Soundcraft Spirit F1

[Críoch]

I made a thread about techno desks there a few weeks ago.. But as I could possibly have the chance to pick up a cheap F1, I thought I'd make a clean new thread.

http://www.subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4903

Any experiences out there? Buy it or avoid it?

It's probably been around the block & needs a service but I hope to pick it up for under €100. It's local-ish & I need to be able to mess with plugs without disturbing my senile soundcard too much. I'll be using it to record in rather than mix out. If that makes sense.

[Hades]

why would you buy it ?
I mean, just because it's cheap doesn't mean you need to buy it, right ?

I don't know, from your other thread I seem to understand you just want to use it to overdrive stuff.
if that's what you want, wouldn't you be better of with some guitar pedal.
cause a mixer that cheap won't give you anything special.
forget about proper EQ on something like that.

[Críoch]

Ah, tbh.. My soundcard is on its last legs & I just want something that I can use to do all the plugging in & out away from the actual soundcard. Its only a matter of time before it dies & I've not decided what I want to get to replace it.

I'll just be using it to route audio into the computer mainly - bouncing stuff in rather than using the desk to mix / EQ etc..

It's pretty cheap - yes.. but I havent seen anything else locally & it'll get me out of a little hole until I see one of the other techno desks come up. It may not work out &/or disappoint but its not that terribly expensive to take a slight punt on.

You are right about the overdriving idea Tom. I have some pedals anyway but tbh I'm reluctant to play around with them as its not handy to plug stuff in & out with the state of my soundcard. I was hoping to get one of the older desks.. but I'm happy to investigate this F1 a bit further.

SO.. has anyone ever used one?

[Hades]

if all the plugging in and out bothers you and will make your soundcard die sooner,
just get a patchbay.
that way you can easily route your audio in without having to unplug the cables that go into your soundcard, plus you can get decent patchbays for 50 euro's or less.
And you'll be very grateful later cause it's something that will stay in your studio instead of the mixer who might just get replaced very soon.
And that way you can still use those guitar pedals as well without constantly having to plug/unplug stuff.

I had a soundcraft FX16 for years, got it for 300 when they were still selling for 1200.
It did exactly the job you're describing now : routing in the audio of my different synths,
I still have it somewhere on my attic. One channel died, plus (more importantly) the sub out which I used to send audio to my soundcard died as well.
EQ wasn't very great, sound quality wasn't very great.
It did what it did, and served me for a cheap price for years, but as soon as I get a decent mixer, I was amazed at how "bad" your synths can sound when recorded through a bad mixer.

don't ever forget that : getting a cheap-ass mixer will degrade the sound quality of your synth recordings.
And you can always downgrade easily enough if your recording is too clean, but you can't clean up bad (or at best lame mediocre) quality recordings.

[Críoch]

Cheers Tom, you've given me a fair bit to think about there. Appreciate the advice.

I actually passed on the F1. I thought seriously about the patchbay idea & did some looking up. Although handy, I think a small desk is the best match for me. Im just going to keep waiting until something slightly better comes up.

[Hades]

if you do ever get a patchbay, try to find one that does half-normalized as well. (look it up, too tired/drunk to explain)
That way you can double any signal in no time.

[Críoch]

Sound mate haha

[Mslwte]

Neutrik is the one I have john

[msl]

I picked up a used Mackie 1202 for €60 last week (had a Zed14 before), cheap and cheerful, does the job. Those Spirit models where not up to scratch compared with the larger more expensive Soundcraft models imo.

[Críoch]

Cheers James. I have to get a different one to you though mate. We'll end up with all the same stuff lol

-

@Michael.. Was that a vlz or one of the old ones?

[msl]

@Michael.. Was that a vlz or one of the old ones?

Older one. Haven't tried distorting it yet. Will let you know.

[Críoch]

Cool! Was looking them up on Ebay last night & could only find the older ones in the US. Would be interested to find out what you think.

Saw a couple of people talking about them on GS & on some other sites.. so yeah.. let me know

[Mslwte]

Have a look for a little boss mixer like barfunkel has. Have you heard the track that he distorted with the mixer?

[Críoch]

No, it was removed when I got time to listen. Then I cried.

[Hades]

was that the time you deleted 50 pages of the "let's hear what you're currently working on" topic ?

[Críoch]

No, haha... Not THAT time. It was a link in that techno mixing desks thread. But you know that of course :p lol

[Hades]

you are living in denial,
total denial I tell ya !

now you know that's no good for the goals we try to achieve in your therapy now, do you ?

[msl]

Have a look for a little boss mixer like barfunkel has. Have you heard the track that he distorted with the mixer?

Yeah I wanted a KM60 too, but they are starting to go for silly money (for what it is) too many people talking about them on GS! I needed something cheap, for the money the Boss are going for you can get something much better for an extra €50 like a Soundcraft Delta.

[Barfunkel]

No, it was removed when I got time to listen. Then I cried.

Sorry about that! It was just a quickie, I'll make a better demo when I have the time.

However, these tracks feature the KM-60 (overdriving Aira TR-8 drums a bit):

On this one, please don't listen to further than 3 minutes, it gets a bit shit at that point.



And here's another:



Besides overdriving the drum machine and boosting the highs (the hi EQ on the KM-60 sounds really nice) a bit, there's no real mixing or mastering to these as such, it's the raw sound of the Aira and the KM-60 you're hearing.

As was pointed out, they ain't as cheap as they used to be though.

Another one to consider is a Boss BX-series mixer. It has a much rougher sound when overdriven than the KM-60, which suits some styles of techno very well.

[Mslwte]

Rougher ftw!