Why High-Performance Cars?

Simply because the design teams at Aston Martin*, Bentley*, Rolls Royce*, and other leading manufacturers are skilled at introducing innovative technological advancements while simultaneously maintaining the feel, essence, and intangible qualities of their cherished brands. And in essence, that’s the challenge we too faced when creating the M32 LIVE console.

So in order to create a future-forward design that took the Midas legacy even further, we enlisted the help of Rajesh Kutty, a leading industrial designer known for his work with celebrated luxury auto manufacturers such as Bentley, etc.

Kutty started by examining the design elements that have made Midas consoles so highly sought after – from the straightforward, logical layout to the unparalleled usability and ergonomics. These are characteristics that live sound engineers around the world have come to rely on, and are key aspects of the Midas legacy.

Midas is the Epitome of Excellence

In 2013, Midas approached me to create a new design language for Midas and with it a new mixing console. Having designed for Bentley, I am intimately familiar with the challenge of transforming a brand while retaining the precious heritage – in this case the 40 year old iconic British mixing console brand Midas.

Representing the pinnacle of its industry, Midas is the Epitome of Excellence. When it comes to ergonomics, performance and style, the aspects of a high-performance luxury car equally apply to a high-end mixing console. I was given a blank sheet of paper for my choice of materials. This meant considering lightweight materials such as carbon fibre and aluminum, while using a sophisticated steel construction, for high-impact structural areas.

High attention was paid to the tactile elements such as fader knobs and the illumination to work under all background conditions.

Legendary Midas Sound Quality

While the Midas M32 LIVE design, styling, and construction will surely turn a lot of heads, it’s the sound that matters most to engineers and performing artists. And that’s where M32 LIVE shines even brighter – as the latest in a long line of pristine-sounding Midas consoles, it descends from a celebrated lineage that literally set the standard in electrical design and sound quality. Ever since Midas consoles first found fame 40 years ago with acts like Billy Joel, Yes, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and others, the Midas legacy has always been about uncompromising quality and the ultimate in sound reproduction.

Backing the analogue input section are audiophile Cirrus Logic multi-channel 192 kHz capable A/D converters, which boast a 114 dB dynamic range, ensuring impressively low distortion and low noise performance.

Creating Sonic Landscapes

The Midas preamplifier design eliminates typical imbalances of gain-setting stages, thereby improving the common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) and harmonic distortion to an almost immeasurable level. The constant high-frequency bandwidth topology assures excellent stability, RF rejection and noise performance at all gain levels, contributing to its transparent, open and dynamic sound. But it doesn’t end there, over the years many mix engineers have found that this robust and overload-tolerant design takes on a whole new dimension of sound when driven hard, the pristine audiophile reproduction giving way to just the right combination of harmonics, a warm and organic sound heard by millions of concertgoers and recorded for posterity on countless live albums over the years.

What Makes the M32 LIVE Possible is – Everything

Whether you come from an analogue mixing background, or are accustomed to using other digital consoles, your first experience with M32 LIVE has been engineered to be intuitive, fluid and straightforward.

The brilliance of the M32 LIVE is its simplicity and workflow. Tactile controls allow smooth adjustments to critical elements as the mix progresses while the TFT screen keeps you informed every step of the way. This integration of tactile controls, motorised faders and the array of LCD and TFT displays makes the M32 LIVE experience the premiere solution for Live Sound, Broadcast, Studio Recording and Post Production applications.

M32 LIVE changes the game by completely rethinking what is possible in a digital mixer. An intuitive workflow coupled with a fully interactive user interface ensures immediate familiarity and instills confidence. Advanced engineering and meticulous design deliver stellar sonic performance – changing the game entirely.

Klark Teknik DN32-LIVE

The DN32-LIVE SD/SDHC and USB 2.0 Expansion Module for Midas M32 and Behringer X32 mixers provides 32-channel bidirectional audio I/O via USB 2.0 for both live performance and studio recording, plus comprehensive remote operation of your DAW via HUI/Mackie Control emulation. Dual SD/SDHC slots allow fully independent recording/playback of up to 32 channels of uncompressed WAV files in consistent sessions – to capacity of the SD cards. Now even without a computer, you can capture multichannel live or session tracks, perform virtual sound checks, add backing tracks, set and manipulate markers, and enjoy full remote operation via PC, Android* or iPad* apps, and X-TOUCH control surfaces.

Your “Mind-to-Sound” Interface

M32 LIVE is your “mind-to-sound” interface – the intersection of creativity and production.

Whether you’re accustomed to digital mixers or not, the M32 LIVE’s intuitive user interface offers a fluid mixing experience that instantly feels like home.

From the first moments of use, the workflow unfolds in a way that strips away obstacles, distractions, and hesitation.

Channel Strip

The M32 LIVE Channel Strip puts the most important channel processing parameters into one section so that no matter which channel you are working on, the controls are always the same.

This highly-efficient layout stems from Midas decades of console design and input from our users. Optimized control illumination ensures a clear indication of levels or status from any viewing angle.

Illuminated rotary encoders and switches give you control of preamp settings, frequency shelving, dual dynamics sections, as well as multi-mode fully parametric EQ, bus sends, main, mono and stereo panning.

7″ Main Display

M32 LIVE’s 7″ day-viewable color TFT (Thin-Film Transistor) display shows the setting parameters you need when you need them.

Selected for its high-contrast performance and outdoor visibility, TFT is ideal for concert and open air festival venues. Flanked by high-precision, context-sensitive tactile encoders, the screen comes to life and immediately reports in high definition all adjustments applied to a wide range of parameters.

Intelligent design puts control of vital functions such as Effects, Metering, Routing and much more 1 or 2 button presses away.

Sends On Fader

M32 LIVE brings the convenience of digital mixing to your Aux and output bus mixes too, thanks to its integrated Sends on Fader feature. This incredible function allows you to build powerful, dedicated sub-mixes for monitor, secondary zone feeds, and much more – all without affecting the front of house mix or levels.

The M32 LIVE allows you to send your choice of signals to any Aux or output bus and then dial in the perfect mix via the channel faders.

The console remembers where you set the faders and instantly recalls them when you select a bus for quick adjustments.

DCA Groups

DCA (Digitally Controlled Amplifier) groups allow control over several signals at once without actually mixing them into a subgroup bus. M32 LIVE’s 8 DCA groups let you control multiple signals via a single fader, such as the entire drum mix, the horn section, or the backup vocalists, etc.

DCA control affects the FOH mix, while allowing the individual buses to remain unchanged. The result is a customizable workflow that provides maximum flexibility, but still allows individual buses and subgroups to serve the purpose they were intended for, such as zone sends, broadcast feeds, etc.

View Function

Across the M32 LIVE you’ll find 11 strategically placed View buttons associated with various functions. These buttons enable immediate access to information about that specific function.

For instance, if you press the View button in the Equaliser section, information for that channel’s EQ is instantly shown on the main display, providing in-depth editing of all related parameters.

This direct access to visual fine-tuning gives the engineer a level of control previously available only on consoles costing exponentially more.

Assign Section

While some digital consoles offer a few user-definable controls, M32 LIVE’s Assign section sets a new standard by providing a total of 36 fully customizable controls on three separate layers.

As with channels and buses, individual Scribble Strips are provided for immediate identification. Buttons can be defined to toggle parameters on/off, adjust timing of effects by tapping, or jump to specific screen views.

Rotary encoders with LED collars can be assigned to specific channel parameters, or to additional parameters in the Dynamics section relevant to the current channel selection.

“Acoustic Integration” – the Live Sound Revolution

Legendary 40-year old British company Turbosound, famous for producing some of the world’s best speaker systems, have teamed up with Midas to seamlessly integrate mixer and speaker systems. We call it “Acoustic Integration”.

The M32 LIVE’s ULTRANET bus allows streaming up to 16 channels of pristine digital audio to an array of Turbosound iQ speakers – all on a single CAT5 cable, along with control data to set sound presets remotely.

Furthermore, the iQ Series features “True Physical Modeling” of some of the most popular speakers which can be easily remote controlled via the M32 LIVE, allowing the sound engineer to apply different speaker models in real time from the comfort of the mixing desk.

“Acoustic Integration” is the next live sound revolution.

100-Band RTA for all Channel/Bus EQs

The M32 LIVE includes a 100-band Real Time Analyser (RTA) with full bar and spectrograph views on the M32-EDIT control application. This high-resolution RTA displays the audio energy distribution in 100 frequency bands over time – capturing a sonogram window of a full 10 seconds.

You can switch between the large RTA view to display any available signal at full screen resolution, or the combined view, which displays the RTA view above each of the channel and bus EQ curves.

This feature lets you see the results of your filtering choices in the audio spectrum directly. Additionally, the RTA can be displayed on top of the 31-band graphic EQs in the FX rack.

Monitoring and controlling frequencies has never been easier!

16 Breathtaking FX “Plug-Ins” Based on True Physical Modeling

We’ve added 16 breathtaking FX “Plug-Ins” to the M32 LIVE, giving you access to a total of 50+ effects that would otherwise cost tens of thousands of dollars in hardware.

This new generation of high-end FX “Plug-Ins” is based on True Physical Modeling of classic audio hardware. We essentially “rebuilt” classic analogue gear in the digital domain and included models of legendary processors such as Urei’s 1176*, Teletronix LA-2A* and Fairchild 670* compressors as well as the legendary Pultec* EQP-1a and EQ5 equalisers etc. We also added a cutting-edge 5-band multiband compressor.

Last but not least, the M32 LIVE can now run 4 studio-quality stereo reverbs together with 8 channels of 31-band graphic EQ. This allows you to replace your old outboard gear with a fully recallable onboard solution.