these digital boards has to offer and compare the
feature list to the analog boards you would be looking at in that price
range, I think you would also come to the conclusion that one of these
digital boards will probably suit you better in the long run. Yes, you will
need to add some additional preamps (again, for a cheap solution, caveats
notwithstanding, the Behringer ADA8000 seems to be getting good marks from
many here; more expensive ones are also available, such as the Octopre's or
the Presonus units). But, you can have some flexibility in this respect,
including picking up some AES/EBU or SPDIF input boxes so that you can run
keyboards, PODs direct in digital to the console. I reiterate that a major
advantage to the digital boards is the fact that you can save your settings
as snapshots. With more complex work, you can even automate your board to
track MIDI or SPMTE, a real plus for any theatrical work that may show up in
your venue.

A couple more words about what the OP asked for, namely the Carvin boards. I
have not mixed on the SL/40, but I have worked with some of their powered
mixers (the PA1200?). I've not been very impressed by that box. It seems to
have plenty of power, but skimped on things that most would need for live
work. For example, the pre's on it lacked any real headroom (which I think
was the root cause of feedback problems we encountered before getting better
consoles). They also lacked channel inserts or useable EQs/FX. I realize
that the SL/40 is their top of the line range, so they may have much
improved pre's and the DO have channel inserts and 4 band channel EQs with
sweepable mids. Overall, we have never had any problems with Carvin gear. In
my opinion, the gear they build seems to be fairly solid. As mentioned, we
have some of their amps, PA heads, speakers, wedges, etc. All have performed
admirably. I've been especially impressed with their power amps (especially
the DCM2000 + range). I think they are priced quite well for what they
offer. I'm not certain about any rider requirements, but I'd think that
their gear might not be as friendly to outside acts as other brands such as
the A&H board mentioned, or the 01V96. In that case, you'd probably want to
fill out your amp racks with Crown or QSC and not bother with any Carvin or
Behringer in your signal chain. In our case, we make our own rider so it
doesn't count.

RD Jones wrote:
To OP: I recently made some live recordings of The Woolpullers
at a show where the SR guy was using a Carvin that looked
like the SL40. Most of the channels I recorded from sends off
the Carvin except the overheads. Decent results. About half
the songs on their independent release were from that show.
Made in USA, right ? Sometimes that is an incentive for me ...

Is it actually made in the USA? I didn't think they were.

I will say that the Carvin mixers are a big step up from the Carvin speakers,
which are junk. The mixers are a little lightweight and flimsy, but they
aren't terrible. I'd put them in the same category that I'd have put Mackie
a decade ago. It ain't no Midas and it won't hold up as long as a Midas,
so figure that into your total cost of ownership.

That said, 40 channels is an awful lot, and you can get a really nice 24
channel console for $6k....
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message Is it actually made in
the USA? I didn't think they were.

When I lived in San Diego, I visited the Carvin shop to see what was up.
Most of the Gear is assembled right there in the shop. Some of the
Circuitboards are farmed out sometimes, but they have the facilities to
construct them in house.

Nathan

Is it actually made in the USA? I didn't think they were.
http://www.carvin.com/factorytour/

(there's QuickTime again)

RD