Soundcraft Signature 12 5-stars Reviews

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5 years ago

I would give it total thumbs up if it had snuck in 100mm faders

I normally use my X32 Compact or XR16 digital mixers, but just sometimes you want to go "old-school" and use a good quality analogue mixer where the demands don't need the digital consoles or you just want some "walk-up/plug-up" simplicity.

I'm doing local live theatre/music in general.

I've been a Soundcraft fan for many years so when it came to buying a new analogue console for those small gigs, Soundcraft was high up the list and I ended up with this Signature 12 after being my usual pedantic self and writing a comprehensive "wish" list then cataloguing all of the quality main brand offerings for comparison.

I've been a long-time user of the Soundcraft SX and there were many things about that (old) console that I liked, especially the 100mm faders. (Long travel faders are not often found on the low-cost/budget mixers but I find they really help me finesse a mix. Unfortunately the Signature 12 only has 60mm faders, 100mm faders being available on the Signature 16 and up, but I didn't want to go up to that frame size). I wanted the right balance of decent mic inputs, stereo channel capability (in my case for minidisc and CD inputs) and a little bit of group support like I had on the SX. I also wanted a decent set of AUXs, again something often lacking on the small consoles and also HPFs for the mic channels.

So with the Soundcraft EQ, the Lexicon effects as a bonus (to avoid me missing the X's too much), the couple of Hi-Z inputs and a familiar PFL setup, the Signature 12 was the choice. The icing on the cake would have been 100mm faders (and having written this review and looked at the Signature 16, I'm now yearning for them!), but you don't always win them all! Being naughty and knocking one star off the features for that! Humph!

Build quality is great as expected. I like the position of the audio I/O and having the mains PSU integrated but underneath out of the way is just fine. I don't need any of that multitrack stuff here, hence not paying the extra for the MTK variant.

Use the Gator G-Mix-B 1515 bag.

I remain a Soundcraft fan, let's hope they don't let me down...

7 years ago