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Topic: Line 6 StageScape M20d |
Mack Quinney
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 7 Aug 2013 7:28 pm |
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anyone using the Line 6 StageScape M20d? I'm in need of a mix board and this thing looks really cool.....
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76 Emmons Push Pull, Williams 600, ShoBud Pro I, MSA Classic, Remington SteelMaster dbl 8, MSA Super Slide dbl 8, Gold Tone 6, And other instruments and equipment I can't afford. |
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Mack Quinney
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 28 Oct 2013 4:22 am I got one!
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For anyone who is interested. I picked up a Line 6 M20D Stagescape Mixer at a close out price of $1,300. The intent is to run the entire band through the PA without any amps.
Last night several of us pulled it out of the box and set it up. It is not quite as intuitive as you might think, but for a bunch of old guys we got the thing running. We set up one vocal, base, fiddle, steel, keyboard, three electric guitars and one acoustic guitar. It took about two hours to get it from "in the box" to set up including the learning curve.
The Bass sounded better through a DI box, however this is an old SG short scale bass with no pre-amp. The fiddle is running through a mission volume pedal and had no issues. The steel is running through a digitect pre and signal processor. Keys straight in. Electric guitars all through a signal processor box. (mine through a digitech stomp box.) The acoustic sounded better through a DI box.
This thing has an amazing sound. The best part of it is the Auto Analyzer. You hit a button, tell it what instrument it is, and play. The analyzer "listens" to your instrument and it sets the effects, compressors, EQ etc. This alone was a vast improvement over the Behringer analog board we were using.
After the set up, you can go in and tweek all of the settings for each instrument. Didn't take much.
You save the setup (for this one it's called practice room) and you are good for the next time you turn it on in that room. We will practice as a complete band tonight, so I will let you know how that goes.
Several likes:
Quiet as a church mouse. When you quit playing, there is no hum, no fuzz, nothing, just quiet. We had feedback on the vocal channel only once while setting it up. Other than that, quiet system.... 
Love the Analyzer thing. My Steel sounds great, and there is even a Steel icon and analyzer for it. I was surprised. My keyboard has never sounded that good.
Love the setup save. We saved and turned it off and back on several times to make sure that was working. As long as you use the same channel set up and your band mates remember which channel they are in, this is gonna be great. We play at the Cowboy Church in a few weeks. We can tweek our set up and then save that one as a second setup save.
Love the sound coming from one place. Hearing your part of the mix, in the mix, makes a huge difference. Much better than an amp sitting in your ear, and trying to hear everyone else and the monitors. This is what the goal was, and I think we are there. No more fighting for air space.
Love the improvement on overall sound without having to be a sound engineer. That is what this mixer is about, and it works.
Dislikes:
It's not as intuitive as I expected. After a time or two you get the idea, but it took a little longer than I expected. Then again, we are not techno younger set.
I wish it had fadders. Just because that is what I know. The volume is all rotary knob control.
You have to order special rail ears for it. They are $50.
It uses XLRs from the board to the amps and monitors. Thought this was a little strange, but maybe it's what the higher end boards use. The amp had XLR inputs, but I had to buy several new XLR cables for the amp, and powered amp monitors. XLR cables are expensive! 
So far, I'm liking it. More after practice tonight.
Mack
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76 Emmons Push Pull, Williams 600, ShoBud Pro I, MSA Classic, Remington SteelMaster dbl 8, MSA Super Slide dbl 8, Gold Tone 6, And other instruments and equipment I can't afford.
Last edited by Mack Quinney on 30 Oct 2013 5:02 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mack Quinney
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 30 Oct 2013 4:58 am
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Doesn't look like there is much interest in this, so I will give an update and let it rest.
The StageScape Line 6 M20d Mixer worked well for our full band rehearsal. Again, the amazing thing about the unit is how quiet it is when nothing is going through it. No hum, no pops, no nothing.
We got a good mix with the system with only a few tweeks and then left it alone the rest of the night. We have four lead instruments which go back and forth. I can operate the volume for the steel and the keyboard with the volume pedal and hear the volume level in the mix. Same with the fiddle, she is on a volume pedal. The guitar just turns up, then back down.
The other part of this, that is great, is we can all play at a much lower level and hear the mix of all the instruments within our small practice room. This has been a challenge in the past. Too many amps competing for limited air space. As long as the drums do not overpower the mix, then the rest of us are at a reasonable volume.
What didn't work. The USB WiFi capability has yet to work with two WiFi adapters that we have tried. Evidently the unit takes a specific WiFi adapter setting and we haven't found yet. Also this part of the instructions is very confusing in that there is not enough information to tell you what exactly you need in an adapter. So....more reading on the internet for that one. That would be my only complaint thus far.
I would recommend this unit to anyone who is: a. Not a sound engineer and has limited knowledge of mixers, amps and effects. and b. A band who is running their mix from the stage.
That is what it is designed for and seems to work for that application.
Mack
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76 Emmons Push Pull, Williams 600, ShoBud Pro I, MSA Classic, Remington SteelMaster dbl 8, MSA Super Slide dbl 8, Gold Tone 6, And other instruments and equipment I can't afford. |
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Ken Metcalf
From:
San Antonio Texas USA
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Posted 30 Oct 2013 11:52 am
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Mack
Wondering if this would be a good fit for powered speakers?
Also wondering what is the advantage of this unit.. ? is it separate monitor mixes or what.
Auto sound analyzer optimizer.
Let me know how is panning out.
Sounds cool.
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MSA 12 String E9th/B6th Universal.
Little Walter PF-89.
Bunch of stomp boxes |
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Mack Quinney
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 30 Oct 2013 5:32 pm
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Ken,
This is a wonderful fit for powered mains or monitors or both. If you have Line 6 speakers you get the added benifit of Line 6 Link which is a signal back and forth from the speaker to the mixer which is live performance monitoring by the mixer. i.e. the dynamics of the speaker itself.
Here is the link to the StageScape Line 6 page. http://line6.com/stagescape-m20d/overview
The other nice feature is that it has four monitors outs. Each with EQ and effects. A lot of times your built-in effects for monitiors is limited, and not always changable per each line out mix. You can set this up with effects different for each monitor mix.
We are running three monitor mixes. One to vocals and side fills, traditional power amp and four speakers, one to drums and bass, and one to lead instruments with powered Alto speakers.
We have yet to tweek the effects per channel, but plan too next practice.
The Auto Analyzer is cool. Best steel sound I have ever had through a PA. You identify the instrument, hit the button and it listens and sets up effects and EQ. Really cool. my outboard effects such as reverb doesn't seam to phase it much. It really "listens" to the instrument.
There are two primary advantges to this thing. One is, I'm no sound engineer. With this thing, I dont have to be. Second, you can run it from the stage. You can record 20 seconds of a song, go out to the front of the house and tweek it with your IPad as the 20 seconds of recording plays back. Cool. The band can be off getting drunk, but the recorded 20 seconds should let you know how it will sound when they come back.
So far so good. We have just scratched the surface, but we sound better, the stage area will be at a lower volumn, and we can run it from the stage, monitors as well.
More to come if you are interested.
Mack
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76 Emmons Push Pull, Williams 600, ShoBud Pro I, MSA Classic, Remington SteelMaster dbl 8, MSA Super Slide dbl 8, Gold Tone 6, And other instruments and equipment I can't afford. |
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Mack Quinney
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2013 5:07 pm
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Found out why it is so quiet when no signal is going in. It has a gate on each channel.
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76 Emmons Push Pull, Williams 600, ShoBud Pro I, MSA Classic, Remington SteelMaster dbl 8, MSA Super Slide dbl 8, Gold Tone 6, And other instruments and equipment I can't afford. |
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