My name is Dirk Born, I am from Tascam and I would like to show
you the innovations on our new Sonicview 24 mixing console.
We had already presented the console at Peter’s, here too in Hamburg, back at the
Hamburg Open, we went deep into the details of the mixer. That’s why now I want to
just give a brief overview of the console itself and then show
what else has changed in the last year and what has been added
with new functions, and also show the new recording card.
But let’s just get started.
Our Sonicview 24 is a 40-channel digital console, 40 mono channels plus two stereo returns
plus four effect returns, the 24 version has 24 analogue inputs and 16 analogue outputs
and three screens. There is also a 16-channel version that has
exactly the same computing power and internal processing, but it
only has 16 faders and two screens and accordingly only 16 analogue inputs.
This is ideal if you need to work somewhere a little more compact or
have a little less space at the FOH. The mixer’s area of application
very flexible, so it is used in the broadcasting sector, in outside broadcast vans,
it is used in the installation sector and it can also be used for live concerts.
The console itself utilises 32-bit converters and a 54-bit FPGA internally at 96 kHz
simply to bring out the best possible audio quality you can achieve.
So audio quality is our specialty at Tascam, and we’ve put a
lot of effort into that, including the microphone preamps
– these HDIA mic preamps, with the I
standing for Instrumental Amplification – so we have selected from the
measuring instrument area the components with the lowest
possible tolerances, which then resulted in the best overall sound.
The console can now also be controlled via a computer, but it
can also be an iPad. There is now finally an app for this –
we didn’t have that last time – in the end it reflects exactly what is
shown on the screens and serves as a fourth or third screen, so to speak,
depending on whether you use the 24 or the 16.
We now also have something we didn’t have before: the recording card,
i.e. the multitrack recording card IF-MTR32,
which I can utilise to record and also play back 32 channels directly
onto an SD card. This is interesting for various applications such as
Live recording mode, i.e. for live recording, for a virtual soundtrack.
You simply record the concert from the previous evening and then set up the system
with it the next day. And there is an overdub mode so you can
actually use the console as a complete recording system
with punch-in/punch-out and then, entirely again,
do a full multitrack production with 32 internal channels.
Other recording options are 32 channels via USB, it has a USB
interface and can therefore be used as an audio interface.
And we have Dante included as standard, so 64 channels in/out via Dante,
can be expanded using a second Dante card. Other plug-in cards that are available
include for example MADI, AES/EBU and additional analogue outputs.
You can of course expand the outputs even further via Dante, but we’ll get to that later
when I introduce you to our SB-16D stage box.
Exactly today, just in time for the trade fair and just in time for the video shoot,
we released new firmware, version 1.05 [1.5.0], and this brought a few more
new functions to the console. So you can, for example – I had it
already mentioned in the last video – you can freely assign all the keys here, all the user keys
with various functions, and with 1.05 [1.5.0] you can
not only put your sends on faders here, but you can also use them
for example, as flash start buttons for sound effects or for various tracks
to start them straight away. So I can just place the sounds I need
on the user buttons and fire them directly from there.
There is also a change in the monitoring area.
We inflated it a bit, expanded it. There was a lot of demand,
especially from the broadcast sector, for two different monitor options.
I want to show you that again briefly: We have it here.
This is now the new monitoring page where I can choose the
sources and everything for two different monitor paths.
So this is also a very massive functional…
a massive functional expansion.
Maybe just to complete the overview of the console:
We have three screens that can either show the home screen
like here, which means an overview of all channels,
we can display a single channel module on a screen, i.e. a module
from a channel. This can then be used for tuning equalizers,
I can display two equalizers for different channels
channels at the same time, or I can display
all or several parameters of a channel in fullscreen mode.
So I always work flexibly here.
Here in the Sonicview we have the term VIEW, which stands for
Virtual Interactive Ergonomic Workflow, so our goal was to build the console in a way
that you can always adapt it to your working environment and your preferences,
hence all these freely assignable user keys and the different modes for display.
And the layers too are all freely configurable, so I
can actually assign the main vocals to a fader for the main show,
then on the second layer I put a DCA group
with drums, I put a mix bus on the third, one of the 24
mix buses we have, on which, say, I have mixed
down the brass section, and so I can always put together
everything I need nicely, so that I can get to it quickly and easily.
The app, as I said, runs on Windows, macOS and iOS
and directly reflects the normal displays and also gives
me a nice overview of what I have placed on my user keys.
So you can see here now, for example, Player, Direct Play 1.
So here the 1st track or the 10th track or the 15th track is recalled.
And, yes, the others have sends on faders and stuff like that.
This complements the whole thing quite nicely and then
also gives a further overview of the possibilities of the console.
Well, that’s the stage box for the Sonicview, but not only for the Sonicview.
We use Dante as an interface, which means it can be controlled with any Dante system.
It has 16 analogue inputs, 16 analogue outputs, eight additional GPI ports,
a redundant Dante interface, its own power supply, but it can also be
fed with electricity externally, so that you also have
redundancy in the power supply. Yes, as I said, it works
with the Sonicview, so the Sonicview automatically recognizes one
SB-16D connected via the Dante interface, so that you can then control the gain directly
from the console. So you then have the gain control at the top, just like
with the analogue input, which then controls the mic preamp in the stage box,
but can also be used with other Dante devices.
There is also a Control IO app, which can control the mic preamps and
Phantom power from any iOS, Windows or macOS device.
The stagebox itself has the same microphone preamps as the mixer,
so they naturally complement each other perfectly.
And you won’t notice any difference whether you take a channel from the
stagebox or connect directly to the console. Yes. That means for your current setup,
for example, when you have the stagebox at the stage as usual,
you would run a Cat5 cable to the mixer for Dante to control the microphone preamps
and use the analogue inputs and outputs of the mixer,
as insert sends/returns with any other analogue output gear
or something else.
Yes, that’s it for the latest news on Sonicview 16/24. I’d like to
thank you again for your attention and hope to see you again soon.
For more information about the Sonicview, I can definitely
recommend the last video from last year to you, where I,
where we go into much more detail about the console.
This was mainly about what has happened this year, so we,
as you can see, we are at the console, it is being further developed, continues to develop.
When new ideas come, we like to take them on board and put them in.
There are still a few very interesting updates
now in preparation, so all I can say is please
stay up to date, keep checking our site.
Or at proaudio.de, where the news is always available relatively immediately
as soon as we publish new firmware with new functions and, yes,
apart from that, I wish you a few nice days and see you soon!