Drawing on more than a decade of experience in the field of digital audio mixing, the Soundcraft® Si Expression exploits some of the newest DSP, component technology and manufacturing techniques to deliver our most powerful cost effective digital console ever! Each console in the range is identical in its feature set so your only choice is how many faders and local mic amps you want. With a range covering the super portable 19″ rack mount Expression 1 to the mighty Si Expression 3 with its 30+2 faders and 32 mic/line inputs there is a model to meet all needs.
Taking the Si Expression 2 as a typical example, it features 24 recallable mic pre amps (32 on Si Expression 3 and 16 on Si Expression 1) plus 4 line inputs, 4 internal stereo FX returns, AES in, and a 64×64 expansion slot offering more than enough scope to use every one of the 66 input processing channels. Every input processing channel has dedicated processing for high pass filter, input delay, gate, compressor and four band EQ whilst keeping it under control is a comprehensive automation system augmented with four mute groups and FaderGlow™ to light the way so you are never lost.
All Si Expression consoles have busses, output processing and connectivity to match the versatility of the inputs; the 14 aux/group mixes can be configured as 14 mono mixes, 8 mono plus 6 stereo mixes or almost anything in between, whilst the 4 matrix mixes can be mono or stereo as needed. The bus and matrix mixes are complemented with four more mix busses dedicated to the internal Lexicon FX processors all in addition to the left, right and centre busses. Each bus mix features a compressor, 4 band EQ, BSS graphic EQ and delay always available all of the time. Output connectivity is comprehensive with all models featuring 16 balanced line outputs, headphone monitor out, AES out and of course the 64×64 option slot.
To complement the channel and bus processing all Si Expression consoles integrate four stereo Lexicon FX processors based on the MX400 providing a wealth of sounds, user adjustable parameters and dedicated tap-tempo keys. As the FX are hardware based, use of all the effects, even on the most demanding programmes does not affect other processing in any way and all dynamics, EQs, filters, delays, and GEQs remain available regardless what you are doing.
Flexible onboard and expansion I/O options ensure your Si Expression integrates effortlessly with other system components utilising any of the Si series option cards including AES, Firewire/USB/ADAT*1, AVIOM™, CobraNet™, BSS Digital Audio Bus (BLU Link)*1, Dante™*1 CAT5 or optical MADI. The MADI card, as well as being an interface to multi-track recording systems or plug-in systems like Waves, enables linking the Si Expression to any of the Soundcraft or Studer stageboxes to extend the I/O power and flexibility. Adding a stagebox to an Si Expression actually increases the number of channels you can mix at once not just how many inputs you have available to choose from! It is said ʽPower is nothing without controlʼ and here the Si Expression excels with a comprehensive but ‘simple to use’ control surface incorporating a dedicated control for every parameter, a row of global mode encoders and colour touch screen ensuring operation is quick and easy.
As you would expect from any Soundcraft digital mixer the facilities are extensive and include legendary audio quality courtesy of the latest generation EMMA™ DSP processor, the same DSP platform that has helped propel previous Soundcraft Si series consoles to fame. All this power united with reliability, flexibility and usability puts the Si Expression in a class of its own.
*1 Expected spring/summer 2013
Si Expression Highlights
• D.O.G.S. (Direct Out Gain Stabiliser) – Prevents manual change of a mic gain control affecting direct out levels, perfect when 2 consoles share a stagebox or when recording the channel direct outputs.
• Security Lockout – Lock the whole console or just selected elements, manage the security with the users and profile settings.
• Assignable Fader Layers – Customise each of the four fader layer pages to meet your needs or add/insert faders to accommodate that additional mic that was not in the patch list!
• Copy & Paste – Copy whole channels, busses, mixes, Lexicon™ effects, a single part such as the EQ or multiple parts like the channel gate and compressor.
• TOTEM™ – The One Touch Easy Mix; press a single key to mix to an AUX, FX or Matrix bus, the surface and monitoring instantly reconfigure to allow instant mixing to your chosen bus on the faders.
• BSS® GEQ – With a BSS GEQ on every bus there is never any need to assign from a pool of resources and you will never ‘run out’ of processing.
• 1 Control = 1 Function – With each control dedicated to a given function there is never any ‘layering’ of controls or navigating through screens; this allows the Si Expression controls to be labelled on the surface just as they would have been on an analogue mixer.
• Global Mode Controls – A row of rotary controls above each fader assignable at the touch of a button to be GAIN, PAN or HPF for all of the inputs allowing instant access to the core functions.
• Soundcraft FaderGlow® – Illuminates the fader slots according to function with clearly defined colours for FX, Stereo, Linked Mono, GEQ, POST Fade Aux, PRE Fade Aux; you’ll never be lost again!
• Instant Access Keys – Dedicated keys on the front panel for STORE, RECALL, NEXT, MUTE 1-4, TAP TEMPO and more negate the need to dive into screen & context menus.
• Function Focus – Whenever a control is moved or SELect key pressed the screen displays information about the channel identifying the absolute value of the controls and the channel name, number etc…
• Everything Everywhere – All channels and busses have a full complement of processing, nothing to assign or configure.
Key Features
24 (32 – Si Expression 3, 16 – Si Expression 1) mono mic inputs
4 line inputs
Colour touch screen interface
66 channels to mix possible
Pre/Post selection per input per bus
AES in and out
Global mode encoders
Soundcraft FaderGlow™
GEQ on every bus
20 sub-group / aux busses
4 FX busses
8 Matrix busses
LR and C Mix busses
4 Stereo Lexicon Effects engines
Delay on inputs and outputs
4 Mute Groups
Freely assignable insert loops
Harman HiQnet integration
64×64 channel option card slot
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