The new Si Compact 16 is the latest member of the Soundcraft Si Compact Series of digital consoles, and it made its debut at the recent 2011 Winter NAMM show.
Keith Watson, Harman marketing director for mixers, states, “We’ve had a fantastic reaction to the 24-fader model launched at PLASA in September. Being 19-inch rack mounted, the Si Compact 16 is our response to massive demand from our clients in live sound including houses of worship, installed systems, theatres and corporate events.”
With full DSP functionality built-in to a small-footprint chassis, the Si Compact range provides up to 40 inputs to mix in 3 frame sizes. Motorized faders with patented Soundcraft FaderGlow operate on two layers. A main difference from similarly priced mixers is the provision of a full encoder set for all the functions on a channel, from input gain through EQ and dynamics to bus controls.
The new Si Compact packs powerful digital mixing facilities along with Lexicon effects into a trio of small footprint consoles available in 16, 24 or 32 mic/line input formats, with 4 stereo returns.
No layering of the audio controls makes operation fast and simple, with 4 separate Lexicon FX processors with dedicated FX buses in addition to the main mixes, and BSS graphic EQ for every bus.
The audio quality of the Si Compact Series is supplied by EMMA Lite, the same DSP platform of the larger Si Series. Other top features include dedicated FX buses, 16 line outputs plus AES, an option card slot for MADI or other connectivity, a Global Mode for instant access to pan, gain and filters, a color touchscreen interface, and FaderGlow.
Andy Trott, Harman vice president and general manager for mixing, microphones & headphones, notes, “Whilst over the past two years we’ve expanded our digital range with high- and mid-range extensions to the Vista, OnAir, Vi and Si Series, we’ve been determined to drive our product portfolio down into the sub $10,000 price points. Our strategy has always been to integrate no-compromise audio quality together with innovative, feature-rich specifications and an easy-to-use-and-learn, highly intuitive user interface.
“Si Compact is the result of 18 months of extremely focused and creative development and is particularly exciting as it’s so unique; it brings together so many professional features and technologies from across Harman Professional brands into a highly specified but yet super compact mixing platform at an unbelievably low price point.”
Key Features:
• Frames with 16, 24 or 32 mono inputs and 4 stereo channels to mix
• 14 mono aux buses
• 4 FX buses
• 4 matrix buses
• LRC mix buses
• 4 Stereo Lexicon effects engines
• 4 mute groups
• 4 assignable insert send/returns (24 and 32 models)
• Harman HiQnet integration
Trott adds, “I’m confident that the user community will be delighted with the Si Compact and the wide choice we now provide with Soundcraft and Studer mixing consoles. We now have the widest price-range of digital consoles in our history – that’s got to be good for engineers and audio companies.”
