Allen and Heath have just announced a new range of compact mixers based on their heavy hitting DLive technology. The new C Class or Compact range promises to deliver the glory of DLive in both smaller and more affordable packages. Here’s what A&H are saying.
dLive C Class is founded on XCVI, the same 96kHz FPGA core which drives Allen & Heath’s flagship dLive S Class mixers, and also shares its DEEP processing architecture, allowing class-leading compressors and processing emulations to be embedded directly within the inputs and mix channels. The new range includes the first 19” rack mountable dLive surface, the ultra-compact C1500.
I was blown away by the DLive system when I had a chance of a hands on review – here – and the thought of getting at a big chunk of the DLive goodness at a more affordable price point is really exciting. I’m also very interested in the rack mount option. The older ILive system had the fantastic option of the R-72 – a super small format mixer surface that you could just about carry on as hand luggage and A&H look to have repeated the trick with the new C1500 surface that fits in a 19 inch rack. If you can live with 12 faders then the C1500 looks like a very attractive way into the DLive system.
Alongside the new surfaces there are also three new stage racks. Remember the processing power in these systems is in the racks, and you might want to partner a C1500 with the smallest of the new racks the CDM32, offering 32in, 16 out and the power to process 128 inputs and 64 outputs.
The Compact systems run at 96Khz which is great news but cunningly Allen and Heath offer 48Khz connectivity to the existing ME series of personal mixers – which means you can easily integrate a compact system with your existing ME kit and if you starting out fresh you already have the flexibility of personal mixing from the get go.
Hopefully I’ll get my hands on a C Class sooner rather than later, so watch this space!