Soundcraft Ui24R 24-channel Digital Mixer/USB Multi-Track Recorder with Wireless Control

Product Information

I've had this mixer for 6 months and I have used it on a lot of large & medium sized functions, smaller pub & bar gigs, and even a small multi-band festival. I can happily say it's fantastic and it's handled every event seamlessly and without any problems. A matrix can be set up to combine the outputs from aux, subgroup and main L-R busses and route them to physical outputs, thus creating an entirely separate group mix that can have DSP applied just like an aux group. It’s easy to create and manage matrix groups, as they replace any aux and are controlled in much the same way — you press and hold any aux master label and select ‘Switch to matrix’ from the pop-up list that appears. Once connected, the control surface is displayed and is clearly laid out and nicely intuitive, especially if you’ve ever spent even a short time with a digital mixer. The controls all work smoothly on both touch and mouse commands, and I didn’t notice any kind of lag or catch-up when using a laptop and an iPhone at the same time. It’s also possible, using a touchscreen, to move multiple faders quite smoothly provided you can get one finger on one fader — it’s not designed to allow swiping at a bunch of faders with the side of your hand as in the old-school analogue days when subgroups were only for the wealthy or adventurous.

Built-in dual-band Wi-Fi eliminates the need for a router to provides a reliable connection to up to 10 mobile devices in mission critical situations Cascading enables you to connect two Ui24R systems via Ethernet to expand your mixing capability with a new 32x32 bi-directional audio bus. Add a second Ui24R to double your mic inputs or connect two Ui24R mixers and control two fully independent mixes, such as FOH and monitors, or FOH and streaming mixes. As is evident in all Soundcraft consoles, usability comes first… all mixers mix stuff… it’s just how they do it that sets them apart. The mixer section is interesting and impressive. There are an increasing number of these digital ‘stagebox’ mixers coming onto the market and — depending on your requirements of course — they are generally extremely convenient, being portable, easy to set up and operate, and have the ability to store settings, which is ideal for gigging bands and small-scale shows. The de-esser function is nicely integrated within the EQ screen, and the real-time RTA function can be called up on all inputs and outputs to show what’s going on in the signal path. There is also an ‘easy EQ’ option that offers a simple three-band, fixed-frequency, fixed-Q version, in case you don’t fancy getting in too deep.Your device connects directly to the Ui24R via a direct hotspot connection, much like your WIFi router at home but it works without any “internet” connection being connected to your Ui. Read any review or description of a Soundcraft mixer and someone will eventually refer to the ‘British EQ’ that is one of the hallmarks of this brand, and although I’d be hard put to define exactly what that means to me other than that I feel very comfortable using it, I can say that the EQ in the Ui24R is smooth, forgiving and as comprehensive as you’re likely to ever need in this type of mixer. The little handles or ‘blobs’ (the manual calls them “frequency balls”...) allow accurate setting of the curves with precise drag and pinch/splay movements even on my modest iPhone SE screen. I particularly like the slider controls and parameter values that appear alongside the curves, and the fact that the selected channel and master faders are still displayed when in the EQ screen. The only con I have found is that it would be nice to have a sub out that is linked to the master outs. I use an aux out for the sub which is controlled independently which is not ideal for my application. Apart from that it does more than I expected, is light and small for a desk with this many features. This classy all-in-one stagebox-cum-mixer combines some of Harman’s most highly regarded technology — to great success! The intent here is presumably to make use of touchscreens rather than mouse work, and there’s even an HDMI connector that allows direct cable link to a touchscreen — as large as you like — thereby providing a fully featured control surface without the need for wireless or wired Ethernet connection, and without adding to the ‘load’ on the Wi-Fi section, meaning it doesn’t count as one of your ‘10 a day’. This excellent facility shouts ‘studio’ at you straight away, and a Ui24R with a large multitouch screen really does represent a complete high-quality 22-channel recording setup requiring only the connection of a USB storage drive.

Sometimes I insert the effects into my DAW signal chain, specially for reverbs. They seem much more natural that the plugins I use, even being digital...Within the Edit tab lives all of the major processing objects that feature on the Ui24R system. Simply highlight your desired channel and press the edit tab to be greeted by your most powerful tool as an engineer... the 4-Band, fully parametric EQ with HP & LP filters. To complement the EQ power, there is a full 128-point Real Time analyser that will overlay the current frequency spectrum onto your EQ curve so that you can accurately visualise the tonal range of your selected instrument. Lexicon Reverb PreDelay: easily set the time before first surface reflections and simulate desired acoustic environments

There is a lot of flexibility offered by the internal patchbay, so much so that I haven't been able to make full use of it. The AD/DA converters are pristine. The UI16 had noticeable noise but the UI24R exceeds all my expectations on this. With the free v3.0 firmware update, the Soundcraft Ui24R has been enhanced with Cascading and a number of other significant new features.

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The only minor issue that I have is that my computer does not recognize any input above the first 8. I am using Linux/ALSA and this has probably something to do with my software setup, so not really a product shortfall. As for the wifi signal, I never used it remotely. It is physically connected to the network. The UI16 had an external router and I would probably use an external router as well in any "noisy" electronic environment. If you’ve seen one of the Ui24R launch videos, you’ll probably see the Soundcraft guy talking about the similarity of this product and the others in the Ui line (namely the Ui12 and the Ui16), and although they look about the same size and shape, he points out that this latest addition to the family doesn’t in fact have much in common with its siblings. The Ui24R is, apparently, a completely new product in terms of concept and design, and this is underlined by the assertion that “only the handles are the same” — which is, I think, a great introduction to this new mixer. The Ui24R is endowed with both subgroups and VCAs, which can be especially useful when mixing on a smaller screen where the number of channels in view is restricted. There’s a handy feature called View Groups that allows you to set up a number of instantly recallable custom views (like user-defined fader layers) and this can make mixing a live show much easier with fewer visible strips. It’s nice to have both groups and VCAs as they are useful in different ways, but both contribute to making the operator’s job easier and extending the amount of flexibility and control you have. Traditional mixers offer lots of functionality, but can only be controlled from the mix console position. The Ui24R surfaceless mixer combines the power and versatility of a large-format console with a compact design and complete Wi-Fi control. With Ui24R, you can finally have the features you need, plus the freedom to control your mixer from anywhere in the venue.