Roland M200i Digital Mixer with iPad
For many churches, a 32-channel mixer is a perfect solution. However, for the church on a limited budget, finding an affordable 32-channel digital mixer has been challenge. In the past few years, several companies have introduced lower-cost digital mixers that offer impressive features for around $2,000. Most have been limited to 16 channels. Stepping up to 32 or 40 channels of mixing has typically meant spending closer to $7,500 or more; and there hasn't been much happening in that pricing gap. Until now.
Roland Systems Group is introducing the new M200i mixer. If you take a quick glance at the specs, it appears this could be an ideal solution for many churches that need 32 channels but have less than $4,000 to spend. Here is the overview:
- Mixing capability: 32 channels?
- Mix busses: 8 auxes, 4 matrixes, left and right (plus 8 DCAs)?
- FX Processors: 4 on-board?- GEQs: 4 on-board
?- Number of Faders: 16 plus 1 master; all motorized
At first blush, it looks interesting. Dig deeper, and it gets better. The M200i comes with 16 recallable mic preamps plus six TRS line inputs plus two RCA line ins (24 total inputs on board).
On the output side, you get six XLR and four TRS assignable outputs, two XLRs for the left and right mix plus an AES/EBU output. For additional I/O, Roland includes a REAC port, which will work with any of their digital snakes, the M-48 personal mixers or the R1000 player/recorder.
To round out the ports on the rear of the unit, you'll also find two USB-A ports for flash drives or the optional wireless adapter, plus a USB-B port for connection to a computer. They also include RS232 and an Ethernet port for additional control. But where it really gets interesting is the small custom connector labeled Dock Cable.
You see, the “i” in the name refers to the fully integrated iPad control that is baked right into the M200i. When the iPad came out a few years ago, many of us in the church market immediately saw it as a potential solution for (or at least a way to mitigate) the often poor mixing locations that we are faced with. The iPad has indeed become the choice for remote mixing, and in some cases it is done very well. However, it has typically worked very well with more expensive consoles, or more recently (on at least one mixer), it's the only way to interface with the mixer.
Roland takes more of a hybrid approach with the M200i. The mixing surface has a full set of faders; mute, solo and channel select buttons; it can do sends on fader; and you can even build custom layers that mix and match input faders with auxes, mfatrixes and or DCAs. All the functions of the mixer can be accessed through a small black and white screen and a set of dedicated buttons. While perhaps not ideal for rapid mixing due to it's small size, it does make for a credible backup—and it's actually not that hard to use; I was up and running on it very quickly.
So it's possible to mix the show on the on-board surface alone. However, Roland recognizes that putting a 10-inch multi-touch display with a well-designed user interface would make the mixer much easier to work on. Rather than engineer their own, they wrote an app for the now ubiquitous iPad. The iPad app gives you quick access to nearly all the functions of the mixer, and presents them in a very graphical, and dare I say, touchable way.
The version of the iPad app I sampled was still in development (meaning not all the functions are implemented yet), however, it shows great promise. Everything from patching inputs, outputs and effects, assigning FX, adjusting the dynamics and EQ and even mixing is very smooth, fast and responsive. It's also quite intuitive; without looking at the user manual, and with no instruction from the Roland product manager standing nearby, I was able to get to nearly every feature I was looking for quickly.
What's also interesting is that the iPad can work with the surface in one of two ways. One is what I call “mirror” mode; every change on the iPad is immediately reflected on the surface (it has motorized faders, remember). This would be very useful for the single engineer working on the console by himself. The integration is so tight that they have implemented a “Touch & Turn” function that lets you touch a virtual encoder on the iPad and then adjust the value using the hardware encoder on the surface. Very slick.
You can also put the iPad in remote mode, meaning it can control all the audio functions of the console, without affecting the surface. This would be very useful for example, to have someone on stage making monitor adjustments while another engineer is working at FOH. The console can also be controlled from an attached Mac or PC running Roland's RCS (Remote Control Software). For even more remote control possibilities, the RS232 port would enable wall plates and automation systems to control the console.
Back to the iPad control; it's clear this was not an afterthought for Roland.
The main surface includes a three-position iPad stand which allows you three options for tilt angle. The aforementioned Dock Connector will allow for a hard-wired connection via the 30-pin port of iPads 1-3—and it supports charging so your iPad won't be dead after a service or two. I was told Roland is testing the new 30-pin to Lightning adapter now, and it appears to work fine for the newest iPad (and a new Lightning cable will probably show up eventually).
But what if you want to pick up the iPad and walk around? Then you can use either the optional WNA1000-RL USB-based wireless adapter and create an ad hoc network, or plug the M200i into a wireless router using the Ethernet port. I really appreciate the fact that they provided so many options for network control; no matter what your network situation is, you can find a way that works well.
I wasn't able to run any sound through it during my brief introduction to the mixer, but I expect to get hands on with one shortly after they are released in January of next year. That's good news to anyone who is looking for a new mixer in the next few months. More good news is the price; MAP is just $3,495 (BYOiPad). They also have a bundle with the S1608 digital snake box (16 inputs, 8 outputs) for $4,995.
The M200i is likely to hit a real sweet spot for smaller churches wanting to make the switch to digital, or for churches looking to outfit smaller rooms on campus or even remote venues.
