Dan Mortensen mixing sound for James Blunt on his 16-channel GB4 at Starbucks’ world headquarters for the company’s Hear Music division
Seattle-based sound reinforcement provider Dansound has added two new Soundcraft GB4 desks to its inventory, according to owner Dan Mortensen. The two GB4s—a 16-channel and a 32-channel—join Dansound’s pro audio equipment collection that also includes a Soundcraft Series FIVE, MH4, MH3, Monitor 2 and Mortensen’s first console, a 20-channel Series 1S.
“I bought the Series 1S back in 1979, and it still works well,” Mortensen says. “I vividly remember getting that mixer and being knocked out by its features and sound. It was thrilling to use it. In fact, if it had a few more auxes, it would probably still be up at the Century Ballroom mixing swing and salsa bands.”
Mortensen chose to purchase the GB4s after considering the number of smaller productions that fill up Dansound’s schedule. “Out of the 200-plus shows we do each year, probably 80 percent of them require 16 channels or less, so it made sense logistically to carry a smaller board for those,” he says. “But I didn’t want to give up the sound that I had grown to love from my bigger desks; plus, I wanted to have a few more features than the smaller mixers I had previously been using provided, so the GB4 seemed to be the right piece to fit in my puzzle.”
Mortensen also appreciates that the desks can provide a fair number of monitor mixes from the house mix position. “Although some of the shows I require my Series FIVE at front of house and MH4 on monitors, many of the calls that come in are for Econoline van-sized shows that don’t even have a budget for two people. So the fact that we can run six monitor mixes off of these desks is terrific for those gigs.
“I’ve owned many Soundcraft products over the years and have always found them to sound very pleasant and be highly reliable,” he concludes. “The simple fact that I’ve been a repeat customer since their early days when they were distributed from Kalamazoo shows how happy I have been with them.”
For more information, visit Soundcraft online at www.soundcraft.com.
