"Early adopters of Midas digital can now benefit from the years of experience and developments which have made Midas digital consoles the choice of the live sound industry's leading professionals for sound quality, reliability and ease of operation. The Advanced Navigation modes are: Collapsed Flip - hides any channels not assigned to the selected bus, FX Navigation - displays FX processors when appropriate bus is selected, GEQ Navigation - flips VCA faders to GEQ control when appropriate bus is selected and MCA (mix control association) mode - a separate bank of VCAs for each of the consoles' buses."
In addition to the new console navigation modes, Generation-ll software includes many, new high resolution FX plug-ins, designed not only to exceed the performance of 3rd party algorithms and hardware devices, but also to operate within Midas' automatic latency management technology, ensuring a phase-coherent mix, regardless of how and where the processing is deployed.
The new FX plug-ins include: Five new high definition reverb processors - Ambience, Chamber, Hall, Plate and Vintage room, Dynamic EQ, 8 x 8 matrix mixer with EQ and delay, Dual stereo chorus and Dual stereo tap delay.
"G-ll also contains new features developed in conjunction with leading live sound engineers, which contribute to making Midas digital consoles even faster and easier to navigate than ever before," the company adds.
A brand new multi-tabbed Preferences screen with new user options means that all Midas digital consoles can be 'customised' to the operator's personal predilections. The new 'console overview' screen for PRO3, 6 and 9 provides at-a-glance reporting of the entire system's audio status. Other new G-ll features include aux pan linking, global pre/post selection and per-channel viewing of VCA and POP group membership.
The final component of Midas Generation-Il software is an onboard DHCP server, which permits remote control of any Midas digital console wirelessly from an Apple iPad, via any standard Ethernet-equipped wireless router.
Alongside the Generation II will be the new XL48 'digi-log'mic preamp which packs eight Midas XL4 mic pres into a 1U box, bringing the classic Midas mic preamp sound within the reach of live sound engineers everywhere.
The Midas XL48 comes complete with swept high and low pass filters, eight Midas XL8 96 kHz 24-bit A-D converters and a super-low-jitter 1ppm clock. Additional features include 8-segment LED input meters, individual phantom power, polarity invert, and -20dB pad. All inputs are Neutrik XLR and 25-way D-sub connectivity. The XL48 also features both analogue and digital outputs in ADAT and AES/EBU format. All five outputs can be used simultaneously, allowing the XL48 to perform as a multi-function analogue/digital mic splitter as well as adding the Midas touch to eight channels of a mix. Multiple clocking options are available, including external wordclock, internal 96k, 88.2k, 48k and 44.1k.
Applications include mobile recording, analogue and/or digital splits between consoles, and upgrading other brand digital consoles with Midas mic pres and a reference-grade clock.
To find out more visit our stand at PLASA Focus: Leeds 2012.
(Claire Beeson)
