Digital mixer with Android and "virtual soundcheck" support?

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TrudeTrude Frets: 914

Hi all

Before I go down a rabbit-hole of research, does anyone know of a digital mixer (12 XLR channels min) that supports these two key features:

  1. Android tablet remote mixing
  2. Virtual soundcheck (ie record and playback all channels, allowing tweaking of the full multichannel FOH and monitor mixes (ideally onto an SD card, but a USB drive would be okay too)
I'm currently using a Line6 M20 mixer, but since I no longer have an iPad and I'd rather get an Android tablet, I'm looking around to see if there's a mixer out there that will work for me.  (The L6 unit is good in most respects, although the onboard touchscreen is hatefully cheap & nasty).

From what I've seen so far, there are plenty that support Android, but most only offer stereo record/playback which is no good for my soundcheck workflow.

(The reason I need virtual soundcheck is that I play simultaneous guitar and foot-drums in an acoustic band, so can't walk out front whilst we're playing)
Some of the gear, some idea

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Comments

  • BigMonkaBigMonka Frets: 1763
    Allen & Heath QU16 would probably fit the bill. Although the official full tablet app is iOS only there are 3rd party Android apps that work (haven't tried them though)
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    My boss told me "dress for the job you want, not the job you have"... now I'm sat in a disciplinary meeting dressed as Batman.
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  • smigeonsmigeon Frets: 282
    Soundcraft Ui24R. For wireless clients, it uses web browsers - no need for an app. This means it will work with any tablet/phone/laptop.

    It does the virtual souncheck thing, too.

    We've just recently got one and so far we love it.
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  • TrudeTrude Frets: 914
    smigeon said:
    Soundcraft Ui24R. For wireless clients, it uses web browsers - no need for an app. This means it will work with any tablet/phone/laptop.

    It does the virtual souncheck thing, too.

    We've just recently got one and so far we love it.
    @smigeon ; - Ah, now that is very interesting!  I was looking at the smaller versions of that, but I discounted them because they only state 2ch USB recording/playback in the blurb.  Looking at the specs on the Soundcraft website it seems like the 24 adds multitrack recording.  

    It's almost overkill for what I need in terms of channels, but still - looks like a huge amount of bang for the buck.

    How are you getting on having no onboard screen or controls?  I think I'd find it a bit scary to rely entirely on tablets, but maybe I'd get used to it.
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  • TrudeTrude Frets: 914
    BigMonka said:
    Allen & Heath QU16 would probably fit the bill. Although the official full tablet app is iOS only there are 3rd party Android apps that work (haven't tried them though)
    Yeah, one of my other bands uses one of those.  It's probably a bit on the bulky side for me, though the  Qu-SB rack version looks good, for similar money to the Soundcraft that smigeon mentioned.  

    The 3rd party app has great reviews, and it seems the same developer has made an Android app for the Behringer desks too!  I wonder if he'd be up for doing a Line6 version?  :)
    Some of the gear, some idea

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  • smigeonsmigeon Frets: 282
    edited June 2018
    Trude said:
    smigeon said:
    Soundcraft Ui24R. For wireless clients, it uses web browsers - no need for an app. This means it will work with any tablet/phone/laptop.

    It does the virtual souncheck thing, too.

    We've just recently got one and so far we love it.
    @smigeon ;; - Ah, now that is very interesting!  I was looking at the smaller versions of that, but I discounted them because they only state 2ch USB recording/playback in the blurb.  Looking at the specs on the Soundcraft website it seems like the 24 adds multitrack recording.  

    It's almost overkill for what I need in terms of channels, but still - looks like a huge amount of bang for the buck.

    How are you getting on having no onboard screen or controls?  I think I'd find it a bit scary to rely entirely on tablets, but maybe I'd get used to it.
    You can actually also plug a laptop in directly. That's what we did at the one gig we've so far done with it.

    The ability to plug in directly was important to us in choosing the Soundcraft because we had similar concerns to you about relying exclusively on wireless connectivity. And actually we have seen the odd drop out when using the Soundcraft's own built in router so it's just as well! (From what I've read this seems par for the course with digital mixers that have a built in router - people generally recommend using a 3rd party router.)

    Some other things we like about the Soundcraft are that it sounds good, that the client app (runs in any web browser) is quite intuitive, that the built in feedback destroyer works well, and that it has guitar amp modelling on a couple of channels - which is nice to have as a backup in case your amp breaks down.
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  • mr-macmr-mac Frets: 200
    Usb/hdd full mutitrack recording on ui24 too.  And for emergency situations 2 of channels can be turned into digitech amp modelled DI inputs.  So a band members amp goes down then plug their pedal board straight in.  Good studer design mic preamps.

    you can give band members their own login with their monitor mix.  Which can go between landscape (mix) and portrait (a me slider which just brings them up/down in monitor compares to rest of mix.
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  • TrudeTrude Frets: 914
    So, looking at the Ui24 front panel, it seems to have separate USB ports for recording and playback.  Does that mean during a soundcheck I'd need to record, then unplug the USB drive, plug it back into the playback port, then find the file I've just recorded and replay it?  Sounds a bit of a faff.  With my Line6 mixer the recorded file is ready for playback as soon as you stop recording - you just press play and there it is. 


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  • TrudeTrude Frets: 914
    Just found a video that shows my concern above about playback is a non-issue. There's a specific soundcheck mode that does exactly what I need!
    Some of the gear, some idea

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  • mike257mike257 Frets: 374
    I'm not sold on the value of virtual soundcheck at small shows. It has to be a pretty big venue before the sound system stops just augmenting the sound on stage - without that acoustic noise from stage, listening to what the PA is doing isn't giving you anything of any real use.

    They're great when you're in a 5k cap theatre, or an arena, where the PA is providing 99.9% of what everyone in the room is hearing, and you can have everything ready to go while "the talent" are still sleeping off last night's afterparty, but in a pub/club/bar? Not so much.
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  • TrudeTrude Frets: 914
    mike257 said:
    I'm not sold on the value of virtual soundcheck at small shows. It has to be a pretty big venue before the sound system stops just augmenting the sound on stage - without that acoustic noise from stage, listening to what the PA is doing isn't giving you anything of any real use.

    They're great when you're in a 5k cap theatre, or an arena, where the PA is providing 99.9% of what everyone in the room is hearing, and you can have everything ready to go while "the talent" are still sleeping off last night's afterparty, but in a pub/club/bar? Not so much.
    Or as in my case, where you are an acoustic band with no backline or loud drums to take into account! This is why it's a must-have feature for me.
    Some of the gear, some idea

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