Specified for high end sound touring and fixed installation applications, the circa £45K console boasts a "high agility" user interface, accessed via two 24 inch 16:10 high definition LCD touch screens; a further centre located 6-inch LCD touch screen accesses the system control and automation. Combined with a far less menu dependent operating system than other digital consoles, the CDC Eight is promoted as "exceptionally smart, nimble and intuitive in operation".
The CDC Eight features a high I/O count for a desk at this price point, offering 128 input channels - expandable to 256 - and a standard 48 outputs. Two frame sizes offer 16 or 32 faders. Built upon the company's latest generation proprietary DSP mix platform, processing power - as the name implies - is delivered by eight 32/40-bit floating-point SHARC processors.
A wide dynamic range, low noise mic pre-amp, specially developed ultra-low distortion EQ filters and analogue emulating compressor algorithms, 24-bit / 96kHz Delta-Sigma AD/DA converters, and advanced EQ algorithms, using proportional-Q techniques, combine "to deliver a classic 'Cadac sound' signal chain, that sonically outperforms consoles several times the price".
To be unveiled at a media launch event on the Cadac stand (1H 6), at 1pm on the opening day of the show, the CDC Eight is billed as "Cadac's killer sound touring console," by sales development manager Vincenzo Borrelli. "What really sets it apart - aside from the classic CADAC sound quality - is the user interface, which is truly of its time and totally intuitive to any audio engineer."
Simultaneously, Cadac is branding its digital product range with the common CDC prefix; thus, the DM1600, launched at Prolight+Sound this year, is renamed the CDC Four. The 'small format' digital production console shares the same proprietary DSP genealogy and many of the same signal chain features, as its larger CDC Eight sibling.
(Jim Evans)
