Hum problem w/ Soundcraft Ghost

[Davedog]

Why would you bother switching out the 8 bus for a Ghost? Seem like a step sideways instead of up. The ghosts are renowned for being noisy, and inconsistent. The Mackie is just clean and colourless. You probably have a rack full of outboard colour going on anyway.

Tom. I own a Ghost and it has proven over the years....(I have had it for 10 years now) to be none of the things you describe. The Mackie is a flat, lifeless, mixer with very little headroom on the pres and an EQ that can best be described as a "tone control" rather than something that could be 'surgical'. That being said, the Mackie is a nice platform for routing in a digital studio and is a very very good portable mixer. But holds no candle to the sound of the Ghost. That being said, there are seriously better consoles at the price available than the Ghost and certainly the Mackie. However, the upgrades available for the Ghost will put it in a much higher class of mixer even to the point of making the pres on a par with most mid and higher rack gear. Not saying it becomes a Neve or API or even a Manley, but it becomes a very good sounding console for the footprint. The whole board upgrade effectively doubles the new price of the Ghost but more than doubles its effective use as a recording device.

I use mine primarily as 'overflow' pres and routing for headphone sends and adding effects in the phones as well as the front-end for my Alesis HD24 recorder. I also have a PT rig and its here that the pres in the Ghost get used for only drums and incidental sources. They are, however, really good for drums and sources that require a fast responding mic pre with good transient response. Something the Mackie lacks in completely.

 

[Tom Fodor]

Thanks for that Mate, I'm glad your ghost has been OK but there are several threads on GS that back up my comment. When they work, the Ghosts are fine, but they are prone to grounding issues and noise issues. Saying that effectively rebuilding the console will make it sound great can apply to just about any piece of equipment and kind of supports my initial statement. Still, happy that you're happy. The point I was trying to make was more about the whole colour from your console thing. I personally don't want to be cornered into a colour.

 

[Davedog]

The big difference here is those are threads on a website and my experience is in real time. The Ghost is not a 'colored' console nor do the upgrades make it one. I am a person who believes that most of the 'color' of a sound source should start at the source and not be artificially induced by the signal chain......for the most part. There are exceptions.........Whatever experiences a few posters on GS have had (I post there too btw) they are a small number compared to the many others who havent had these problems and there are a LOT of Ghost consoles out there. There is also a tendency for others to repeat hearsay on that particular site (as well as many others....!) So it does get down to few incidents as you described but a Ghost is certainly not "RENOWNED" nor are they "PRONE" to these issues. Plus mine, I've worked on at least nine other set-ups and none of them were particularly noisy nor did they have a grounding issue.

I believe that there was a POWER SUPPLY that Soundcraft made that was the cause of these sort of problems. However it was a universal type of unit and could be found with several of their consoles, live, studio, etc. I have personally never heard of these incidents when the console was being powered from the 'better' supply. Again, NOT the board, but perhaps a poor decision from Soundcraft to supply certain consoles with these less than stellar power supplies. Had mine been equipped with these 'lesser' supplies it would have only been for a moment.

In my statements about upgrading the console my intent was to indicate that these COULD be upgraded and frequently are....something that a lot of lesser boards simply cannot be. The pc's and traces just arent substantial enough to weather the heat from soldering and unsoldering components. I also intended to show that the value of the modifications for a console like the Soundcraft Ghost far exceeds the price of doing so. That is NOT to say that the mods are needed. Quite the contrary, the board sounds very good stock and is still one of the best values available. I have nothing at all against Mackie 8 buses, I thought I was clear about that, but theres no comparison to them and a Ghost except in routing. Theres simply no way that the architecture of a 'motherboard' surface-mount component console will sound any better or even the same as an individual channel console. The crosstalk will always be less ease of repair will always be better and lets face it, the Mackie is a third the money.....which makes it a great value.....just not the equal.

I'm not saying this because I own one and I need to toot my horn. Its just the truth of the matter and I 'happen' to also be an owner.