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Has there ever been anything<br />
so exciting since the arrival of<br />
sliced bread? ALISTAIR MCGHEE<br />
this <strong>for</strong> a party game? Name all the<br />
manufacturers of mixing desks costing less than<br />
a thousand pounds/Euros/dollars/conch shells.<br />
��ow’s<br />
That should keep the children amused <strong>for</strong> hours.<br />
Now how about this: name all the manufacturers<br />
directly, but you can also play back from an application<br />
like Spot On or any radio cartwall software. From the<br />
input side, the presence of Telco channels is a statement<br />
of broadcast intent, but the real radio devil is in the detail<br />
and particularly in the comms and monitoring detail.<br />
thinks so; and it’s not baked of broadcast radio mixing desks under a thousand units of So you want to talk on the radio while operating<br />
goods either.<br />
your local currency. Eh, uum well no, eh… give in.<br />
Well, into this veritable maelstrom of competition,<br />
your own mixing desk? You’ll be needing an SLS (studio<br />
loudspeaker switching) relay on your mics. In this case it’s<br />
Allen & Heath has bravely pitched its new XB-14. a CRMS, but it really is a vital component of an on air desk.<br />
Yes, a genuine broadcast mixing desk designed <strong>for</strong> You’ll want separate control of your guests and presenter<br />
radio at under GB£1,000. I almost<br />
headphone level, and you’ll want<br />
wept when I heard the news.<br />
separate monitor routing <strong>for</strong> guests<br />
Born out of suggestions from<br />
and presenter. All this is provided<br />
its Israeli distributor, the XB-14<br />
by the XB-14. You can choose<br />
takes technology from A&H’s<br />
whether the guests can hear your<br />
Zed-series desks, but is a<br />
pre-fade, which is another neat<br />
new design, as will quickly<br />
broadcast touch. In radio, dim<br />
become obvious.<br />
is not just a handy epithet but<br />
also a tidy monitoring function,<br />
The Right Mix<br />
and the XB-14 provides a 20dB<br />
Of course even in the tiny<br />
dim switch on the control<br />
niche of radio there’s a<br />
room speakers.<br />
huge variety of opinion on<br />
Talking of dim, many<br />
what constitutes the right<br />
broadcasters eschew the<br />
set of features <strong>for</strong> a mixer,<br />
use of faders <strong>for</strong> mixing<br />
and coming from a BBC<br />
programmes, and rely on<br />
background I’m acutely<br />
channel on/off switching<br />
conscious that there are<br />
The desk features USB I/O <strong>for</strong> easy digital co-operation.<br />
to activate the mics at<br />
other perfectly valid ways<br />
the right time having set<br />
of doing radio, it’s just that I<br />
the levels on the trims and<br />
can’t be bothered learning them. For me then, it came as faders. As you might have guessed, this is abhorrent to<br />
THE REVIEWER<br />
a pleasant surprise that Phil Gott, now of Neutrik, had a<br />
deal of influence on the design. Phil and I joined the BBC<br />
BBC-trained engineers, and the cause of much misery and<br />
confusion <strong>for</strong> manufacturers trying to satisfy everyone.<br />
ALISTAIR MCGHEE began audio on the same training course back when banking was a Allen & Heath has taken the path of perfection and<br />
life in hi-fi be<strong>for</strong>e joining the BBC<br />
as an <strong>Audio</strong> Engineer. After ten<br />
years in radio and TV, he moved<br />
to production. When BBC Choice<br />
started, he pioneered personal<br />
digital production in television.<br />
Alistair is now Assistant Editor,<br />
respectable profession and Phil owned the loudest alarm<br />
clock this side of Big Ben.<br />
So what do you get in an XB-14? Well, four mono mic<br />
inputs, two Telco channel inputs, and four stereo faders<br />
that offer control over a selection of balanced, unbalanced,<br />
and USB return inputs. Yes USB. Plug the XB-14 into your<br />
provided mutes <strong>for</strong> the channels that can be overridden<br />
by dip switches on the back panel. These switches also<br />
independently control the CUE/START signalling <strong>for</strong><br />
remote replay, and more of that to come.<br />
A Clean Feed<br />
BBC Radio Wales, but is allowed computer (no drivers required <strong>for</strong> PC or Mac), and not Now back to those Telco channels, just underneath the<br />
out occasionally. only can you record your mix (with some flexibility) input xlr you have a male xlr carrying clean feed out. �<br />
32<br />
radio broadcast<br />
mixer<br />
�������������<br />
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AUDIO MEDIA MAY <strong>2009</strong>