Al Krow

No worries - thanks for testing these out for me, and look forward to getting your thoughts The RCF 912As performed really well at a wedding function gig we had tonight. I used them for the first time with my other band that already have a PA (my old 310As) and comment from the drummer was that he felt that the 912As "were a massive step up" - he's got a good knowledge of sound engineering, so that was a big compliment coming from him. He also appreciated that they represented a good trade off in portability vs having a sub. I didn't use any backline and had one audience member coming up to me and asking what bass I was playing as it "sounded great". I should have said the sound he was hearing was coming from the RCF 912As. Instead I said it was an Elrick 😊 I've got a simple workaround for the 710As if they don't handle bass brilliantly by themselves, which is simply to combine with a bass combo for larger venues. I'm sure for smaller venues they'll be fine, just as the 310As have been decently adequate in handling bass (a little phone clip to illustrate - recommend using headphones) in a full rock band setting, albeit without being amazing. Occurs to me that's maybe reversing the accepted orthodoxy of using the PA to support bass-backline by, instead, using bass-backline (when required) to support the PA!

How did you get on [...baited breath...]?

I've managed to persuade a fellow band member to get a second band PA so we can share the transport load, which is good news, and having a spare band PA if either of us is not around will be a bonus too. We're looking at getting a pair of RCF 710A Mk4s which seem to have got pretty good rep. and are a bit more compact and a little less spendy than the 912As I've got. In terms of handling bass through these, what are folks views experiences with: a) using them as standalone to put bass through; b) combining with a small bass rig e.g. a Markbass CMD121 combo; or c) combining with a sub; Is it pretty common to consider (b) and (c) as workable alternatives? Are there particular benefits to one over the other?

Really looking forward to your detailed review of the unit and how it stacks up against some of the other multis you've had.

Agreed - it's an all or nothing with the Grp levels in terms of selecting particular inputs or not for inclusion in the mix.

@Jakester / @EBS_freak On a separate note would I be correct in thinking that the Grp 1 and 2 out are a higher output version of the aux out and therefore no reason we couldn't use these for IEMs, and very possibly without the need for a Behringher P2 or similar? In which case this unit is offering: 3 Aux out (mono), 1 headphone out (stereo), 2 Grp out (mono) i.e. a total of 6 "monitor" outputs, which will more than cater for our needs. If we doubled up the 2 Grp, 2 of the aux then, together with headphone out, it would provide three stereo outputs plus a single mono output with the remaining aux out.

Haha - fair! But, Russ, I'm just swimming with the tide, going with the flow, you know how it is... I got caught up with the "wrong sort" on BC (aka Gear-chat) for many years and mis-spent my youth (as a bass-player that is) on all the wrong threads. I mean Accessories and Misc. isn't the obvious place to start is it? And there was no such thing as the IEM Bible thread back then (which I actually read from cover to cover before Christmas in a spare 3 hours I had...).

We've invested in a pair of RCF 912As which can handle bass very well without the need for an additional sub-woofer, so I'm feeling far less annoyed at having to cart the PA to gigs mainly for the benefit of the rest of the band, now that it's doubling up as my bass rig too! Having a desk with enough aux outs to enable us to have individually tailored monitoring is a very nice bonus.

That is super kind of you to sort me out on this - thank you! Now you say stop buying mixers? Hmmm...I'm kinda thinking the opposite i.e. why has it taken me so long to dive into these?! I'm a little gobsmacked at the feature set and EQ options available on my circa £400 Soundcraft Signature 12MTK 12 multi-track recording --> Motu M4 up for sale 3 band EQ with semi para mids with a f-range from 140Hz to 3KHz, and bass EQ centred at a very sensible 60 Hz --> do I really need an EQ pedal any more? Hi Z inputs --> DI no longer required and don't need to stress about balanced outputs not being available on certain multi-fxs Dbx limiter with hard-knee compression --> Nice! Not going to miss my Keeley Bassist HPF starting at 100Hz with 18dB / octave cut. Engage that and maybe add a little bass boost and off we go for non-flubby low end --> Thumpinator now also redundant? I mean, this thing has just paid for itself! And I'm sure @dave_bass5 has got a similar feature set on his Behringer which is sub £300.

Just looked into the QSC TM16. Yes, what a fabulous piece of kit and super compact too!!! But at £1,385 it's one for the future for us, and I suspect my band will balk at spending £1,000 over the Soundcraft Signature we've just got.

This was a good shout btw - works fine (as does using two of the Aux Out) using a 2 into 1 lead to combine. I was just keen for ease of use to see if I could get the output to both my desktop monitors from a single aux out so I can get an idea of what will be being pumped when we're playing live - but @Woodinblackhas very kindly offered to sort me out with a single adaptor to enable me to do that.

Here's a picture of the desk, if it helps folk trying to follow this part of the thread!

Yes I think so. But I would like the ability to hear what's coming out of my aux outs via both my desktop monitors rather than one of them. And I'm wondering if there's an adaptor that will enable that? But I agree that the Group 1-2 outputs do look interesting in what they are bringing to the party!

But not possible to have a single mono aux out --> adaptor --> stereo aux in and drive both desktop speakers?

Thanks for the suggestions which make good sense for a pair of headphones. The other thing I'd be wanting to use one for is to connect the mono aux-out to my desktop stereo active monitors, which have a shared single 3.5mm aux-in on the powered speaker. Is there something short of a £50 Behrigner P2 adaptor for that, so that I can have the aux out mono signal going to both rather than one of the desktop speakers?

Not a bad shout! Anything that's just an adaptor costing < £10?

Thanks. I need something that will feed a mono output from an aux-out on a desk to both ears of a stereo headset, and not to just one ear. If your suggestions do that, I'll check them out.

Btw any recommendations for a suitable adaptors for use with 3.5mm and 1/4" headphone jacks to use with the aux outs?

Yeah true, and actually I'm still within the 14 day return period. But if this is a common issue for all aux out then replacing the desk isn't going to help. Besides we have a work around for stereo IEM users who can just set their IEMs to mono.

Thanks Dave - I can just use normal headphones into the headphone out rather than the aux-out, and most stereo IEMs have a mono setting as I understand, so seems we're all good.

That's really useful to know. So it turns out that our IEM's (Xvive U4) being purely mono are perfectly suited to a standard aux-out then. The Zoom Livetrack L-8 I had dealt with this issue by providing all the ancillary outputs as headphone-out rather than aux-out. Shame it was unshielded / noisy with our U4s. Looks like there's no fault / design flaw with the Soundcraft Signature 12MTK desk I've just got then, and I won't have an excuse for returning it. Although I must admit I'm starting to develop an unhealthy interest in desks in the same way as I had in different make/models of bass guitar, amps and cabs a few years back! Maybe that's my own design flaw 😁

So...my desk saga continues! I picked up a Zoom Livetrack L-8 and was actually quite impressed at its feature-set and portability, particularly for the money. Unfortunately I found the model I had wasn't particularly well shielded and ended up with a high pitched hum with the IEMs we'd got for the band, which we weren't getting with other speakers. The Zoom had 4 headphone outs which was ideal for my 4 piece, so I've looked for something similar in a budget mixer and ended up getting the desk from the make I actually mentioned in the OP of this thread - in my case a Soundcraft Signature 12MTK. However having spent a bit of time with it, I've found an unhelpful issue in using the unit: The output from all three aux outputs is directed to just one of a pair of stereo speakers or to just one ear on a pair of headphones. This is irrespective of whether it is a TS (mono) input from an ¼” instrument jack or a TRS stereo input eg from headphone out of a phone playing Spotify into both the left and right stereo inputs of the desk. A dual-speaker or headphone stereo output is, however, available from the dedicated headphone out. Is this to be expected with the aux-outs? If it was going to a monitor it would be a non-issue, but going to headphones (other than ironically the Xvive U4 IEMs a couple of our band have got as they are mono rather than stereo) this isn't going to be great.

Thanks for that. But if you follow through the posts the high pitched hum issue we were having was only there with a particular digital mixer I was using and not with another mixer I tested with @dave_bass5with 3 separate U4s. I don't think there's any fault with the three U4s we tested and I've not had the whine with an Allen & Heath mixer we've subsequently used live. So the issue, in general terms, seems to simply be the interaction of the U4s with the lack of shielding on some mixers. But it's good to know that you are yet another contended U4 user!

Congrats - that sounds really positive! I'm still tempted by one of these! What other digital multis have you previously had?

FWIW - I understand the Soundcraft Signature 12MTK is also fully analogue. However, they've added a multi-track recording option to enhance the capability of the unit as compared to the non-MTK version. There's a £110 price-hike for this added capability, but given a latency of 3.5ms vs a latency of around 2ms for a high-end audio interface such as a Focusrite, that's still pretty decent. And I'm not sure there are too many decent audio interfaces offering 12 multi-track recording, certainly for £110?