The role of the mixing console in recording studios has changed rapidly since we have started to use computers. In many cases the computer, apart from being a multitrack recorder, started to do all the mixing, dynamic processing and effects.
In that circumstances we could ask ourselves: what is the point of using a mixing console in our home studio ? After all, there are lots of soundcards with microphone preamplifiers, headphone amps, and zero-latency monitoring options. Such configuration could be enough for basic applications, but the situation gets complicated if you wish to connect your sound modules or to record, e.g. the signal from vinyl deck (which requires RIAA Equalisation). Someone would say: you can switch the cables! Yes, but diving under the desk every time that you need to change the recording source during a session isn't the most appropriate solution.
The Soundcraft company, mixer manfacturer known worldwide, decided to match the home-musician's needs by designing a new product line: Compact. It contains two mixing consoles: Compact 4 and Compact 10, with different number of input channels.
Testing the Soundcraft Compact 4
Compact 4 - overview
Just after unpacking, the mixer made on me a very good first impression: metal enclosure with plastic borders - it looks reliable. The bottom of the enclosure contains two rubber elements to avoid the console of unwanted moving on the desk - you can put the mixer near the border of the desk with no fear that it could fall down. Compact 4 has the external AC adaptor, that feeds it with DC 12V. There is additional grounding socket at the side of mixer that allows to ground the vinyl deck via the mixer. Like in other small Soundcraft mixers, there is no POWER switch on Compact 4.
After plugging the console ON, the blue (which is a very popular color recently) power LED tell us that the device is ready to work with. The main meters (which show the level of monitored signal) are made of blue, white (very rare!) and red LEDs (indicating overload). Just below the meters there is a red low bat. LED which indicates the low level of the voltage from the adaptor or battery pack. However, there is no information in the product manual about working with batteries.
After the first contact with Compact 4 it is clear, that it was designed differently than competitor products at the similar price. The AUX bus had been replaced with the REC bus - more useful with recording. The Compact4 provides 2 mic/line inputs (with INSERTs), 2 stereo inputs, additional input for soundcard. There are 3 pairs of line outputs (Rec, Mix and Monitor) and 2 headphone outputs. The monitoring section is quite important, so it requires additional attention - we will take a closer look in the next part of this review.
input channels and outputs
Two mic/line inputs are based on the Neutrik combo (XLR/TRS) sockets. They are balanced, but they accept unbalanced signal as well. You can connect up to two condenser microphones and supply them with 48 Phantom power (common for both inputs). Important! Notice, that you shouldn't use the Phantom power if unbalanced microphones are connected to the mic inputs (it may cause the damage of micophone or console). Fortunately, most dynamic microphones avalaible today on the market are balanced and you can mix them with condenser microphones. Each mic/line channel provides the INSERT socket. You can use it to connect external dynamics processor (e.g. limiter, to avoid overloading of the soundcard input). The INSERT can be used as alternative pre-EQ, pre-fade direct output.
One of line/mic channels contains the HPF switch used to apply the 80 Hz high-pass filter to the signal - it reduces the contain of low-frequency distortions and hums (if any) and pops. On the second channel, the line input could be switched in hi-Z mode to ensure a better signal match, when working with bass guitar or any other guitar with passive transducer.
The EQ stage contains 3 rotary controls for adjusting constant frequencies: 60 Hz (low), 600 Hz (mid) i 12 kHz (high). Some people may prefer different choice of frequency bands (especially the middle freq.), but in the most cases we will record unequalized signal, so the EQ doesn't play the key role. The depth of adjustment is +/- 12 dB, which is not very much but should be enough for home studio needs. There isnt's any EQ-bypass switch so you cannot easily record pre-EQ signal. There is another way - by using INSERTs, but in that case only the soundcard with 2 or more pairs of inputs will avoid you from switching the cables. Below the EQ block there are rotary controls: pan (to position the signal in the stereo image) and level (to adjust volume).
Besides mono channels, there are 2 stereo input channels with RCA (chinch) input sockets. By connecting here instruments or sound modules, you get the possibility of easily recording them by pressing only one (rec) button. If you need to connect the deck, you can apply the RIAA Equalisation (Vinyl Record Deck Compensation) - useful function, but rare in mixing consoles this size. The Equalisation block is the same as EQ in mono channels.
You can easily monitor or record any signal from mixer inputs just by pressing one of 2 buttons (rec/mix and monitor) on each input channel. One look on the buttons ensures us that only required signal will be recorded. Besides described input channels, Compact 4 provides additional playback input (balanced or unbalanced) for connecting the soundcard. It has only volume control and monitoring option - there's no rec button to avoid dangerous feedback.
The mixer has 2 headphone outputs and 3 line outputs: mix, rec and monitor. Line outs are balanced, based on TRS (jack) sockets; the rec output has also additional pair of unbalanced RCA (chinch) sockets. The mix output won't b be used in standard recording application, but it may be useful if you want to connect optional recorder e.g. Mini Disc or tape.
monitoring section
The Compact 4 console was designed for home studios. To match the needs of musicians recording at home, Soundcraft designed a new monitoring section I haven't seen before in any other small mixers. They replaced the AUX bus (which is not very useful during recording) with much more convenient rec bus. You can decide where to route the channel's singnal (to main mix OR to rec bus) by switching the rec button. The monitor button on every input channel lets you check the signal level. You can also monitor the main mix or the playback signal (from the soundcard). By pressing the monitor button, you put the pre-fader channel signal to the monitor output. The monitoring function keeps the stereo information of the signal, but you can switch it to mono mode simply by pressing mono (chk) button, located just below the monitors volume control. This is a very convinient way to check if the mix is compatibile with mono equipment. The monitoring function is independent of recording. The global record level can be adjusted by record control.
I found 2 headphone outputs a very important feature. First one (artist) is for the musician that we invited to our studio for recording. You can adjust the volume level of signal in artist headphones with rotary control. There is another control - VERY INNOVATIVE: artist mix - it lets you adjust the proportion between recorded signal and main mix. It works independent of recording level, so you can freely adjust the proportion between the vocal (or instrument) and main mix (arrangement). The second headphone output is for the engineer. It contains the volume level control and the switch, which lets you decide which signal you would like to have in your headphones: the signal of monitors or the same signal as the artist. It means that you don't have to take the musician's headphones every time you would like to check what does he hear in headphones. I think I do not have to explain, how convenient and helpful it is during the recording session :)
Compact 4 in use
Soundcraft made this mixer for home studios, so I decided to check how it works in home-studio application. I connected the console between M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496 soundcard (with unbalanced, 3 meter long wires) and Alesis M1Active Mk2 studio monitors (4 meter wires, balanced). After turning on the monitors i didn't notice any irritating noises and hums in spite of main volume levels set to maximum.
I checked mic preamps with my microphones: Rode NT1 and AKG C1000S. Compact 4 worked well with both of them without colouring the sound and making noises. As the manfacturer says, microphone preamplifiers of Compact 4 work in A-class (to ensure the best sounding) and they are used in bigger, much more expensive consoles. The equalisation can be used for sound adjustments of signal before recording. Actually, there aren't too many possibilities of shaping the sound, but we usually use more advanced software EQs for that. However, the EQ on Compact 4 sounds nice and may be useful sometimes.
As the illustration of this review, I have recorded some samples - they are available to download and listen to as mp3 files. All of them were recorded with EQ set to zero, without any dynamics processing (e.g. compression) or denoising. I just cut them, normalised and saved as the mp3 files. At first, using my microphones NT1 (left channel) and C1000S (right channel), I have recorded the accoustig guitar and bongos.
- accoustic guitar (mic.) - bongos (mic.)
With NT1 I've recorded a short sample of speech and vocal. I didn't use the pop-filter, but just applied the 80 Hz high-pass filter on the signal (by pressing button on the console's input channel) before recording.
- speech - vocal
With the regular instrument cable, I connected the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar to the line input of second input channel. By switching this input in Hi-Z mode I get better signal match. The signal level was high enough with the gain regulator set on 12 o'clock (usual position with most signals). You can hear some results in mp3 file below - a few samples of Stratocaster sound.
- electric guitar
I also tryed connecting the bass guitar and the accoustic guitar to the line input in Hi-Z mode. The signal level was high enough with gain regulator set to half (12 o'clock).
- bass guitar (line) - accoustic guitar (line)
Compact 4 ... on stage ?
The console reviewed here is too small to work as the main mixer at even small concerts - it has only 2 microphone inputs, and rotary controls aren't the best tool to adjust volume levels during the concert. Compact 4 may be used as secondary console, to feed 2 condenser microphones with Phantom power or to get the proper signal from decks.
Another way to use Compact 4 on stage could be connecting it as the multichannel DI-Box. Compact provides 3 pairs of balanced outputs - you can route the signal from any input to each of these outs. It is enough to connect e.g. the microphone, guitar, and two unbalanced keyboards/modules and then send it to the main console (from stage by multicore) as three independent balanced stereo signals.
conclusion
Let's try to make a short list of devices that home musician or studio project engineer needs for recording: a computer with proper soundcard, microphone and monitors... is that all ? Maybe it is, but not since he realise that the microphone preamp of the soundcard is the weakest link in the signal chain and then he start considering buying external preamp. The headphone output provided by the soundcard allows to connect only one pair of headphones, and there is another problem: who is the person to give the headphones to - musician or engineer ? Purchasing external multichannel headphone amplifier could be one of possibile solutions, but it means extra money spent on studio equipment. In that case, the Soundcraft Compact 4 provides the solution of these problems and gives us even more - the comfort of simple monitoring of any signal and convinient switching record sources without reconnecting any cables.
The Compact 4, with it's low cost and very good quality, is even more valuable. With it's features, this little console is able to do the task of other devices - in most cases, you won't have to buy the microphone preamplifier, well-equiped (which means expensive) soundcard or the multichannel headphone amplifier.
The Compact 4 is not a regular mixing console with classic features, but - and there's no doubt - it will fit the task that it was designed for perfectly. Respect for Designer of Compact mixer - he did the great job, giving home musicians exactly what they expect from the mixing console, for the price they can afford.
For these project studios, which found Compact 4 too small, Soundcraft offers the "big brother": Compact 10, which has 4 microphone inputs (with 2 Phantom buttons - each feeds 2 mics) and 4 additional balanced stereo inputs. The monitoring section and the rest of features are identical as in Compact 4.
Pros:
Cons:
- designed for home studio,
- fits well the home musician's needs,
- looks nice and reliable,
- neutral sounding,
- good quality of mic. preamps,
- very good price :)
- no power switch,
- no EQ bypass switch,
- what about batteries ?
Przemko's Music Website
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