Review: Midas Pro2
AT’s Trevor Cronin gets his hands on a pre-production unit of Midas’ baby of the digital range. ‘Made in China’ may have never sounded so good.
28 October 2011
Review: Trevor Cronin
Midas has always been regarded by many as one of the best audio mixers available, and they’re also a personal favourite of mine. Its analogue consoles old and new have always been very popular thanks to the ‘Midas sound’ and great features. In fact, there was so much affection for the Midas marque that most were willing to overlook the fact it was about two years late in releasing a digital console.
The company’s first offering was the top-of-the-line XL8, a very sophisticated, large-footprint monster with an equally large feature set and corresponding price tag.
The next product release was the more compact and affordable Pro6, which competes with many other large digital mixers on the market. Next the Pro3 and Pro9 came along, which interestingly (and as an industry first) used the same frame size as the 6 but came loaded with either more (Pro9) or less (Pro3) ‘capacity’. This upgradable frame configuration is unique to Midas.
I visited the factory in Kidderminster UK just before the release of the Pro9 and Pro3, and spent a good many hours with the R&D team looking at these forthcoming products in the concept stage and added some input. They were all impressive designs and the design team displayed considerable passion for the new products and were very interested in what one of their customers thought.
SINO OF THE TIMES
Not long after, Midas was bought out by entry-level audio behemoth, Behringer. The reputations of these two companies could hardly be more different: one, a much-loved audio institution that makes top-end gear for life; the other a commodity supplier of high-volume budget equipment. The whole audio industry was a little shocked at the move and wondered what it would mean for the Midas console company. To this point, the new parent company has honoured the company’s legacy it seems and, indeed, has pumped a substantial amount of money into Midas, setting up its own distribution in the US as well as a new manufacturing facility in China run by some key staff from the UK factory alongside some new talent.
So the Pro2 is the first Midas digital product featuring the ‘Designed in the UK and made in China’ label on the rear (the VeniceF, released last year, was the first Midas mixer to be built in China). Okay, so it’s a Chinese Midas – but what does it have to offer other than a cheaper price?
Firstly, there are two versions of the unit, the first of these being the Pro2C (Compact, pictured above) with its smaller footprint and eight fewer channel faders. The Pro2 systems are ‘ground up’ products, made with a different design concept to the previous models. For starters, Pro2 contains the system computer and signal processor inside the control surface, rather than externally (as with the other models), so they’re a neat feat of electronic engineering.
The Linux operating system/control software and AES50 24-bit/96k multi-channel audio-over-network protocol is still used – the same as the larger consoles. So the show files and input/output hardware are compatible with all the company’s other digital mixers, no matter the version, which is a handy feature. A Pro2 can even be used in a Pro6/XL8 system as an additional control surface.
A ‘touring package’ comes as a flight-cased console, a cable drum with 100m of four-way Cat5 cables and a DL251 stage rack. So it’s a complete system from stage microphone output to speaker system input.
All up, it’s clear Midas is going after the market share dominated by the likes of the Yamaha M7CL, Digidesign Profile and Digico SD9 mixers.
INS & OUTS
The DL251 rack unit is basically a 48 XLR mic input, 16 line output fixed configuration stage box with additional MIDI in/out/thru and a general network connection. This can be used for connecting equipment such as amplifier or radio mic computer control systems and comms.
This unit connects to the console via the three AES50 ports, one of which is a spare and can be used as a redundant in case of connection malfunction. The unit also has two power supplies for added peace of mind security.
The console itself has eight mic/line XLR inputs and eight outputs as well as L/R/C mix outputs, two sets of monitor outs and talk in/out. There are two AES/EBU digital inputs and three outs along with MIDI, AES3 clock, wordclock BNC, and video sync BNC. There’s a foot switch connection, USB for keyboard and mouse, DVI for an external monitor, ethernet from the stage box and of course the AES50 connectors (6) for connecting the stage box and some extra hardware.
So as a quick summary it’s a 56 mic in/27 output bus audio mixing system, with multiple onboard effects engines and more than enough graphic equalisers etc available for all outputs. So there’s plenty of mixing horsepower – in fact, the Pro2 actually has more processing capacity than a Pro3.
NEED TO KNOW
GET WITH THE PROGRAM
I spent many hours with the compact version and although not mixing a show I mixed some live multitrack recordings to get a feel for the console. It comes across as a robust system with a similar user experience as the other mixers in the Midas digital range. It has powerful channel EQ and a great set of features with enough effects to keep most people happy. Saying that, like most modern digital mixers, there’s an unavoidable level of complexity that would prove overwhelming for a novice user. Many hours can (and should) be spent authoring your own custom show templates, so the process of doing your first live show would be fairly stress-free. That said, doing a show on this console out of the box wouldn’t be a problem for an experienced engineer accustomed to using digital mixers from the other manufacturers, and a walk in the park for those who have spent time with the other Pro or XL8 mixers. There are three pre-programmed setups: Front of house, Monitors and Advanced user to help get things started.
The offline editor software (Apple Intel only) and wireless control system (on Apple iPad only) are in an early beta testing stage, so were not available for review. I hope Midas makes these applications available for both Apple and PC in the near future. I wonder if the team have tried it on a PC running VM ware with Linux?
MIDAS METHOD: NO LAYERS
Navigating around a digital mixing console can be a daunting experience at times, where the ergonomics of traditional analogue designs are sacrificed in exchange for extra features and functionality.
Midas has addressed this issue somewhat in earlier mixers by having dedicated ‘screen access buttons’ and assignable ‘population group’ buttons, which are also on this model. These user assignable hot keys quickly access pre-programmed groups of channels – say, vocals and their effects returns, which you may want to work on simultaneously.
The Pro2 expands this workflow concept with the new ‘Advanced Navigation’ section. The advanced navigation section comprises four buttons, that allow you to (respectively) flip to faders on aux sends, access the effects rack, access the graphic equaliser rack and access the mix control association (MCA) groups – which is a quick way of interrogating all the input channels assigned to an auxiliary send. There’s a ‘home view’ button that instantly switches the screen to the main overview of the console input/output or (with two pushes) the input channels. A dedicated tap delay button takes the hassle out of delay time settings. Finally, not having a touchscreen, there are four ‘cross hair’ buttons to navigate the screen, although I preferred using a mouse.
KT EFFECTS
The onboard effects are all from the Klark Teknik range and all sound great: KT DN780 reverb/multi-effects; multi-band compressor; Square One dynamics; DN370 graphic equalisers; and the digital delay, flanger/phaser. The effects can be inserted into channels or used in a more traditional send/return manner. Furthermore, I’m informed that a bunch of additional effects are due for release before year’s end – free of charge. There’s no word yet as to a future upgrade to use third-party effects from people such as Waves – I’m pinning my hopes on a simulated Roland SRE555 chorus echo effect.
DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY
The AES50 multi-channel audio format this system uses can be made compatible with other formats via the optional DN9650 network bridge, allowing for connection to MADI, Danté, Aviom, Ethersound and Cobranet devices. The stand-alone DN9696 multi-track recorder can be directly connected to the console for recording and virtual soundcheck playback. An AES50-compatible soundcard from Lynx and your favourite recording software is a cheaper option but limited to 24 tracks. Some Midas-influenced products from Berhringer now also use AES50. There are a number of other connectivity options available from Midas, such as a mic splitter system.
BRIDGING THE GAP
Generally, the smaller and cheaper the console, the harder and slower it is to operate. The Pro2 goes a long way to narrowing that ease-of-use gap. The controls feel powerful just like they always have with a Midas. The programmable colour coding of features is a nice touch and makes a helpful difference in finding your way around.
Once you have your show file saved, the feature set will keep most engineers happy. I’m looking forward to mixing a show on this system and checking out the additional software features in the finished version. Sonically, the Midas is still amongst the top performers in the industry and I can see this company and its new owners doing very well with this new competitively priced product.
I’ve never made my love of Midas consoles a secret, but even an old acolyte such as myself had a tinge of apprehension when approaching the new Chinese Midas. I needn’t have worried.
RESPONSES