Midas desks?

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Thu May 08, 2008 10:58 am

Anyone have any experience with them? They are primarily for live sound use, but as far as I can see, if the mic pres are as good as they say, they would be a great front end for my studio.... all the ins and outs you could possibly need with a serious eq. Its the 160 im looking at.

chris vine · Post by **chris vine** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:19 pm

They are fantastic. Great pres and the eq is good too. Top quality. Have used the large and small consoles. I have used a 16 chan Midas for theatre and small PA gigs and it blew all the other small desks away with it's sound quality - particularly those shitty Yamaha Digital desks. Very good to have in a project studio, IMO.

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Thu May 08, 2008 4:40 pm

Thanks Chris. Im using a very basic Yamaha desk at the moment, but would love to have the extra stereo inputs on the Midas, not to mention the 4 auxs. I would love to hear the preamps in action. Do you really reckon they would measure up well against some more expensive "preamp only" type boxes? I suppose its different tools for different jobs, but to have 8 really solid nice preamps in such a convenient format very much appeals to me.

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Thu May 08, 2008 4:50 pm

Not to mention being able to use it as a high quality analogue summing device??

chris vine · Post by **chris vine** » Thu May 08, 2008 5:47 pm

Perhaps I should have toned down my comment about Yamahas - substitute characterless as an adjective?

As to preamp boxes......well, that would depend on how much $$$ you want to pay. Midas have a reputation for being top of the line.........certainly in terms of big concert PA desks. I was surprised to see a little desk from them, but after using it I was impressed. Very solid build and clean (warm?) sound.

But you really need to find a way to check it out in action by the sound of it. Have you seen any good reviews online? There must be some.

Best,
C

chalkline · Post by **chalkline** » Thu May 08, 2008 7:55 pm

I use Midas all the time. The heritage series has fantasic eq but you can cause real damage to a mix with it if you not carefull as it is so sensitive, Cadac desks also have fantastic eq and they were originally designed as a broadcast desk. we just gave away a B type as it was just sitting around due to taking up too much space.
now I am wondering off topic.
The heritage series of midas are great as you can swop modules so you could choose how many mono and stereo channels you need, also the fact you can conect an extension of an extra 16 channels to the H2000 and H3000.
Anyway basically all I am saying is it is a fantastic desk to work with and it is possible to find ways to go to sleep on them too!!!

One Midas to avoid like the plague is the Vienna, it seems a little cheap and very limited, and below par sound for a Midas.

For a small amount more the verona is much better for small gigs but not sure I would ever want to use any of them in the studio though!!

blakbeltjonez · Post by **blakbeltjonez** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:56 pm

the big Heritage consoles are a little bit pricey for most.... you could get a much better studio console for the same price as an H3K. i would think that jesso is talking about the Venice, which is around $3500 or so, i think? a big Heritage would set you back new about $50-70k or so..... depending on how it's loaded, frame size and what you get with it (flight case, extra power supply, etc.).

one drawback of the Venice is the mickey mouse 60 mm faders and 4 subgroups..... and i recall there was something lame about the aux sends, i think they are fixed as either pre or post fader (i.e., 2 pre, 2 post and 2 that may have been switchable but i can't remember now). it's Midas' entry level console - a Mackie, if you will.... certainly not a Heritage or XL series, but still fairly decent.

if you're going to spend that kind of loot, you might do well to look at the Toft ATB-16, for about $1000 more, you've got yourself a little Trident 80 series console with the benefit of 100 mm faders and 8 subgroups in a reasonably small footprint.

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Fri May 09, 2008 2:49 pm

thats right blackbelt Im talking about the Venice. Ill check out the other stuff you mentioned now.

chalkline · Post by **chalkline** » Fri May 09, 2008 7:54 pm

yeah we paid £60k for h2000
as I said I would avoid the venice like the plague, the verona is a better desk not much more in price, but not a great studio desk, go with what blackbelt says

jesso · Post by **jesso** » Fri May 09, 2008 9:13 pm

Blackbelt you speak the truth. Thank you.

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:42 am

yeah the pre/post fader thing on the aux sends is definitely a PITA on the Venice...

freshdrumma · Post by **freshdrumma** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:43 am

any time i had a midas venice under my fingers i was in love!
thought about buying the 32 channel for my studio too

blakbeltjonez · Post by **blakbeltjonez** » Mon May 12, 2008 6:54 pm

freshdrumma wrote:any time i had a midas venice under my fingers i was in love!
thought about buying the 32 channel for my studio too

it's not bad at all, but if you need 100 mm faders and more subgroups and more than 4 post fader FX sends (it's surprising how often you do working on an analog console).., it can be frustrating. it certainly sounds better than most $3000 and under boards, but not quite in the same league as the big brother. for someone used to a Mackie or an Allen & Heath, the EQ would be a big step up.

i mentioned the Toft because it's generated a lot of positive buzz from knob twiddlers looking for a console in the $4000 -5000-ish range. it would be a shame to spend $3500 on a console with some significant cost cutting concessions and not investigate a console that's just $1000 more with Trident 80 series flavor, that by all accounts kicks ass.