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Anyone ever use this board? What do you think of it. I got a chance to buy one with a roadcase for a wicked price. I planned on buying a board over the next couple months but I was looking at something else.

I used the original lx7 a fair amount a long time ago. It wasn't a super well maintained board but it was pretty typical Soundcraft. Solid, no major flaws, but not terribly exciting.

What are you planning on using the board for and how many channels is it?

That's the thing, it is a little big for what I'm doing. I just came across something a little more practice on the L&M deal center. It's a 20 channel rack mountable board with 4 aux sends and compression on the first 8 channels. It's a Yamaha mg206c.

I wouldn't buy either of those boards for recording. I haven't used that particular Yamaha, but I've used lots of that series and they're not great. Those compressors are borderline useless.

Using for a live band, should of states that sorry

Jef wrote:Soundcraft mixers have for a long time been the workhorse of the live sound reinforcement industry.

That might be stretching a little bit. Soundcraft was once one of several major players in substantial live sound consoles alongside Yamaha and Midas. If any one company dominated, for a long time Yamaha probably had the most substantial market share, but there was truly more than one brand that would have been seen anywhere and everywhere.

Somewhere shortly after 2000, when digital started to become the standard, Soundcraft consoles pretty much began a slow painful fall off the face of the earth. Only recently have they started showing back up in pro settings worthy of the brand.

I learned on Soundcraft consoles early on, both live and recording, so they always felt comfortable and familiar to me. That being said, since the early 90s, the quality of so many of their desks took a serious slide in quality. Like so many once great companies, they became more interested in courting the amateur/musician consumer as opposed to continuing to build on the quality and reputation they had achieved.

Hopefully with the new generation of digital consoles showing up more often, Soundcraft is back to being in top form again.

Malcolm Boyce wrote:That might be stretching a little bit. Soundcraft was once one of several major players in substantial live sound consoles alongside Yamaha and Midas. If any one company dominated, for a long time Yamaha probably had the most substantial market share, but there was truly more than one brand that would have been seen anywhere and everywhere.

Yeah, I guess I'm kinda showing my age a bit here... Late 70's thru to mid 90's, they were very close to the top of the food chain.
I should ammend my statement.. "Soundcraft mixers had for a long time been the workhorse of the live sound reinforcement industry."

Malcolm Boyce wrote:Somewhere shortly after 2000, when digital started to become the standard, Soundcraft consoles pretty much began a slow painful fall off the face of the earth. Only recently have they started showing back up in pro settings worthy of the brand.

Analog/digital = apples/oranges.

Malcolm Boyce wrote:...since the early 90s, the quality of so many of their desks took a serious slide in quality. Like so many once great companies, they became more interested in courting the amateur/musician consumer as opposed to continuing to build on the quality and reputation they had achieved.

Disagree. Although they did offer new models that expanded into that market, their higher-end models did not lose any quality.

Jef wrote:

Malcolm Boyce wrote:That might be stretching a little bit. Soundcraft was once one of several major players in substantial live sound consoles alongside Yamaha and Midas. If any one company dominated, for a long time Yamaha probably had the most substantial market share, but there was truly more than one brand that would have been seen anywhere and everywhere.

Yeah, I guess I'm kinda showing my age a bit here... Late 70's thru to mid 90's, they were very close to the top of the food chain.
I should ammend my statement.. "Soundcraft mixers had for a long time been the workhorse of the live sound reinforcement industry."

One of several "workhorses". Just to be clear, your original post seemed to infer a dominance of Soundcraft consoles in live sound. That is something that I have to disagree with. I recognize that in their heyday, Soundcraft would have been consistently in the top 5, and maybe top 3 in some circles, but to portray them in any light other than that to lesser experienced people would do a disservice. As well, until their more recent (digital) offerings, they have been almost non existent in newer installs, or touring systems for the better part of a decade.

Jef wrote:

Malcolm Boyce wrote:Somewhere shortly after 2000, when digital started to become the standard, Soundcraft consoles pretty much began a slow painful fall off the face of the earth. Only recently have they started showing back up in pro settings worthy of the brand.

Analog/digital = apples/oranges.

Not quite sure what you're getting at. All due respect, in case you haven't noticed, the live industry has overwhelmingly embraced the digital workflow. I can't tell you the last time I saw an analog desk come through on tour, and I'm dealing with rigs of a dozen inputs, up to 80 or 100 ins. Even a quick glance at Soundcraft's site shows where their business is headed, and it isn't analog. Soundcraft hasn't been a dominating force in consoles for a long while. They are finally playing a good game of catchup, but they are several years behind in the market.

Once we started seeing digital desks going into school auditoriums... Well... Things got obvious fast.

Jef wrote:

Malcolm Boyce wrote:...since the early 90s, the quality of so many of their desks took a serious slide in quality. Like so many once great companies, they became more interested in courting the amateur/musician consumer as opposed to continuing to build on the quality and reputation they had achieved.

Disagree. Although they did offer new models that expanded into that market, their higher-end models did not lose any quality.

That is certainly a matter of opinion. I like many Soundcraft consoles, but an awful lot I've ended up working on have been a disappointment VS my better experiences with the brand.