Feb 6, 2006 1:55 PM

Soundcraft's new Live 8 is aimed at front-of-house mixing for venues and touring bands. The desk’s high input and output count also puts the board ready for multitrack recording work.

A development of the Spirit 8 desk, the Live 8 is an affordable and well-featured console that is built around a solid-steel chassis with individual channel PCBs and a classic operation topology for ease of use. Various frame sizes hold from 16 to 40 mono inputs, which, when combined with two stereo input channels and eight stereo returns, mean an input capacity of 60 inputs. An integral meter bridge with LED bargraph meters indicates all input and main output levels.

The desk uses the high-performance UltraMic mic preamp, designed by Graham Blyth and capable of handling a wide range of input signals without padding, individually switched +48V phantom power and a comprehensive 4-band equalizer with swept mid-band sections on each mono input. Six auxiliary buses, four mute groups, and a long-throw 100mm fader complete the input channel, which can be routed to eight subgroups and the main stereo mix.

Two full-function stereo inputs provide gain settings for pro and semi-pro equipment, a 2-band equalizer and six aux sends, as well as the four mute groups and routing to the eight subgroup and mix busses.

The output section is complemented by an integral 10x2 matrix section, and the desk is supplied with a new design of lightweight switched-mode power supply.

Suggested US list pricing on the Live 8 is 16 mono + 2 stereo channels, $3,199; 24 mono + 2 stereo channels, $4,199; 32 mono + 2 stereo channels, $5,199; and 40 mono + 2 stereo channels, $6,199. For more information, visit www.soundcraft.com. For more new sound reinforcement products, visit mixonline.com/livesound/products/.

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