Soundcraft Ghost

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 2:12 pm

I have been hereing very good things about the Ghost! I had made a mistake with purchaseing a Mackie 32 channel VLZ , but I am returning it for a full refund.

I would consider getting one used (this is the 24 channel)

Since I have great mic pres , I am not too concerned with the on board pre , but can anyone tell me how the Ghosts are?

Thanks ,

Mad John
Zythum Studios

"The present day Composer refuses to die!" - Edgar Varese - 1921

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 4:23 pm

They seem to be a "musicians choice" beloved of self recording acts.

V popular it seems.

I have done good work on the 600 / 500 series Soundcraft but not the Ghost.

I belive with some ext mic pre's you should be able to rock with it fine!

I think if you dig around on the net hard you could find folks that might have tips on supercharging the power suply to be more efficient and thus improve the desks sound / noise floor..

Smile

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 5:14 pm

Thanks Jules! :w:

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 2:27 am

Hey John,

I would advise you to proceed with caution, especially if you are looking forward to the Ghost as a "step up" from your Mackie situation.

I am an unhappy Ghost owner at present. (For further reading, check here or here) . Like you, I was looking to replace an old Mackie console with the Ghost, and to my ongoing chagrin, the Ghost has turned out to be a real dog in many respects. It's noisier than the Mackie. It isn't built as well. Yeah the Ghost EQ's are better, and the pre's sound slightly more pleasant than the Mackie's... but when the dust settles I wouldn't call the Ghost a "step up" from the Mackie. More like a step sideways.

FWIW, I *did* spend quite a bit of time trying to polish this particular turd. Among other things, I rebuilt the PSU, doubling the amperage and putting some super beefy filtering caps on it. In addition I ran a dedicated circuit to the studio with its own isolated ground and an Equitech balanced power unit. I re-capped the master section of the console. And after discovering that the channel PCB's in the Ghost were internally grounded to the chassis NOT with a proper ground wire, but THRU THE KNOB CASINGS (?!?), I went through the entire console and isolated every pot with a "condom" made of electrical tape to eliminate all of those #@$&ing ground loops, and then installed an internal star grounding system. In other words I've done everything I could think of to give this thing a fighting chance to sound good. The result? Well... it sounds OKAY. It's still noisy, it still has a perceptible hum on the 2-buss, it still has an irritating EFI hash in the background even with all inputs muted. I don't love it. But I'm getting work done. Whatever.

If I had it to do over again, I'd buy a pair of 02R's or something. Seriously, I'm starting to think it takes a LOT more money to get an equivalent mixer in the analog domain.

Good luck to you.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 2:54 am

Ah!!

er...

OK how about recomended second hand alternatives then - ON BUDGET!

I suppose the lure is the 'better' EQ on the Soundcraft, but then it's nor too hard to beat the Mackie EQ - for rock music especialy..

Smile

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 5:35 am

Hi,

I strongly suggest to have a look at the used console market. A Trident 65 fits your budget pretty well I think (you can get em for approximately 5K) - and they are definitely very nice consoles. I have 32/16/2 in my studio since last year and am very happy with it. A big step up sonically from a Mackie/Behringer/Soundcraft and built like a tank - cool looks too. They only drawback is that they may need some small repairs here and there, but when you figured that out you'll be a happy for a long time - such as me..

Rock'n'Roll,

Markus

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 9:48 am

Thank you all for the replys!

Wow , I am really nervous about this Ghost! (hes creeping down the stairs now!)

Eljolson , that was very informative reading others comments on the Soundcraft Ghost!

Holy Hum Nut! Sad

(Scary music jolts , pan to frightened flapping bird in cage.)

I got rid of my Mackie 32/4buss and all I have for survival purposes is a 1604. <img border="0" alt="[retard]" title="" src="graemlins/retard.gif" />

I need a great 24 channel board new or used in the 5k arena.

The one thing is I can not be bogged down with (after an entire year of problems in 2001 with the 32 channel Mackie) connection weaknesses of cheap parts and most especially.....NOISES!

This may be a rough search , but in any case I want to thank you all , you are really very helpful in this hellish search!

Peace & Dreams

Mad John
Zythum Studios

"The present day Composer refuses to die!" - Edgar Varese - 1921

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 11:51 am

I spoke to a reputable saleman and asked about possible humming from the Ghost.

He said the power supply really has to (in some cases) be moved away from the board.

He had 1 such customer that had a humming delema from his board and it was solved by moveing the power supply in a different location!

Just thought I would pass this on.

Mad John
Zythum Studios

"The present day Composer refuses to die! - Edgar Varese - 1921

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 12:50 pm

I really like my Allen Heath GL2200 mixer. I use to own a VLZPRo as well and was going to pick up a used Ghost but two friends that had carried Soundcraft lines have found them to be really unreliable. I got the 24 channel version for 2K (they make more expensive versions as well). It has 4 band eq which really sounds similar to the Ghost to me. And has some extra channels (totally 30 with eq) to let you return auxes as well. Although I don't use the mic pre's (I also use external Neve's, Avalon etc) but I like them better than the Mackie's which I found to be brittle.

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:45 pm

Mad John, how about this board? http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=eda3615d11ad1bb04c61b90b0ebaf96c&threadid=41450

www.meriphew.com

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:53 pm

Yes , that is a nice board for sure , but a little expensive and it has been sold , but thanks!

Mad John
Zythum Studios

"The present day Composer refuses to die! - Edgar Varese - 1921

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 6:17 pm

Sold? No, it has not been sold. Please feel free to make an offer under $6600... I'm also open to any ideas of a partial trade or any other ideas one might have. If interested, please give me a call at the number below or simply e-mail.

Thank You.

Weston Ray
Weston House Recording
Orangevale/Sacramento, California
United States
(916) 987-6692
jwbros@hotmail.com

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2002 7:17 pm

Looks cool...

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