I've been prepping to buy a Venice 320 and pressing it into recording duties, but the Verona looks like the ticket. When is it supposed to be on the street?

Robert

Hey Clue,
How do the mic pres sound in that Venice? Usable for tracking? Good headroom? Quite?

Originally posted by RobertPhilbeck:
Hey Clue,
How do the mic pres sound in that Venice? Usable for tracking? Good headroom? Quite?

Robert,

A friend of mine owns the Venice - and i was quite impressed with the quiality of the gear - including the mic pres.

However - it really isn't designed for studio work - but rather for live applications - sound man - portable mixing - that sort of thing.

It does have direct-outputs for each channel - so it could be made to work - it is (however) only a 4 bus board -

But i could not complain for the quality of it once he got working.

Rod

Originally posted by Rod Gervais:

Originally posted by RobertPhilbeck:
Hey Clue,
How do the mic pres sound in that Venice? Usable for tracking? Good headroom? Quite?

Robert,

A friend of mine owns the Venice - and i was quite impressed with the quiality of the gear - including the mic pres.

However - it really isn't designed for studio work - but rather for live applications - sound man - portable mixing - that sort of thing.

It does have direct-outputs for each channel - so it could be made to work - it is (however) only a 4 bus board -

But i could not complain for the quality of it once he got working.

Rod Rod,
You're absolutley right, but what can a guy do? Sub 5k studio desks are few and far between. Ghost, Mackie 8 Bus, and maybe a few others? The Toft desk isn't due out until the summer! It seems that pressing a live console into studio duty is commonplace, but let me ask you, what features do live desks lack that recording desks have?

Originally posted by RobertPhilbeck:

Rod,
You're absolutley right, but what can a guy do? Sub 5k studio desks are few and far between. Ghost, Mackie 8 Bus, and maybe a few others? The Toft desk isn't due out until the summer! It seems that pressing a live console into studio duty is commonplace, but let me ask you, what features do live desks lack that recording desks have?

Robert,

I think there are several issues raised above to untangle.

First and foremost, just because a console is marketed as a "studio console" doesn't mean you want it in your studio. I use the Venice as a front-end and back-end to my DAW, and stuff just sounds better than mixed within the DAW (and it's easier to get it sounding better, too). With the Mackie, I could make stuff sound different, but never better.

Second, what I've been able to surmise is that the principal feature that distinguishes a live console from a recording console (aka studio console) is that the latter will have lots more metering, typically meetering on every channel. You can buy a meter bridge for a Mackie 8*bus and voila! That turns the Mackie 8*bus from an 8*bus live console into an 8*bus studio console (except for the small question of whether you'd want it in your studio).

Both the Venice and the Verona have limited per-channel metering, but that's not a problem for me. I've got meters galore on my MOTU HD192, and by using those meters, my Venice is a *great sounding* 4-group console+stereo mix console.

Hey Clueless, lemme know if you get that Verona board and wouldn't mind a gawker.

I'm just up the road from you in Hillsborough...

Cheers,

-Todzilla

I've gathered that studio desks have tape returns for every channel too! That's a nice feature.

Metering? I've never really paid attention to meters. The input meters on the mixdown deck yes, but never the meters on the console? What might I gain by having meters on the individual channels?

One other difference between these 2 boards is the mic pres.

The Verona does not have the same mic pres as the Venice.

The company claims that this is a newly designed improved pre.

Rod