Ian Croxall’s Soundcraft Series 1 mixing console, built into a flight case and believed to be the first such road-ready design to be produced in volume, has given sterling service for more than a quarter of a century on numerous live events and was being used for recording as well as P.A. work in 2005. Now Croxall has traded his Series 1S in for one of Soundcraft’s new GB4 desks, but only because of the channel count.
“There’s still nothing wrong with the 1S,” reports Croxall. “In all that time, it’s only ever had two small technical problems, and one of those was a blown fuse! The only reason I’m upgrading is that it has simply run out of channels to handle the sort of work we’re doing these days.”
Croxall donated his Series 1S, complete with the original user guide, to Soundcraft, which intends to put it into a classics museum it is constructing in its newly refurbished worldwide headquarters in Potters Bar, England. When dropping the desk off to Soundcraft, Croxall toured the new factory and spent some time with Graham Blyth, co-founder of Soundcraft and, of course, designer of the original Series 1S.
“It was fabulous,” said Croxall, “to see the factory in operation manufacturing all the new consoles, and especially fascinating to talk to Graham about how the desk came into being. It was a great day! I’m delighted with the GB4, which still retains the optimum sound performance I’ve always had with Soundcraft.”
For more information about Soundcraft, visit soundcraft.com.
