Allen & Heath GS1

Paul White checks out what must be one of the smallest 8‑buss recording consoles around, which sports MIDI muting and MIDI machine control and still maintains a very affordabe price tag.

Allen and Heath's new 8‑buss console costs about the same as the VAT on my own recording desk — and my desk doesn't even have the GS1's MIDI muting or MIDI Machine Control! The GS1's spec also squares up well alongside most other mid‑market consoles, with low noise and a 30kHz audio bandwidth, so what's going on — surely this isn't possible? OK, they've had to make some compromises — but the GS1 still has full‑length Alps faders, three‑band EQ with sweep mid on all the main mono input channels, two‑band EQ on the four stereo channels, four stereo aux returns, and three Aux send controls routable to five Aux busses. Both the mono and stereo channels have full 8‑track routing, and all eight mono inputs are mic/line switchable, with global phantom power and insert points. You also get master stereo insert points, while the channel inserts double as direct channel outputs. On the face of it, whatever they've taken out, they've certainly left a lot in!

The GS1's mic inputs are on balanced XLRs, the tape connections are on unbalanced phonos and the remaining signal connections are on unbalanced jacks. MIDI In, Out and Thru sockets are provided on the back panel, alongside a DIN socket which connects to the external power supply. All this, plus MIDI mute automation, comes in a package not bigger (or much thicker) than a tea tray. All that's really missing are Group faders and Group inserts, so if you want to change the level going to tape, you have to do it by moving your input faders. And on a console with only 12 faders, that isn't such a big deal.

Features

In essence, then, the GS1 is a miniature, in‑line mixing console with most of the facilities you'd expect from a conventional mixer, though you don't get features such as assignable EQ, and the Tape Return has only Volume and Pan controls. Even so, you can still globally assign Aux 1 to the Tape Returns (when it flips from post‑fade to pre‑fade) allowing it to be used to set up foldback mixes based on the off‑tape signals.

As is customary, the Tape Returns can double as extra line inputs when you mix, and a Mixdown input flip switch is provided on each of the eight mono channels so that this can be achieved without the need to repatch. If you count the stereo inputs and returns as two channels each, that means you can route a maximum of 32 signals into the GS1 at mixdown, and even though the master section is a little basic, you still get the option to monitor either the L,R mix, the stereo tape return or Aux 1.

The GS1's MIDI muting is based on the same FET switching system used in the more up‑market Allen and Heath consoles, and because it employs soft switching, there are no clicks or glitches, even if you mute or unmute when a signal is present. The mutes operate via the Channel On buttons, and one is provided for each of the mono and stereo input channels, though not for the Tape returns or Effects returns. A green LED shows when a channel is on. No on‑board mute sequencer is provided — you have to use the MIDI muting with an external MIDI sequencer, but operation is very straightforward, and any sequencer with decent editing facilities will work. The mute data is preset at MIDI channel 16.

In addition to the MIDI muting, there's also a Function Key section configured for MIDI Machine Control, but this may also be used to recall stored mute snapshots or to learn and replay other MIDI information. In MMC mode, the buttons may be used to access the conventional transport controls of any MMC‑compatible multitrack, as well as to set and search to locate points, but in the interest of avoiding tragic accidents at mixdown, no MMC Record button is provided!

The Channels

The two types of input strip are identified with white fader caps for the mono channels and red caps for the stereo channels, which, at first glance, could lead you to believe that the stereo channels are in fact groups. Once you've realised they're not, everything is immediately obvious. While the mic channels kick off with a gain trim control and a Mic/Line switch, the stereo channels have a simple Lo and Hi gain selector for ‑10dBV or +4dBu operation, though both types of channel have a PFL button which not only solos the channel signal, but also puts the level up on the meters to help you optimise the input level. The PFL buttons are non‑latching and a red LED comes on in the master section to remind you that you are soloing a channel.

A very neat touch is that when the mono channels are switched to 'Line', the XLR mic input socket may be used as a balanced line input, providing nothing is plugged into the jack input. This is achieved by switching a 30dB pad into the mic input when 'Line' is selected. On the stereo channels, if only the left input is used, the signal appears on both the left and right sides, providing a convenient way of achieving mono operation.

The low and high EQ shelves at 80Hz and 12kHz respectively, and is the same on all channels, though the mono channels also have swept mids which cover the 300Hz‑12kHz frequency range. The eight mono channels include a Mixdown button, which simply swaps the line input and tape return sources, so that when you come to mix, the tape signal is routed through the main channel with the benefit of EQ.

In most other respects, the control layout on both types of channel is similar, with Aux 1 providing either a post‑fade send to the channel or a pre‑fade send to the monitor signal path, depending on the position of the global Aux/Cue switch in the master section. The remaining two sends are fixed as post‑fade/main input channel for use as effects sends, and are switchable (as a pair, unfortunately) between Aux busses 2,4 or 3,5.

The Tape Return section has a pan control and a level control, both on knobs, and the main input channel also has a pan control, which works in conjunction with the routing buttons to send the input channel signal to the desired group output buss. On the stereo channels, there's no need for tape returns, so the pan and level controls function as a stereo effects return input. In the context of a stereo channel, the pan control functions as a left/right balance control.

The PFL button is right next to the channel Pan control, and a little further down is the Channel On button, the latter's green status LED being linked to the MIDI muting system. The usual arrangement of routing buttons lies alongside the full‑length Alps faders, and the whole thing is nicely finished off by a wide armrest covered in soft rubber. The reason the armrest is so generous is that you can replace it with the optional meter bridge if you want to mount the mixer in a case or on a wall.

Master

The master section occupies its traditional place to the right of the front panel and is reassuringly simple — there are no bizarre routing tricks to compensate for compromises elsewhere in the system. LED‑ladder VU meters monitor the stereo output of the console, and a nice touch is that these can be switched to conform to either ‑10dBV or +4dBu operating levels. If a PFL button is pressed, the pre‑fader channel signal level is displayed on the meter.

Directly below the meters are the five master level controls for the five aux send busses. Also located here is the global Aux/Cue switch, which moves Aux 1 from the channel signal path (post‑fade) to the Tape Return path (pre‑fade). The headphone output is switchable from the main stereo output to the Foldback output (Aux 1) and a separate switch allows the main monitor output to be muted.

In addition to all the above, you get a couple of buttons to select the monitor feed as the Left/Right mix, the Aux 1 foldback mix or the stereo tape return, a Monitor Level control, and a single stereo fader to control the main output level.

MIDI

All that remains to explore is the MIDI/Mute Automation section, which has four modes: MMC, Patch, MIDI and Learn. To use the Mute Automation in its simplest form, you select Patch mode, press the Learn button, and then use each of the six function keys to store a snapshot of the mixer's mute settings. As long as you remain in Patch mode, pressing the appropriate function key will recall the mute snapshot you stored and send MIDI program change information at the same time. Alternatively, you can call up your six snapshots using MIDI program change commands from an external sequencer.

For a simple job, that may be enough to save the day, but once you've got a taste for automation, you'll probably want to get a bit more involved, in which case you'll need to use an external sequencer to store and edit your mute data. Whenever a Mute button is pressed on the GS1, MIDI Note On/Off and velocity information is output on MIDI channel 16. The system interprets high note velocities as Mute Ons and low velocities as Mute Offs. Sending this mute data back to the GS1 will cause the mutes to operate. What happens if you start playback in the middle of a sequence depends on how intelligently your sequencer 'looks back' at preceding Note information. Using programmed mutes, it is possible to do basic level and EQ automation by feeding the same signal into two channels with different settings, then using the mutes to switch between channels.

In MMC mode, the GS1 sends out MIDI Sysex commands corresponding to the MIDI Machine Control functions for Play, Stop, Fast Forward, Rewind, Set Locate and Locate. If you have a tape machine or sequencer that responds to these, you may never have to leave your seat during a mixing session. Sequencer mute control may be used at the same time as MMC, though direct snapshot recall from the function keys isn't practical, as you'd have to keep switching modes.

Finally, in MIDI mode, you can send MIDI messages to the GS1 and store them so that they can be sent back out whenever one of the function keys is pressed. Obviously, there must be a limit to the length of the message that can be stored, so if you try to store a total SysEx dump from one of your synths, I don't think you'll have a lot of success, but for storing simple triggers for samples, or other short messages such as patch changes, it works fine. A nice touch is that you can store one message for a key press and another for the key release, which allows you to control note length, for example, directly from the function keys.

In Use

The first thing you notice about the GS1 is that most of its features are delightfully conventional, so the learning curve is as near flat as you can reasonably expect. The use of phonos for the multitrack and stereo tape connections, as well as the monitor output, might be seen by some as rather unprofessional, but most analogue budget multitracks use phonos, pretty much all cassette and DAT machines use phonos, and the hi‑fi amp you'll most likely be using for monitoring will also have phono inputs. In practice, this means you can use cheap, ready‑made phono hi‑fi leads to wire up most of your system, and if you do have a digital multitrack with jack inputs, you can always buy 16 phono‑to‑jack adaptors.

Where I'm less convinced about the use of phonos is in location recording. Phonos are absolutely fine if you're going to plug them in and leave them alone, but they aren't designed to be plugged and unplugged on a regular basis. Bearing this in mind, if location recording is high on your list of priorities, I'd recommend casing up the mixer and the multitrack so the wiring can be left intact, or failing that, packaging the mixer with a patchbay or multicore connection system.

The main operating compromises are the lack of Group faders and the fact that the Aux Sends are switched from groups 2,3 to 4,5 in pairs rather than individually. What this means is that if you're mixing six drum mics to two tape tracks, you have to move all six faders up or down to get the to‑tape level right. This is a bit of a nuisance, and fitting a single Group rotary level control to each of the mono channel strips would have solved the problem without taking up too much space. Even so, in most real‑life situations, the adopted arrangement isn't likely to be a major irritation.

The MIDI side of the system is surprisingly simple, and the only thing that might make life more difficult is if your sequencer doesn't allow you to edit the recorded data very easily — as may be the case with some older hardware sequencers. Most of the current computer sequencing packages, on the other hand, are quite 'mute friendly' so you should have no trouble at all. It's worth reiterating that the GS1 only handles mute data on Channel 16, but again, I don't see this as an insurmountable problem.

On the MMC front, the GS1 works just like any other remote control, but if you want to use any of its MIDI features at the same time as your MIDI keyboard, you'll need some kind of MIDI merge box, as the GS1 has no internal MIDI merge facility.

Perhaps most important is the way the GS1 sounds. It's an often overlooked fact that the shorter signal path of a small mixer such as this makes it easier for the designer to provide a very clean signal route from input to tape. However, the real purists can use the channel insert sends to go directly to tape, which bypasses the mix busses and the group output amplification stage. A significant point is that the mixer has a 30kHz audio bandwidth, and although this is well above the cutoff point of human hearing, it's widely recognised that the fast transient response of high‑bandwidth circuitry helps preserve a transparent, detailed sound, possibly because of better phase linearity.

Tests confirmed that the GS1 was electrically very quiet, both via the mic and line inputs. Even with the meters driven firmly up against their upper limits, no distortion was evident (from which I conclude that the mixer has plenty of headroom), and to get even the slightest whiff of crosstalk or leakage through the mutes, you have to turn the monitor gain so high that you'd never dare turn the signal on, for fear of wrecking both your speakers and your ears! And yes, the mutes are quiet — no clicks were evident, no matter what material was being played at the time.

The GS1's EQ also turned out to be a pleasant surprise, and though there are no EQ bypass buttons, the controls are centre detented. On a larger console, the lack of EQ bypass would be a major flaw, but when you consider just what Allen and Heath have managed to cram into this little desk, it would be petty to complain. If anything, I would have liked the mid EQ to sweep a little lower, ideally down to 150Hz, but the actual tonality of the EQ is very sweet, and the plus or minus 14dB range on offer is far more than you would normally use. Using the EQ subtly, you can add bottom or top to a track and still leave it sounding quite natural, without boominess or harshness. Similarly, the mid control is reasonably warm, yet still focused enough to let you home in on trouble spots.

Summary

You can't make a desk this small and to this price without cutting some corners, but I'm happy to say that none of the compromises affect this desk's sound quality in any way, and most have very little adverse effect on its usability. So, if you buy a GS1, apart from regaining most of your room space, you get most of what you'd expect on an 8‑buss, in‑line mixing console, but without Group faders, EQ bypass, individual aux send buss switching (they have to be switched as a pair) or a separate level control for the headphones. What you do get is exceptionally good sound quality, a nice‑sounding EQ, and very simple MIDI muting, plus the other MIDI function key features, including MMC.

Finally, then, who's going to buy the GS1? Obviously, it's going to appeal to those 8‑track users who are short of money, space or both, but there are enough neat features to encourage a lot of people to buy the desk for its convenience and its sound quality. Because there are 32 possible inputs on mixdown, even those using lots of effects and MIDI instruments shouldn't find it too limiting, and the fact that you can expand the mixer further is also appealing. I only hope that Allen and Heath will consider making a stereo expander module. This would be excellent for MIDI users, as it would add another 32 inputs in less than a foot of space, as well as making the mixer better suited to 16‑track work.

You've probably gathered by now that I like the GS1. It does have its limitations, but none of them can be considered as more than a minor irritant, and I think that Allen and Heath have finally beaten their Harman team‑mates at Soundcraft by coming up with cutest, most desirable budget recording mixer currently on the market. For how long they maintain that position is, of course, another matter, but right now, if you're after a compact mixer that will enable you to make high‑quality 8‑track recordings without tying you up in knots (either mental or financial), you won't go far wrong with the GS1. For those who say that our conclusions sometimes sit on the fence too much for their liking, I'll spell it out — go and buy one, there's currently no competition!