Leadfoot
Nice studio, Danny! Love the M32! I can't swing on of those, so I'm looking to get a Venice F32. Been doing research on it, and it seems like a lotta board for the money. Do you have an opinion on them?
Thanks! I nearly bought the Venice. It's a slamming console with lots of cool options. I just needed the stuff the Midas had for what I do here. It allows me to use it as a controller which is killer and it also has great effects on board that you can literally use AS you print if need be. I'll talk about that in a bit. If you really want the Midas M32, go take a look at the Behringer X32. It's nearly the same console as the Midas M32 with two small differences.
1. The Midas pre's can be pushed a little harder where they get "good" saturation that sounds musical IF you need that sort of thing. The Behringer pre's are very clean and are "designed by Midas" but aren't quite the same. That said, both consoles are made in the same facility and run the same software, can interchange scenes and saves via flash drive and are pretty much the same.
2. The faders on the Midas feel tighter where the Behringer faders are a little looser.
Other than those two things, the consoles are pretty much identical. I bought the Behringer first and messed around with it....then bought the Midas. When I compared them, in all honestly, it doesn't matter which one I use. Right now I have the Behringer down at my other studio. I'll probably buy another Midas for there just because you can push the pre's a little harder. I get a little more variety as far as clients go down there, so it's best to have a console where I can run the pre's a little hotter if need be. But honest, though the Venice is a good board and has real Midas pre's, look at the Behringer because of all the other stuff it can do. You should be able to get one for under $2500...which is a steal with all that it can do.
Between having 32 ins and good pre's, you can use the effects in real time as you record....and the modeling capability is insane. That was the other reason I got it. You can record with LA2A's, Fairchild's, 1176's etc. Not that many people want to do that in this day and age, but it's nice to record with those compressors lightly for a little coloration. They do such a good job, between those and my UAD plugs...all my outboard gear that was worth anything is now gone. There's just no need really and the differences are so subtle, it's stupid to even talk about with anyone.
It's like...the hardware sounds like this and that, but the tradeoff is, it may saturate a bit better but you gain hiss. The software is just as warm but has a slightly (and I do mean slightly) different sound and 0 hiss. Which would you prefer? The hardware *may* make 2% of a difference which will always be a matter of opinion. LOL! Anyone that can hear that 2% to where it matters is delusional and just upset that they spent 5k on a hardware processor...so they are trying to believe they made the right move. LOL!
I mean granted, some make a difference for certain things. But to me, nothing makes THAT much of a difference to where it's worth shelling out thousands for one piece. Why have a Manley mastering comp where you can buy the software and have as many Manley mastering comps as your UAD card can handle? See my point? With the Behringer or the Midas, you can literally record with some great comps while having incredible front end power going to disc. To me, it works just as well and better than anything else I've ever had.
Whatever you decide, you can't go wrong with the VF32 or the Behringer X32. I just think for the difference you'd pay between the VF32 and the X32, you'd be missing out on some killer options that would make things a lot cooler with the Behringer. Honest when I tell you Leadfoot, we beat the ballz off of that Behringer in my studio down the shore. It runs 24 hours a day and so far, not a single issue with it in close to a year now. Hope this helps a bit. :)
-Danny