NAMM: MIDAS M32 SPIN-OFFS
23 January 2015
Like the X32 before it, Midas’ M32 console has begun to spawn miniature clones. Midas M32 is a flexible live console, for a great price, and with the release of the M32R rackmount and M32C core mixers, it’ll squeeze into even more places.
The M32R can process up to 32 input channels at a time, plus eight auxes and eight FX returns, all with only 1.1ms of latency from stagebox to console to stagebox. On this version, the fader count has been knocked back to 17, but the main control section remains the same. Most of the M32s features remain the same, with 40-bit floating point processing, 192k conversion, Midas Pro preamps and faders, eight DCAs, and a 32 x 32-channel USB audio interface. The main cutbacks other than fader count are the screen has shrunk from seven inches to five, the onboard input count has been halved, and it’s lost a bunch of assignable buttons and encoders. It’s still a powerful package, and expected to come in under US$3000.
The M32C core has dual-AES50 inputs, allowing for up to 96 I/O. At the moment it’s a 40-input, 25-bus rackmountable digital mixing core in a 1U size. It’s basically got all the same brains as the M32, without the faders, knobs and buttons. You can, of course, control it courtesy of the M32 mixing apps for iPad.
On the stagebox side, both Behringer and Midas simultaneously upped their input count, with both releasing 32-in/16-out stageboxes. They both have remote controllable Midas-designed preamps, though the actual Midas unit sports the Pro versions. Both come with Ultranet outputs for personal monitoring setups.
Behringer has also dropped two news stage boxes, the SD8 and SD16. They come with expected I/O count, but with the addition of multiple Ultranet outputs and a more rugged drop box style enclosure.
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