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Numerous manufacturers of high-end live sound consoles have offered scaled-down versions of their finest mixers to make these products available to a broader group of potential buyers. Midas is no exception, with its new Pro Series consoles—namely the Pro9, Pro6, and now the newly introduced Pro3.
Midas introduced the Pro6, the first of the Pro Series, with much fanfare in mid 2008. The Pro9 and Pro3 were both introduced earlier this year at the InfoComm event in Las Vegas.
The Pro Series boards are not quite in the same league as Midas’ flagship XL8 digital board, but they offer quite a bit of power, high quality audio, and they are priced to put them in reach of more churches than ever before.
Among the things I really like about the console is the addition of some very powerful volunteer-friendly conventions like VCAs and POPulation groups. The more time I spent with the Pro3, the bigger the smile on my face.
Pro3 Attributes
Like many digital mixing consoles, the Midas Pro3 system separates the control surface (the board) located at the front-of-house (FOH) mix position with the DSP engine and input/output (I/O) interface residing on stage. With a standard Pro3 package, a DL371 system engine resides on stage, along with an audio interface—most likely the DL251—a simplified interface offering 48 mic/line inputs and 16 mic/line outputs, along with MIDI out and thru. The more sophisticated DL351 is also available, rendering a maximum complement of 64 inputs and 64 outputs, configured by the choice of I/O cards in eight-channel blocks, with various analog and digital options available. Two internal processors run in parallel to establish redundancy.
Additionally, Midas chose the Linux operating system due to its legendary stability.
A high goal for Midas is to keep the show running under all circumstances, and to that end, if the control surface loses power (unlikely with its two parallel power supplies), the on-stage audio engine continues with the last instruction it received, allowing audio to pass.
Every component in the system, including each power supply module, has its own IP address, and operational information is supplied via network to the control surface, indicating whether proper operation is being achieved. The on-stage box is connected with the interface at FOH or monitor world via Cat 5E cabling.
The system’s interface, or what would appear at first to be the console, is an attractive affair with a lot of color and two computer displays that can be used for external devices via a built-in KVM switch…handy for loudspeaker management or network software and other such things. Midas touts the computer displays as “daylight viewable,” and I did indeed find them very bright, vivid and clear. At the far left of the control surface are found 12 “fast” channel strips, each with the expected complement of fader, mute, solo, and pan controls, along with selection buttons for routing, EQ, dynamics, and also gain stage controls. The faders are motorized P&G units, and there is a channel-select button/scribble strip display that indicates channel name and pan information, and can change color to reflect routing or other attributes. At the top of each of these 12 “fast” strips is a metering section, and to their right is found a single full channel strip with controls for EQ and dynamics, among other things.
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John McJunkin is the CEO of Avalon Podcasting in Chandler, Arizona, which offers high quality podcast production and consultation services to a broad range of clients. He’s also the host of the Podcast Pro Tech & Tips Podcast at www.avalonpodcasting.com.
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