Photo: Mark Ewing
The newest Spirit mixers offer a straightforward feature set and long-throw faders at a seriously affordable UK price.
Ever since Soundcraft launched their Spirit brand, the name has become synonymous with well-designed general-purpose mixers at reasonable prices. The Spirit E-series mixers continue that trend and are about us uncomplicated as you could wish for. As with most modern analogue equipment, surfacemount technology is used to keep the manufacturing cost down and to improve reliability — something that's further augmented by the use of automated computer testing as well as the necessary human listening tests.
There are four mixers in the E series. The E6, E8 and E12 are identical apart from the number of mono mic channels each offers (six, eight and twelve respectively). The ES, on the other hand, offers four mono channels and 10 stereo channels — that's 24 channel inputs in total. All the mixers share the same styling, with curved moulded end cheeks, but behind the hi-tech manufacturing techniques lie very conventional mixers stripped of all unnecessary frills. I had the E12 for review, which has 12 mono mic/line channels and two stereo line-only channels. Insert points are fitted to the mono channels and to the main stereo outputs, but not to the stereo input channels. Similarly, there are no direct channel outputs and, though there are two aux send controls and two aux send outputs, there are no dedicated aux returns — you have to use a spare stereo input channel (or a pair of mono channels) for returning a stereo effects unit to the mix.
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The chassis is fabricated from sheet steel, with a recessed underside that accommodates the mains connection. Mains comes in directly — not via an external PSU. The front edge of the console has a rounded profile for more ergonomic (less painful!) access to the long-throw faders and, other than the mains power connector, all the sockets are on the top panel where they are easy to get at. The layout of this mixer is slightly on the spacious side, making it slightly larger than some of its rivals, and bright colours are used to mark the various control knob functions. All the legending is clearly screened in black on the silver control surface, making the control functions easy to read — something that will be appreciated when operating in subdued lighting conditions.
Channel Hopping
Each of the mono channels features a balanced mic input on an XLR connector as well as a balanced quarter-inch line input jack. Both feed the same input amplifier and there's no mic/line switching, so you need to unplug anything connected to the mic input before using the line input and vice versa. Phantom power (a full 48V) is applied to the mic inputs via a button in the master section, and this is equipped with a red status LED to show when the phantom power is on. The noise spec of the mic amps is a healthy -128dBu equivalent input noise (20Hz to 22kHz), but the designers seem to have resisted the current trend to provide a very high audio bandwidth — the specified response is from 20Hz to 20kHz ±0.5dB.
The channel (and stereo output) insert points are on TRS jacks, allowing processors or effects to be connected to individual channels or applied to the whole stereo mix. Directly below the input connectors are the Gain trim controls and these set the preamp gain to optimise the input signal level to the mixer's internal circuitry. On the mic inputs, up to 60dB of gain is available, while the stereo line inputs offer up to 20dB of gain.
Unusually for mixers in this market, the E series offers long-throw 100mm faders.Photo: Mark Ewing
From the preamp, the signal passes through the insert point and into the three-band equaliser (two bands only on the stereo channels) where the high and low sections are conventional shelving filters and the mid-range has a fixed bandwidth (Q=1.5), but is sweepable from 140Hz to 3kHz. All three bands have a ±15dB range with centre detents on the gain controls to allow for accurate centring — a necessary feature given that there is no EQ bypass switch. The HF and LF controls shelve at 12kHz and 60Hz respectively.
Only two aux sends are fitted, but it is possible to switch aux one and aux two independently to pre-fade (for foldback) or post-fade (for sending to effects) by means of two global status buttons in the master section. Pan is signified by a bright yellow control cap and works conventionally by changing the ratio of signal feeding the left and right busses. As is usual, the stereo channels have Balance rather than Pan controls. That leaves a Solo and a Mute button for each channel, plus a peak LED that warns if the input gain trim control is set too high. Unlike some simpler systems, the peak circuitry used here monitors both the input and output to the EQ section, as well as the fader output, and in effect regards whichever is the highest. This is a good plan, as any dangerously high levels caused by excessive EQ boost will register.
Solo & Master Section
Solo works in PFL (pre-fade listen) mode, where it routes the pre-fader signal of the soloed channel to the monitor outs and headphone outs, at the same time overriding all the other channels feeding those outputs. At the same time, the PFL signal level appears on the meters, making it easy to set up individual channel gain controls. The main stereo output is, of course, unaffected by the use of the Solo switch, but as there's no PFL master level control you may be greeted by an unexpectedly loud monitor output when soloing a signal, especially if you've set the mix up with the channel fader fairly well down, as the PFL level is equivalent to the channel fader being right up in its +10dB position. Both the solo and mute buttons are latching, so a red Solo LED is fitted to the master section to warn that one or more solo buttons are depressed.
While the E6 and E8 simply have reduced numbers of mono channels in comparison to the E12, the ES (shown) increases the number of stereo channels to 10 with only four mono channels.Photo: Mark Ewing
The master section of this mixer is as straightforward as I've seen in a long time, with phono ins and outs for a stereo tape machine joining the main outputs (XLR), the aux outs and the control-room monitor outs. Two buttons lower down in the section relate to the way the tape connections are monitored, one allowing two-track playback to be switched to the monitor output instead of the usual mix, and the other allowing the two-track output to be added to the main stereo mix — something you might want to do when playing CD or tape backing tracks. However, there's no volume control for this input so you need to have the ability to adjust the tape playback level at source.
The headphone output is next to the Phantom Power switch and there are separate level controls for the monitor output and the phones. That leaves the aux pre/post switches which were mentioned earlier, the Power and Solo LEDs and a pair of 10-section LED level meters split into green, yellow and red sections.
On The Session
Tested with a capacitor microphone, the mixer turned in a very quiet performance, though it's also perfectly quiet enough to use with decent dynamic microphones. The overall impression was of a clean and generally transparent sound, though the EQ section has to be used with care. The HF and LF controls are ideal for adding presence to a sound or for general warming, provided that they are applied in moderation, though I felt the mid-range control had too high a Q value to be used in most boosting applications. It works fine as a cut EQ, and in most cases that's the way I'd use it, but these days it's quite possible to design an EQ that has a lower Q in boost mode than in cut mode, and where there is no separate Q control this approach is perhaps the best compromise. As it is, applying any mid-range boost to a vocal track tends to make it sound unacceptably honky or boxy.
For serious use, I felt hampered by the lack of an EQ bypass button, and I also felt the lack of any dedicated aux returns was pushing economy a little too far. I would also have liked to see at least a variable PFL level control, if not switchable PFL/SIP (solo in place) monitoring, but on the plus side the Spirit E12 is extremely easy to use, with no distracting gimmicks.
Given that the mixer works well within its design brief, we come onto the question of who needs it? Certainly it is an ideal little mixer for simple live performance or live recording directly to two-track, though in the studio the lack of direct channel outputs limits its usefulness at the tracking stage. Nevertheless, it would be well suited for mixing the outputs of a soundcard with those from external MIDI synths and, by using one of the sends in pre-fade mode, it would be possible to route a microphone directly to the soundcard input via one of the aux sends. On the other hand, you could argue that it has more mic inputs than you'd need in this application, which leaves me feeling that what we're dealing with here is a mixer designed primarily for live use, where its suitability for recording is secondary.
The Spirit E12 is a solidly built little mixer that performs well within its design brief, although it is clearly the result of a certain amount of corner cutting. Naturally, every piece of studio equipment has to be tailored to its projected selling price, none more so than mixers, but having just two aux sends, no direct outputs, no PFL master level control, no EQ bypass switch and no dedicated aux returns may be enough to discourage some potential buyers, especially now that the market is literally swamped with perfectly competent analogue mixers of all shapes and sizes at rock-bottom UK prices. Certainly the Spirit E12 does have studio applications, but for my money it's best suited to live use, where it's lack of frills, robust build and clearly set-out controls could win it a lot of friends.
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E6, £252.63; E8, £276.13; E12, £346.63; ES, £381.88. Prices include VAT.
Soundcraft +44 (0)1707 665000.