The new Soundcraft Si Compact Series is a power-packed range of digital consoles that brings the company’s digital mixing platforms to a very affordable price level for tour sound, corporate event, house of worship and theatre applications, among others.
With full DSP functionality built-in to a small-footprint chassis, the Si Compact provides up to 40 inputs to mix in 3 frame sizes, the smallest of which is also rack-mountable.
Motorized faders with patented Soundcraft FaderGlow operate on two layers, but the 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.
Drawing on the larger Si Series, 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, the first, the Si Compact 24 is on show at PLASA, with pricing expected to be around £6000 UK list (around $9,250 U.S.).
No layering of the audio controls makes operation fast and simple. Four separate Lexicon FX processors offer dedicated FX buses in addition to the main mixes, and there is BSS Graphic EQ for every bus.
Andy Trott, Harman VP and general manager for mixing, microphones & headphones, states, “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 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.”
Soundcraft audio quality comes courtesy of EMMA Lite, the same DSP platform of the larger Si Series. Features like 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 equip Si Compact to easily handle a range of live sound mixing applications including bands, theatres and houses of worship.
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’ve now got the widest price-range of digital consoles in our history – that’s got to be good for engineers and audio companies!”
For a personal demo and overview at 2010 PLASA, visit the Harman booth (number 1-E21) or the Harman press conference at 5 pm on September 12 in the Marlborough Room in Earl’s Court.
