recording spirit m8 review

8/3/2019 Recording Spirit M8 Review

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OLUME FIFTEEN

UM BER FOUR

ANUARY 200 2

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B Y G E N O P O R F I D O

With eight mono and four stereo channels,this flexible unit is in the middle of a new series of affordable high-quality mixers

RECORDING JANUA RY 2002


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Send and return

To the right of the m ono inputs andabove the stereo input s is a small auxreturn section.There a re fourleft/right RCA inputs, making roomfor four stereo effects ret urns or au x-iliary line-level ins (like a CD playeror turntable preamp). Since there area lot of DJs making the scene thesedays, perh aps those RCA input s will

come in handy, but most effects unitshave 1/4" outp uts. You may needadap ters for studio applications.

But t he four aux sends, which isplenty for this size console, are 1/4".These are mono sends, so youll haveto use two if youre using truly dis-crete ste reo effects devices.

Two of the send s are pre -fader, twopost-fader, allowing you to crea te(among other things) cue mixes withthe pre -fader sends and a ddresseffects devices with the post-fadersends. All the stereo and m ono chan-

nels have green Signal Present LEDs(always useful for quick confirma tionof channel input) along with a redPeak LED.

Below are the inputs for the fourstereo channels, providing eight 1/4"inputs (two per channel for left an dright in) . Under the input jacks aretwo rows of gain kn obs, one row offour ea ch for stereo retu rn channelsand input gain for the stereo chan-nels. Since the re are no faders forthe aux return channels , each auxgain has a pea k LED next to its knobto monitor the signal level.

Stereo channels

The stereo channels are a bit dif-ferent from the mono inputs, beingdesigned to han dle ma inly keyboardand H i Z (high impeda nce) instru-ment input s. These channels have nomic preamps or XLR inputs, channelinserts , or direct outs. A channelmute a nd PFL (pre-fader listen) arestationed just ab ove th e faders.

Each stereo channel has simplereq than the mono channe ls : she lv -ing treble and b ass eq fixed at

12 kHz and 60 Hz. S te reo sourceslikely to be used on th ese channels(synths et c.) usually have their ownfilters or eq .

Master channel

The M8s Master chann el ha s aswitch to activate th e global 48V phan-tom power. There are various masterins and outs on top of the chann el,including a stereo RCA pair for play-back input (CD or 2-track), a singlemono sum 1/4" out, a pair of balancedXLR outpu ts for mains with ma tching

1/4" inserts, and a pair of 1/4" outs forthe boards studio monitor sends.

Soundcra fts Spirit M is a ne wseries of compact mixers. Three con-soles with similar layoutsthe M4,M8 and M12are in the line; thenumber a fter the M indicates howmany mono input s with 3-band eqare available. In addition to the monochannels, all three consoles have four

stereo channels, four stereo retu rns,and four au x sends. They also have aS/PDIF digital outpu t, which isunusual for this type of board.

These mixers sit at a slight anglefor ergonomic reasons, and all con-nect ions are easily accessible on top.While the M4 is too small to mountin a rack in a traditional way, allthree models come with ra ck railstheyre hidden unde r the rounde dmeta l side panels, which areremoved for rack mounting.

We received an M8, the e ightmono/four stere o model, for t hisreview.

Once over

The overall look and feel of theM8 is identifiably Soundcraft,than ks to black metal flake finish,those cool aluminum side rails, andmult icolored knobs and buttons. I tslayout is extreme ly clean a nd sim-ple; anyone familiar with a mixingboard will instant ly be at home a

welcome hap pening in th is day ofdizzying features.

The M8 is nar row enough to

fit in a standard 19" rack anddeep enough to accommo-

date long-throw faders andnumerous channel goodieswithout feeling cramped.One gets t he impression

that Soundcraft takes theoverall inte rface de sign as seriouslyas they t ake th e electronics. This fil-ters down to details like the hea d-phone j ack, which is easily accessi-ble but p ositioned to keep the cordout of the way. (But u nlike all theother jacks, which are metal , th is

plastic one was a little tight on thereview unit.)

Coming in at around 18 pounds,the M8 is no feathe rweight, but tha t

heft helps make it feel tough andsolidwhich is importa nt if t hismixer is expected to survive on theroad in a rack night after night.Sound craft s live consoles h ave anexcellent reputat ion, so they knowsomething about roadworthiness.

While the only road trip this boardtook was from the shipping truck tomy studio, it did get many hard milesof use as the pr imary mixer on anumber of projects.

The Spirit enters

Patching this board into a setup isas easy as it gets . All the input , out-put , and accessory connections areright on the t op of the m ixer abovethe channel s tr ips, except for thedigital output which is up by thepower cord socket. All jacks arelabeled cleanly, and th eres a decentamount of room for your han dswhen youre p lugging things in.With a ll of the connections on top,the re ar pa nel is used mainly forventi la t ion, but i t does contain thesingle stere o S/PDIF out, powerswitch , p lug, and fuse .

Each mono channel has a n XLRmic input and a 1/4" l ine input thataccept balanced or unb alanced s ig-nals , a long with a t ip /r ing/s leeveinsert just above the channelknobs. A post-fader /post-eq directoutpu t is also available on ea chmono input for connection to mult i-track recorders (or computer a udiointerfaces) .

The direct out is wisely placed atthe top-most section of the console, socabling to re cording devices doesntget in the way of any input or insert

cables.This is another a rea whereatte ntion to design detail is evident.The digital outpu t (24-bit/44.1 kHz, nodither) can be handy if youre goingdirect to a digital recorder (like a CDburne r, DAT machine, or hard diskrecorder) and dont want to mess withan exter nal converte r box.

Beneat h th e connection ja cks arethe s tandard input gain knob, threebands of semi-paramet ric eq, andfour aux sen ds. Youll also find t hetraditional pan knob, a couple ofchannel routing buttons, and a nice

long 100mm fader. Well cover thechannel strips late r.


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A Retur ns Master level knob pro-vides overall gain control of theentire aux return section, with aMute butt on directly beneath it.Additional Master controls includelevel control and a PFL for the p lay-back input and a PlayBack ReplaceMix button that routes the playbacksignal from the n ormal monitor sec-tion into the main outputs.You canadj ust t he overall level of all four a uxsends at once using a master gainknob. This has an AFL (after-fader

listen) button.

Other m aster controls include theMono Sum Level out, Monitors level,and t he He adphones gain. A 12-seg-ment tri-colored LED meter is pro-vided for monitoring levels. Colorcoding helps make t he board e asy toreadevery knob from eq to pa n hasits own color.

Full-featured mono input channels

Each mono channel has b oth XLRand 1/4" inputs that can accommo-date m ost any balanced or unbal-

anced input signal.The mic preampsuse a similar de sign and are in thesame ballpark as th e ones inSound craft s top-not ch Ghost con-solewhich mean s theyre da rngood. (I used a Ghost at my last stu-dio and loved it .)

Moving down, the highpass filter isset to 100 Hz. I t provides 18 dB peroctave of low end rolloff. This is anextra feature n ot present on somemixers costing more than this, andits very useful when you ne ed t o getrid of low-end rum ble.

The classic Soundcraft e q sectionis a basic 3-band design. I ts h igh

frequency is shelving, f ixed a t 12kHz and able to cut or boost up to1 5 d B. 1 2 k Hz s e ems to b e t h e s t a n -dard frequ ency for top en d on mostsmall consoles these days, and i tadds a cr isp , clean sound to mostsignals. This doesnt control harshupper mids , bu t i t adds a smoothtop end .

The mid eq can be swept between

240 Hz and 6 kHz with up to 15 dBof gain. This broad freque ncy rangeallows you to shape the tone in avariety of ways.

Like the high eq, the low is shelv-ing and fixed at 60 cycles to give atight pu nchy bottom to your bass orkick drum. 60 cycles is pretty darnlow80 Hz is a more commonchoicebut this eq affects a fairlybroad bandwidth, so you get p lentyof coverage in the uppe r bassregions as well.

The tradeoff to this wide bandwidth

is that things got a little bit mushy at

times when I was expecting th e kickdrum t o be the recipient of the lowfrequency boost. Perhaps a bandwidththat narrows as the eq gain is boostedwould be a good alternative.

But t hat s a minor subj ective pref-erence. Overall I was extremelypleased with the eq , particularly forits accuracy. Slight ad justment s canactually be heard, and that to me isthe sign of a good eq. Plus, it justplain sounds great.

One cool little button called Direct

Pre makes the M8 console special inmy opinion. This button routes t hechanne ls signal to the d irect outp ut,bypassing the fade r. Once your chan-nels input level is set, drop theDirect Pre in and the fader no longeraffects the send to the Direct Outbut the signal still stays in the mix.

This lets you keep the level to tapeset and still send an adj usted signalinto the mix with the fader. For musi-cians using a compute r rig on whichmonitoring latency is an issue, thislets you monitor in time with th e

track. Soundcraft gets an A+ forincluding this one.

Last but not least, those nice long100mm faders feel tight a nd smooth,unlike some boards that feel liketheyll fly away if you pull a faderdown too fast.

Catching the Spirit

I had th e pleasure of working withthe M8 on a number of projects. Itwas very flexible. All told, the res a

total of 32 inputs and at least tenoutputs, enough to handle anythingfrom a 3-piece band live to an 8- oreven 16-track studio setup. There areplenty of places to p lug all kinds ofthings.

Compared to other analog mixersI had in an d out of my workspaceduring the review period, the M8sounded clean , qu ie t , and warm. Themic pre is n ice and neut ral , the l ineinpu ts a re punchy and qu ie t , andthe e q is surpr isingly accurate andversat i le . And the digita l out is a

very han dy plus if youre going t o

be ru nning your signals straight to ahard disk recorder or CD burner;you can avoid extra stages of con-version an d kee p your signalssqueaky clean.

If youre looking for a small b utpowerful, flexible, and affordableconsole for your live recording or stu-dio work, I highly suggest lookinghere first. Soundcraft has alwaysmade qua lity sounding products, andthe M8 follows that tradit ion proudly.

Price: M4, $699.95; M8 (reviewed),$849.95; M12, $999.95

More from: Soundcraft, 1449Donelson Pike, Nashville, TN 37217.615/360-0471, fax 615/360-0273,www.soundcraft.com.

Geno Porfido (porfido@recordin gm ag

.com ) lives and records in San

Francisco. Hes current ly lookin g for

projects t o produce in t he Bay Area, as

long as th ey pay ridiculous sum s of

m oney or are located near a decent

pizzeria.

Excerpted f rom the January edition of RECORDING magazine. 2001 Music Maker Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission.5412 Idylwild Trail, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301 Tel: ( 303) 516-9118 Fax: (3 03) 5 16-9119

For Subscription Information, call: 1-8 00 -5 82 -8 32 6

recording spirit m8 review

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