Midas PRO X Quick Start Manual page 11

Applications
The PRO Series are the work horse mid- to high-end MIDAS Digital Console
Systems, akin to the industry standard Heritage 3000. Although the PRO Series
are designed for the traditional touring live sound environment, they are
also ideal for medium-sized theatres, small houses of worship installations,
and broadcast. So, being a truly multi-functional console in the MIDAS tradition,
the PRO Series are suitable for many applications, such as:
• • Live sound touring MON or FOH duties
• • Live sound small theatre MON or FOH duties
• • Live sound house of worship MON or FOH duties
• • Live sound broadcast mixer with basic 5.1 surround capabilities
and monitoring.
PRO X - The Next Generation
PRO Series Console
If you are already familiar with the PRO Series consoles, then you are already
well on your way to mastering the PRO X. With a few exceptions outlined here,
the functionality of the PRO X is almost identical to its PRO Series predecessors.
Because of its improved functionailty and increased processing power it was
necessary to make the following changes to the well-established format:
NEUTRON
The powerhouse at the centre of the PRO X system is the new NEUTRON Audio
System Engine. NEUTRON is the result of a three-year research and development
programme that has seen MIDAS engineers push beyond the envelope with their
expertise and knowledge.
Its cutting-edge, latest generation DSPs and high-performance FPGA,
couple with MIMD (Multiple Instruction, Multiple Data) architecture delivers
more than 100 gigafl ops of real-time audio processing performance. This means
that NEUTRON has the potential to provide more than 800 audio paths.
Your system remains absolutely future proof. It delivers impeccable MIDAS sonic
performance and functionality.
But it's not just about raw, number-crunching power and high channel counts,
NEUTRON is also about fi nesse. Adding I/O boxes with the best converters
and custom processing algorithms that draw upon over 40 years of listening
experience at the top of the industry, NEUTRON takes the audio quality of those
channels to another level.
All MIDAS digital console systems have a comprehensive and automatic latency
management system and NEUTRON is no exception. This system manages all
internal routing and processing latency and also includes compensation for
external analogue inserts. All audio samples are synchronised before summing,
resulting in absolute phase coherency at the outputs and completely avoiding
the 'comb fi ltering' eff ects of less carefully designed systems that result in
specifi c frequencies cancelling out completely.
Channel Count
With 168 inputs, 96 buses and three master channels, on the PRO X what you see
is what you get. There's no 'smoke and mirror' DSP sharing, the PRO X provides a
full input channel count and full bus count at 96 kHz at any time.
Mix Bay Output Fast Zone
The PRO X control surface features an entirely new output section that makes
handling the potentially huge number of buses a breeze. A page of 24 of the
possible 96 bus masters is displayed across three rows of eight, each position
easily identifi ed by the same kind of select switch as the channel bay.
The digital write-on name and RGB backlight colour means 'can't miss' selection.
Pressing 'to faders' on any row drops the master fader for those buses onto the
mix bay.
All of the buses can be scrolled through, in pages of 24, and when an output is
added to a POP group, it will unfold to the dedicated output section, making it
even easier to organise your workfl ow.
Channel & Bus Navigation Zone
At the heart of MIDAS console navigation are the VCA and POPulation groups,
which provide primary access to multiple channels (typically grouped into related
clusters by mix engineers). To access all the channels belonging to any of the VCA
or POP groups, merely press the select switch and those channels unfold to the
control surface.
If you think of the VCA faders as if they were each containers for all the channels
they control then fi nding channels becomes a natural and easy task. This method
is further expanded through the provision of user customised POP (POPulation)
groups, which can contain any combination of channels that you want to access
instantly, at the press of a switch.
Additional Eff ects
The PROX can simultaneously process up to 24 simultaneous internal
multi-channel eff ects and NEUTRON's 40 bit fl oating-point audio processing
hosts a wide choice of virtual FX devices, which range from dual-mono delay
units, stereo modulation and many diverse reverb FX, multiband compression,
dynamic EQ and multichannel dual-function dynamics processing.
All FX processors are custom-designed to function within the MIDAS automatic
latency compensation system. This ensures a phase-coherent sample- accurate
mix regardless of whether the FX devices are used as channel inserts or as a
send-and-return.
Delay FX can be individually confi gured to synchronise to the PRO X's Global
Tap-Tempo hardware button, making on-the-fl y changes to tempo-based
eff ect parameters child's play. Up to 36 1/3 octave KLARK TEKNIK DN370 Graphic
Equalisers (GEQs) are provided, which can be patched into any output.
Quick Start Guide 11