Digital Audio Labs' Livemix offers yet another take on personal monitor mixing, one with the stated goal of being both feature-rich and user-friendly. Livemix seems to have the first part of that goal nailed down nicely, with an extensive feature set that gives church musicians precise control over their personal monitor mixes.
At the heart of the Livemix system is the Mix-16, which collects either analog input signals or digital audio data in the Dante format. Ethernet cables then carry digital audio and power to up to 16 on-stage mix controllers. What happens at the controllers is where Livemix delivers a great deal of power and control. Each mixer can control up to 24 input channels, with generous signal processing on each including parametric equalization, high-pass filter and compression. A similar complement of processing graces each output, which also adds reverb.
This First Impression focuses on the newest member of the Livemix family, the new CS-Solo mixer control surface ($575). As its name implies, CS-Solo is designed for a single performer. It joins CS-Duo, which allows two users to adjust their mixes from a single controller. Both offer a color LCD touchscreen and large, easy-to-use knobs. Outputs include an 1/8-inch jack for in-ear monitors and a mono 1/4-inch output for a powered monitor. An aux in jack allows a music source to be added to the mix and even shared with the other performers on their own mixers.
CS-Solo has stereo ambient mics built in, which the performer can blend into their mix as desired. An intercom button allows easy communication between performers or monitor engineer. Performers can label channels, and even create up to four channel groups for easy level adjustments or muting. The performer's own signals go to a fifth channel group, which is then easily adjusted with the dedicated “Me” knob.
At first blush, it may seem Digital Audio Labs got it backwards by debuting CS-Solo almost four years after CS-Duo. It's true that using half as many CS-Duo mixers ends up being considerably less expensive per performer, but not every stage lends itself to two users sharing the same mixer. CS-Solo allows a one-to-one relationship between performer and mixer.
CS-Solo is not simply half of a CS-Duo. Though they offer the same basic capabilities, CS-Solo and CS-Duo have different user interfaces. Whereas CS-Duo has 24 dedicated buttons for quick access to input channels, the more compact CS-Solo has none. This means all channel selections have to happen with CS-Solo's LCD touchscreen. How will this lack of dedicated buttons affect CS-Solo's ease of use? We aim to find out.
CS-Solo seems to have many nice touches. A USB jack allows mix settings to be stored to a USB memory stick for future recall. In a church setting with many different worship teams, this could be a real timesaver. A footswitch jack allows a two-button footswitch to step through input channels and even control volume, no hands needed. CS-Solo even offers a built-in metronome.
Having this deep a feature set in a personal mixer will be daunting for some users. Digital Audio Labs' MirrorMix can help, by allowing an off-stage engineer with CS-Solo to set up the mix for any other controller. Without MirrorMix and some savvy on the other end, however, it looks like typical users will still need some training to fully utilize the many features of Livemix. How much training remains to be seen, something we look forward to finding out when we put this capable personal monitoring system through its paces later this year.
