X32 producer for £999

[ajay_m]

hmm. The new Wing products must be imminent now - the Sweetwater premature leak looks plausible, https://postimg.cc/jD4JBCPg and the price cuts in the US for the X32 range seem to have made it through to the UK, with Andertons offering the X32 producer for £999 and the Compact for £1249.

That's a lot of desk for the money, incredible to think what you can now get for under a grand, think what a digital mixer cost when the first X32 came out. 16 ins, 8 outs, 32:32 audio interface, 16 fader channels plus master, very nice as long as the lack of scribble strips doesn't matter, otherwise you're paying another £250 for the compact.

And I see, reassuringly, that you can purchase a set of 5 replacement faders for £91 from Thomann. It's certainly a golden age for audio gear, isn't it?

[Drew Stephenson]

It's certainly a golden age for audio gear, isn't it?

I concur entirely!

[AlecSp]

It's certainly a golden age for audio gear, isn't it?

To be fair, those prices are simply (nearly) back to pre-pandemic levels.

[OneWorld]

It's certainly a golden age for audio gear, isn't it?

To be fair, those prices are simply (nearly) back to pre-pandemic levels.

Yes, good point well made as they say. I remember I could have had a Behringer Wing for about £2200. Hmmmm, if only I'd known there was a virus coming that would have the world on its knees, the pubs closed and people not allowed to walk the streets, and the president of the USA would advise drinking bleach, talk about fact is stranger than fiction, if such a yarn were to be dreamt up by Hollywood people would say that's a stretch of the imagination too far and ridiculed as barmy.

[DGL.]

New Wing models now unveiled, rack and compact added to the line plus a black version of the full sized Wing.
The two new variants have 24 on board Pro series pre-amps with combo jack inputs.

Digital connectivity comes in the form of Stageconnect, 2xAES50, AES3 in and out, a 64x64? card slot that comes with a 48 channel SD card recorder, and an internal PCI Waves Sound Grid or standard Brooklyn II DANTE card can be added for even more connectivity.

As for the amount of input channels there are 40 full fat channels and 8 simpler ones, each can be mono, stereo or mid-side, so up to 96 inputs can be mixed at once if every channel is stereo.

Can't remember the exact pricing but the Rack is something like $1,499. Looking to do what the X32 did all those years ago and basically give you a mixer that can't be even remotely matched at it's price, might be a good time to get an X32 Rack cheap second hand though!

[ajay_m]

If I understand correctly the Wings can actually do 96 channels as every channel is stereo. However on the Wing Compact you're gonna be controlling all that with only 12+1 faders which might be challenging. Also only 48KHz and although from a sound quality perspective, that's fine, 96KHz, which is becoming table stakes in the low-end mixer market, will give you lower latency if you need to send anything out to external processing (e.g via USB to a PC hosting plugins you want to insert into a channel).
But a LOT of local I/O - 24 in, 8 out - don't know how good the preamps are, but probably perfectly adequate I'm sure.
Still, we sure are spoilt for choice at the low end these days, aren't we?. The original Wing had fairly good DAW support as well (HUI and MCU) and I assume that its little sister will have this as well.

[Sam Spoons]

I suppose the Wing Compact will appeal to those who want the functionality but don't need the full channel count. I have an X32 Compact which can process 40 channels but I rarely, if ever, use more than 16 (live or in the studio) so the 16+1 fader count is fine.

The beauty of having 40 channels* available is that I can assign CH1-16 for tracking using the physical inputs and 17-32 as 'tape' returns over USB from Reaper and use the auxs for the odd bit of hardware outboard I still have.

The 'Midas designed' mic preamps in the X32 are fine, nothing special but perfectly usable. The Wing has 'Midas Pro' preamps from the M32 range which are considered a decent step up.

* 40 inputs includes 32 full channels, 6 aux channels and stereo USB but the compact has only 16 mic inputs and 6 line inputs. Using AES50 you can access remote 96 inputs in addition to the 40 local inputs.

[DGL.]

If I understand correctly the Wings can actually do 96 channels as every channel is stereo. However on the Wing Compact you're gonna be controlling all that with only 12+1 faders which might be challenging. Also only 48KHz and although from a sound quality perspective, that's fine, 96KHz, which is becoming table stakes in the low-end mixer market, will give you lower latency if you need to send anything out to external processing (e.g via USB to a PC hosting plugins you want to insert into a channel).
But a LOT of local I/O - 24 in, 8 out - don't know how good the preamps are, but probably perfectly adequate I'm sure.
Still, we sure are spoilt for choice at the low end these days, aren't we?. The original Wing had fairly good DAW support as well (HUI and MCU) and I assume that its little sister will have this as well.

That's why I said inputs rather than channels as the channels can't be split, 96 mono channels would be great at this price point but I suppose they think that if you need that many buy a Midas HD-96, though that's a different price bracket for sure!

[DGL.]

Just a correction, the SD card recorder is actually 64 channels not 48, so that would mean that a DANTE or WSG card would also be 64x64.
I do assume that you need two SD cards for the full 64 channels though.

[Dave Rowles]

Only thing to add is the "Midas Pro" preamps, while technically in the M32, are actually the preamps from the Midas Pro series mixing desks. And they are seriously good pres.

I've been eyeing up the Yamaha DM7, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm barking up the wrong tree in the short term, and maybe buying a wing is the best option for right now as I've got a DL32 for my X32 rack, so got all I need to get a full setup going.

Bit torn, as if I get the wing, I'm going to have to wait longer for the DM7

[Sam Spoons]

I see where you're coming from, you'd have to save up a couple more weeks to buy that Yamaha

[Dave Rowles]

Meh, the Yamaha is only like 10-15 times the price of the wing.....

The only thing that gives me pause is the 16 busses on the wing. Due to IEMs and other outs needed for some stuff I really need 24.

[S2]

I've got an X32 Producer and it's a superb desk (IMO) for the money, though I recall it only costing £979 when I got it - it's possible I may have hit on a deal at that time which must be around 10 years ago nearly.

The Wing stuff looks great, though with the setup I have these days, I'm leaning towards the A&H CQ18 style mixer. The X32 Producer is a weighty beast, and probably too overspecced for what I use it for.

[AlecSp]

The Wing stuff looks great, though with the setup I have these days, I'm leaning towards the A&H CQ18 style mixer. The X32 Producer is a weighty beast, and probably too overspecced for what I use it for.

Wing Rack would appear to eat CQ-18 for breakfast. For little more money, and a bit bigger, it offers more of pretty much everything, as well as being expandable.

[S2]

The Wing stuff looks great, though with the setup I have these days, I'm leaning towards the A&H CQ18 style mixer. The X32 Producer is a weighty beast, and probably too overspecced for what I use it for.

Wing Rack would appear to eat CQ-18 for breakfast. For little more money, and a bit bigger, it offers more of pretty much everything, as well as being expandable.

Yes it certainly seems to offer more. The CQ12 is about half the price though and would probably be enough. I've got an Allen and Heath analogue mixer as well as the X32 and the A&H seems more bombproof.

Contemplating chopping them both in and going for the CQ12/18.