Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
Locked
cleantone
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 10:44 am

Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by cleantone » Tue May 13, 2003 10:46 am

I'm thinking of buying this board. Any comments? I have used one (M8) mixng live to DAT once at a concert and thought it was pretty nice. Your thoughts?
Last edited by cleantone on Thu May 15, 2003 6:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
@?,*???&?
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5804
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 4:36 pm
Location: Just left on the FM dial
Contact:

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by @?,*???&? » Tue May 13, 2003 7:50 pm

You'll do well with a Soundcraft. Probably a used board, so get some deoxit, get under the deck, clean the faders and get tracking!

cleantone
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 10:44 am

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by cleantone » Thu May 15, 2003 6:49 am

Well I'd be buying this one spankin new. It's a small board...

Anyone have a reason I should not? The routing is limited but I think I'd like it over dropping double loot for sub groups or something.

comfortstarr
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 4:25 am
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Contact:

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by comfortstarr » Thu May 15, 2003 7:30 am

Useless post ahead:

I had the Spirit SX20 for a while. Very nice for the price ($200 through digibid). I've since sold it to a reputable engineer who plans to use it for quickie location stuff. The SX20 is kind of a hybrid live/recording thing, it's routing might be a little more flexible, but I'm not sure, than the M12.

User avatar
NewYorkDave
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 679
Joined: Fri May 09, 2003 9:47 am
Location: New York, Hudson Valley

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by NewYorkDave » Thu May 15, 2003 7:52 am

I've been wanting a Spirit SX... It seems perfect for my needs. I sure wish I could find one at that price, though!

cleantone
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 10:44 am

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by cleantone » Thu May 15, 2003 8:19 am

I'm gonna have to really think between these 2 boards. Anybody happen to have done a pre comparison? Does that FX board have XLR outs on the back? I only see 2 pairs of 1/4" main on the PDF files. I like the coax out on the M12, but I like the sub grouping on the SX. I think I'm leaning toward the M12. Still would love to hear any input...

comfortstarr
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 4:25 am
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Contact:

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by comfortstarr » Thu May 15, 2003 8:43 am

NewYorkDave wrote:I've been wanting a Spirit SX... It seems perfect for my needs. I sure wish I could find one at that price, though!
Sorry, I advertised that sucker all over the place about 8 months ago (tapeop, ebay...). I don't know if you're familiar with digibid.com (you probably are), but that's were I got it. It was a store demo and it was in perfect condition. Just one of those lucky things.

User avatar
markpar
george martin
Posts: 1413
Joined: Fri May 02, 2003 10:52 pm
Location: Wokingham, Berkshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by markpar » Thu May 15, 2003 11:46 am

What is it with digibid? Every time I go there to look for something I find about 40 auctions that have already closed and nothing open. Does stuff actually sell on there? Maybe the things I'm looking for don't show up much there..... dunno.

-mark

Professor
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3307
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 2:11 pm
Location: I have arrived... but where the hell am I?

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by Professor » Thu May 15, 2003 12:32 pm

Digibid was really cool up until they changed their system around about two years ago and stopped acting as an escrow company. It turns out the guys in Boston that started got in a little over their heads and had to back out quite a ways. My last purchase was such a pain that eBay is better now.

But as for the Spirit consoles - the M-series is newer and has some improvements as well as stream lining of less popular features. The SX-20 has been around for about 5-6 years and is great but I would probably recommend the M-series as long as they have enough important features to cover your needs (like auxes and grouping). The A to D convertor is a nice addition but might not be any better than what is in your DAT recorder unless you're using like a Sony D8 or something really tiny. On the other hand if you are mixing live to DAT instead of multi-tracking, you might want to consider the FX-8 or even save your pennies for the FX-16 since those both have a small Lexicon processor built in that really helps for direct mixes. Either way I don't think anyone will give you horror stories from Soundcraft boards - they are solid and sound great. I use the eight channel preamp option from the 328 board (8 preamps and a T-DIF output in two rack spaces) directly into a Tascam DA-78 for location stuff and have always just loved the sound. You might want to make sure that whatever board you get has direct outs in case you ever decide to go multi-track.

-Jeremy

Dingo
pushin' record
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 5:25 am

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by Dingo » Thu May 15, 2003 3:46 pm

I would seriously reconsider dealing with digibid in any way. I sold an ADAT through digibid and the guy returned it because there was a scratch on the top from the rack and digibid allowed his return without even talking to me about it, didn't ask for pictures, nothing. So the guy just throws it in the box without packing it properly and of course it doesn't work when it gets here so I notify digibid. After 2.5-3 weeks of daily emails to their customer service I finally get an email saying they are working on it. Another week of emails and I finally get a phone number. To make a short story long they tell me they aren't going to do anything about it and I need to file a claim with UPS. Why do I need Digibid to take my money? Don't deal with them. You're better off with a local paper or ebay.

east3rdst
gettin' sounds
Posts: 125
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 8:00 am
Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Contact:

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by east3rdst » Thu May 15, 2003 5:45 pm

I was so close to buying one, but...

I'm trying to get a small studio up and running, and with the weekly, changing situation's I get with different bands, I found that the routing in a m12 would be a huge pain (plus faders feel like shit on every newer, budget board I try). I bought an older Yamaha 1608 inline board and it's great. I'm starting to find out that alot of the difficulty of opening your studio up to the public, is dealing with a huge array of different situation. Good routing make's it easier to adapt to a band expectations of a "real" studio. Does this make sense?

User avatar
foley
pushin' record
Posts: 251
Joined: Fri May 09, 2003 7:58 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by foley » Thu May 15, 2003 8:14 pm

I have an m8 that I use with a 1/2 inch 8 track. I have not been blown away by the preamps (which are the same as the ghost), but I do love the eq - very powerful. The problem I have had is with returns from the 8 track. The m series all have direct outs, but do not have a dedicated line back in. Instead, when you bring your line back from the 8 track it cuts off the preamp. This would be solved for me if I had the 12 instead of the 8 as I could them run the lines out from say 1-4, while hearing playback on 5-12 BUT ... I only got the 8, so I have to pull plugs every once in a while which can be annoying.

Long answer to a short question. I love this board. The eq just makes me happy.

mf

User avatar
dubphaser
pushin' record
Posts: 233
Joined: Thu May 08, 2003 11:19 am
Location: Long Beach, CA
Contact:

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by dubphaser » Thu May 15, 2003 8:18 pm

I've got the Spirit SX. Plenty flexible. Clean sounding. Good EQ. Great for a portable rig. I've had it for a long time and I dig it.

PatrickBrown
pushin' record
Posts: 254
Joined: Wed May 14, 2003 12:23 pm
Location: in the bayou
Contact:

Re: Soundcraft Spirit M12, your thoughts please?

Post by PatrickBrown » Sat May 17, 2003 5:38 am

I have an M12. It's not an inline board, for recording. I use it 16 track. The 4 stereo tracks default to mono if the left input only is used. I think it's very elegant, and has a nice sound. I'm not real experienced, however, with alot of different analog boards. I do have an A and H GL2000 32/4/2, but I went back to the Soundcraft cuz it's smaller. and 16 tracks are enough for me. I use dedicated front ends into the Alesis ADAT HD24 anyway, and the recorded signal coming out is quite strong. The Alesis is its own patchbay and it works quite well like this.
The four stereo channels don't have the full EQ of the first 12, nor do they have the phantom power(I think), so I use those for bass, drums, drum machine, modelers, etc. where this is less important. All my front ends have phantom power anyway, so it's never used on the Soundcraft.
One thing,,I find if you use the M12 as in input mixer for a recorder like this, turn the trims all the way to the left,,to +5 db. The Stereo trims are a little different, but work well all the way to the left anyway. If you're in a balanced situation, as you are if using the HD24 with TRS snakes,,you'll be at unity gain.
The M12 has the added advantage of the S/PDIF A/D converter. It's ok, but I take the main mix analog outs into a MOTU828, because I have a feeling the A/D converters in the MOTU may be a bit better. The one on the Spirit is ok though, and an added plus.
The EQ is very effective. It's a bit of a pain to find the RCA connects for the stereo send returns,,but I think that was a real estate issue, and though you can use the two post fader stereo channels for the same, you obviate their use as a track channel if you do.

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests