Sunday, February 26, 2012

Allen Heath GLD-80 Digital Audio Church Mixer

By Zack Springsteen


Today I saw the Allen and Heath GLD-80 Digital Audio Mixer at work and this mixer rocked. I was so impressed that I decided I had to write about it for those of you looking to purchase an audio mixer. Sit back and get ready to read all about the features this awesome mixer has to offer.

The Allen and Heath GLD-80 blew us away with its analogue style channel processing main section to its drag and drop layout. This mixer has 20 automated fader strips and a color screen that can be set to a color of choice at any given time. If you ever wanted to play audio using a USB strip, this is the mixer. It can easily play a stereo from a single USB stick. You read that right! Just plug in the USB and you can start rocking away!

This mixer does use Allen and Heaths dSnake protocol which can easily give you control over its preamps up to 120 meters. By the way, did I mention this mixer has fully recallable microphone preamp and all mic preamps are scene recallable? I decided to measure the touch screen and it came close to 9 inches. That means this screen is much larger than its competitor's screens.

Another great feature is you can use the Dante card and start doing full track recording of all channels directly by using any audio software on your PC or MAC. There were 2 different stage rack configurations that can be integrated together to give you over 40 inputs. The first stage rack is the Ar2412 which happens to be the largest. The Ar2412 has 24 xlr inputs and 12 xlr outputs as returns. The AR84 has 8 xlr inputs in the front face and 4 returns which all have recallable preamps. There are different configurations that you can set up with both the audio racks. The most common would be adding one AR2412, and one AR84 which will give you a total of 40 inputs. Some people may want to start with two AR84's and add to their system in the future. Whichever you choose you defiantly can't go wrong.

This system is truly amazing. I first spotted this unit at the NAMM show and from the moment I saw it I felt like a kid in a candy store. Anybody that has worked with most digital mixers knows that they can be very complex. Well Allen and Heath really nailed it this time. Even though this mixer looks complex, it's actually very simple and easy to use. It's like having a huge powerful mixer on a simple easy-to-use desk. I can really see churches absolutely loving this mixer. The Allen and Heath GLD-80 Digital Audio Mixer is set to be released to the public by the end of February 2012 and most dealers are already taking pre orders.

If you do decide to purchase this mixer, make sure you take advantage of the waves card which will give you a set of wonderful sounding plug ins that you can use live and also for recording. I really hope this review helped you understand just how wonderful this mixer really is. The Allen and Heath GLD-80 was absolutely the star product at the 2012 NAMM show.




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