The 20-year-old sales and concert touring specialist had desperately needed a new touring desk, having sold two Soundcraft Series 5 consoles recently to the new concert hall in Bruges. Van Loo took the compact option. "The Series 5 was a little bulky for the scale of theatres we do. I was looking for a desk with the same facilities but with lower weight and dimensions. The MH4 is a perfect solution."
While their first MH4 was on active duty throughout the summer the new board will go straight out on a 38-date tour, based on a TV talk show and featuring the band Red Harmony. Philip himself will be mixing at front-of-house. PVL, who have been linking the FOH MH4 with the stage to create an all-in-one board, are impressed by the MH4’s featureset, particularly the flexibility to switch group auxes, the fact that each channel has its own dedicated EQ and the Input/Output metering.
Meanwhile, over in Deinze, Peter Vanhove’s Euro PA had been the first Belgian company to purchase an MH4, having also been alerted to it by Soundcraft’s territorial distributors, General Audio. "We needed to upgrade our previous desk and wanted a desk with VCAs. At this year’s Musikmesse, we looked at all desks with VCAs and Soundcraft was the most impressive," said Vanhove, He also found that in addition to the VCA’s the desk sported impressive preamps and excellent tone control. Euro PA specializes in one-off events - and are particularly active during the festival season. Euro PA will use their MH4 largely at front-of-house. "We have a 48-channel desk, and because of the type of shows we do, we need all the inputs."
(Lee Baldock)
