SM Pro surprised everyone by announcing a new series of very affordable digital mixers at Musikmesse last week. While the company have made some live sound products in the past, including DI boxes and personal monitoring systems, they are, arguably, better known for their studio equipment.
The uMix range takes the concept of the wirelessly-controlled digital mixer to the logical next step by getting rid of the physical mixer dock. Instead, the hardware itself is a stagebox with a built-in wi-fi router, mix engine, and auxiliary outputs (depending on model). One of the key benefits of SM Pro's new system is the fact that it can be controlled by any device with a Wi-fi connection and a browser. Simply, connect to the SM Pro server and you're presented with a multi-touch HTML 5 interface that gives you all the control you need.
To try it out for yourself on your phone, tablet or computer, go to SM Pro's uMix website, where they have a demo of it running on their servers.
All models, (uMix mini, uMix12, 16 and 24) all use a 56-bit audio signal path with parametric EQ, dynamics and Digital FX on all channels. All preamps have remotely controlled gain and phantom power. It's also possible to link two uMix 24s together with Cat5 cables to increase channel count. The largest three are also rack-mountable.
Interestingly, on the output of the two largest of the four mixers, the uMix 16 and 24, Waves MaxxBass and MaxxVolume DSP can be applied for polishing the final sound and protecting your PA. Because of the architecture of the system, it is theoretically possible for other plug-ins from other vendors to be made available further down the line.
Stereo playback from a USB drive is possible on all four models, while stereo recording is also permitted to a USB drive.
For a full run-down of features for each model, head over to the SM Pro website. The series are due to ship in Summer and will be priced as follows: uMix Mini (€199), uMix 12 (€399), uMix 16 (€699) and uMix 24 (€999).
