Midas Venice or some older desk?

[baadc0de]

Hello all,

i'll probably be buying a small desk later this year in order to mix with real knobs and interface what little of analogue gear I have more easily. I've been looking at the Midas Venice 320 and it seems all I'd really want - it has enough channels to get me by for quite some time, and supposedly has a good enough mixing bus. I'll be checking out how it sounds at some point before I buy it, but I reckon a few opinions from GS really can't hurt.

In any event, with all the other options in about the same price range (various soundcrafts, etc.), what would GS think is a better option? Buy a used midas venice, or get something like a Soundcraft 6000? The deciding factor should be sound quality, and by that, _especially_ mix bus quality, headroom and possibly preamp/eq.

I don't need my desk to do elaborate routing, have loads of busses, an integrated patchbay and the last word in metering. I need my desk to sum, to do a little corrective EQ, to record with its preamps and create headphone mixes on the rare occasion when I'm tracking. If there are any other suggestions in the, say, up to 5000$ market, bring them on!

So thanks for reading, looking forward to your comments.

[el cochino]

The Soundcraft 6000 isn't exactly a small desk, so if size is an issue, the Venice is the winner. The Soundcraft is a nice board, but might need some work done like re-capping due to it's age, which won't be necessary with a new board like the Midas.

[soupking]

Originally Posted by baadc0de

Hello all,

i'll probably be buying a small desk later this year in order to mix with real knobs and interface what little of analogue gear I have more easily. I've been looking at the Midas Venice 320 and it seems all I'd really want - it has enough channels to get me by for quite some time, and supposedly has a good enough mixing bus. I'll be checking out how it sounds at some point before I buy it, but I reckon a few opinions from GS really can't hurt.

In any event, with all the other options in about the same price range (various soundcrafts, etc.), what would GS think is a better option? Buy a used midas venice, or get something like a Soundcraft 6000? The deciding factor should be sound quality, and by that, _especially_ mix bus quality, headroom and possibly preamp/eq.

I don't need my desk to do elaborate routing, have loads of busses, an integrated patchbay and the last word in metering. I need my desk to sum, to do a little corrective EQ, to record with its preamps and create headphone mixes on the rare occasion when I'm tracking. If there are any other suggestions in the, say, up to 5000$ market, bring them on!

So thanks for reading, looking forward to your comments.

Hi,

I have a Midas Venice 160. If I knew what I'd known now what I knew then I probably wouldn't have bought the mixer. Additionally, for what I want I probably couldn't afford.

I will tell you that my regrets are NOT out of quality. The Midas is a great board. Being a newbie, I don't have much to compare it to, but the 4-band sweepable EQ is so flexible. I can see why it's the live professional preformance choice.

It's sound quality is transparent. When I say that I mean it doesn't affect the sound going through board. It simply carries it unaffected which is totally something I want from a mixer.

The thing is...It's a live mixer. I have had so much routing trouble with this board I just wish they'd give in and make an inline mixer. In order to do sends and returns from tape, my tech is having me doing backflips in order to walk a straight line simply because the board isn't designed for making and mixing tracks.

Just be sure to get the right answers for your needs before buying it. Midas does great work.

If Midas would come out with an inline mixer I'd seriously consider it. But otherwise, I'm ready for something different.

My next mixer will hopefully be an ADT, but they're, well, pricey. From lack of experience they look like Germany's modern day finest.

Hope that helps,
-soupking

[baadc0de]

yes, size is a bit of an issue, and those big ol' boards are, well, BIG - and I can imagine that big and old also brings a lump of heat and fan noise.

The way I currently work, and imagine I will be working for some time in the future, I don't really need an inline style mixer. Basically, I need a summing box with faders and aux sends and an occasional box of preamps with direct outs. The Soundcraft and other older desks do give me the possibility to switch my working style in the future, should I want to or wish to experiment, but they do take up more space and are possible maintenance nightmares.

So venice has small size, serviceability (as in it's in production and parts are easily obtainable) and subjectively good sound quality going for it, while the soundcraft and other oldies have some other kind of subjectively good sound, flexibility in routing and, well, wow factor.

Hmmph, might as well boil down to how good of a deal I can get on each of these things.

[ssaudio]

I'd go for the Venice

yes, it's a split console but it never pretended to be anything else, and yes, it isn't the greatest sounding Midas but it still sounds excellent, has good meters, mix bus(es) pres, EQ and in the scheme of things, probably a bit of a bargain. Just be sure of what you are buying s/h, because these desks can get a real battering internally, both physically and sonically when used live

I really don't think, even after a lot of tarting up, that you'd gain anything by buying a 6000 - OK, the routing is a bit more flexible, but it doesn't seem you need that so...

[Dzoing]

I'd go for a studer 269 (vintage) or 962 (recent, cleaner). 14x4, usefull EQ, great headroom, clean sound.

[lane thaw]

I have a Midas Venice 240 hooked up to my Radar and use outboard mostly, but I've been very impressed by the EQ's and it's made very well. After several years, it's been very reliable. Like someone said earlier, it has little sonic footprint, pretty clean. It's dead quiet, headroom decent, and the Faders feel pretty cool. Headphone amp is quite decent for tracking, and it sends a decent 2 bus out to my Masterlink. Take all that I say with a grain of salt, I would rather have a great engineer on a Mackie, then a poor engineer on a Neve, SSl or API.

[Jalabodu]

I use a 320 for my live board and am quite happy with it. When I brought it into the studio, I was impressed by the sound of the busses. Extremely quiet, very musical. The pre's are definitely useable and will probably surprise you. The EQ is surgical and more suited for problem solving but not very good at color. The only reason I don't have one in the studio is because of routing (lack there of). I'd have to agree with soupking, it's a live board, but it will probably do a bang up job of summing. If the features fit you, buy it. Good luck.