Allen & Heath GLD-80 Digital Mixing System

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GLD is a user-friendly, cost effective and scalable live digital mixing system, conceptually based on the hugely successful digital iLive series. A standard GLD 32 input system offers 28 XLR mic inputs with plug n’ play I/O expanders allowing easy expansion up to 48 inputs (44 XLR mic inputs).

At the heart of the system is the GLD-80 mixer, providing 48 input processing channels, 8 stereo FX returns fed by iLive’s acclaimed FX emulations, 30 configurable buses, 20 mix processing channels, and DSP power to provide full processing without compromise.

Our Take:

SET-UP was a little challenging on our first GLD-80, but to be fair, the learning curve was no steeper than any other digital console we have encountered. We like the scalability and the ability to color code and name the channels easily with the touch panel. It made the surface much more user friendly for this somewhat non-visual guy. There are only 4 analog XLR and 4 RCA inputs and an equal number of analog outputs on the console itself, but adding a GLD-AR84 expansion module at front of house gives you 8 more XLR inputs and 4 more XLR outputs. The expander can be placed wherever you want to accomodate FOH inputs.

OPERATION is intuitive. For those converting from analog to their first digital console, this console is pretty easy to learn to mix on, and again, the color coding and ability to name and place icons in the LCD channel strip make it very visual.

SOUND QUALITY was pleasing as we have come to expect with Allen & Heath products. There is ample headroom and the A to D and D to A conversion seems to be very solid. The sound quality was consistantly good throughout the dynamic range.

BUILD QUALITY seems very solid and fit and finish are excellent. I personally had some reservation about the durability of the LCD channel strip, but I have been assured that this same strip has been used on the iLive series for years and has not been an issue.

VALUE seems good with a competitive dollars for features and channels ratio.

 

Introduction video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMBPm9l9FY

 

Features:

GLD-80 has an analogue-style channel processing control section complemented by a graphical 8.4 inch touch screen. A fully-customizable drag ‘n drop layout allows quick and easy assignment of inputs and mixes to fader strips. There are 20 fader strips in 4 layers, each with motorised fader, a channel LCD display which can be named and color-coded, plus a rotary control for direct access to gain, pan and aux/FX sends. The mixer‘s local I/O comprises 4 XLR mic/line inputs, 4 XLR line outs, 4 RCA inputs, 2 RCA outputs, and digital outputs in SPDIF and AES3 formats.

The GLD-80 connects to a range of plug ‘n play I/O racks to ‘build’ 28, 36 or 44 mic input systems. A primary AR2412 rack (24 XLR inputs, 12 XLR outs) and up to two AR84 expander racks (8 XLR inputs, 4 XLR outs each) can be connected over 120m CAT5 runs using A&H’s dSNAKE protocol. dSNAKE provides control to the remote preamp, and all mic preamps are scene recallable. AR2412 also includes a connection for personal monitoring systems.

GLD has the ability to record and playback a stereo signal on a USB memory stick. Standard iLive audio I/O option cards for Dante, MADI, EtherSound and Allen & Heath's ACE protocols can be fitted, allowing multi-channel record/playback, FOH/monitor splits, and connection to A&H iLive systems, which can easily be configured using GLD's extensive soft-patching.

• Compact digital mixer with scalable, remote I/O
• Systems from 4 to 44 mics
• Easy to use, quick to access, analogue style interface
• dSNAKE Cat5 digital snake—up to 120m cable length
• 8.4 inch colour touchscreen for graphical view and setup
• 20 faders, 4 layers, 80 channel strips in a freely customizable layout
• 48 input channels into 30 assignable buses (Aux, Group, Matrix, Main, FX Send) into 20 mix outputs
• 8 stereo RackFX engines with dedicated ‘short’ returns with 4-band PEQ
• Full processing on all inputs including trim, polarity, HPF, insert, gate, 4-band PEQ, compressor and delay
• Full processing on all outputs including insert, PEQ, GEQ, compressor and delay
• LR, None (monitors), LR+M (sum), LR+M (bus), LCR main mix modes
• 16 DCAs / mute groups
• Built-in Talkback, RTA and Signal Generator
• I/O module options for FOH/Monitor split, multitrack recording, link to iLive and more
• MIDI In/Out and Ethernet Network port
• Aviom^TM Pro16 compatible Monitor port on main AudioRack
• High end 1dB step recallable mic/line preamps
• User definable channel names and colours
• Engineer’s mono Wedge and stereo IEM strips
• Input, output and insert soft patchbays
• Quick copy, paste and reset of mixes and parameters
• Libraries, Scenes and Show memories with USB transfer
• Get started quickly with Template Shows

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