Midas M32

Name: Gates Midas M32
Brand: Gates

Thirty-two Midas PRO preamps, 96 channels of SuperMAC over a single Cat5, and a control surface that remembers every fader position - all in a desk that two people can carry.

Overview

The M32 is a digital mixing console built around 32 MIDAS PRO Series microphone preamplifiers. It's the same digitally-controllable front end the company puts in its larger desks. Each of the 32 inputs accepts balanced or unbalanced mic- or line-level signals. Each has a 72 dB gain range and switchable +48 V phantom power, and each will take +23 dBu before clipping. The preamp is quiet. Equivalent input noise is specified at -125 dBu at +45 dB gain with a 150 Ω source, measured 22 Hz-22 kHz unweighted. Common-mode rejection runs better than 70 dB at unity gain and better than 90 dB at 40 dB of gain. That figure counts when long multicore snakes run next to lighting cable.

Distortion stays low across the gain range. It's under 0.01% THD+N at 0 dB gain into a 0 dBu output, and under 0.03% at +40 dB gain into +20 dBu. The manual's own numbers put analogue-in-to-analogue-out dynamic range at 106 dB unweighted, with the A/D and D/A stages each rated at 109 dB typical. Frequency response at a 48 kHz sample rate is flat to within a dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Crosstalk rejection between adjacent channels at 1 kHz is 100 dB. Console input-to-output latency is listed at 0.8 ms. The full stage-box round trip (stage box in, console, stage box out) is 1.1 ms.

The I/O count is where the M32 gets interesting for the money. There are 40 A/D and 24 D/A Cirrus Logic converters on board, 16 XLR outputs, six line-level auxiliary inputs and outputs, stereo monitor outs on XLR/TRS, and dual headphone outputs. Output level on the XLRs is +4 dBu nominal, +21 dBu maximum, from a 50 Ω source. The TRS connectors mirror those numbers, with input impedance of 20 kΩ unbalanced or 40 kΩ balanced and a non-clip maximum input of +21 dBu. The headphone amp is specified at 40 Ω output impedance and +21 dBu maximum in stereo. Residual noise on outputs 1-16 at unity gain is -85 dBu unweighted. Mute them and it drops to -88 dBu. The TRS and monitor XLR outputs sit at -83 dBu.

Two AES50 Ethernet ports using KLARK TEKNIK SuperMAC technology carry 96 bi-directional channels each. Together they contribute to a total accessible patch of 168 x 168 sources and destinations. There's stereo AES/EBU out, 16 channels of Ultranet personal monitoring, and 32 x 32 channels of recording over USB. A top-panel USB connector lets you store system data or record a board mix straight to a flash drive or hard disk. The desk also works with the MIDAS DL16 digital stagebox and the Behringer P-16 personal monitoring system. It can be driven remotely from a free iPad application, or over Ethernet with editing and remote-control software.

The control surface has 16 high-resolution 100 mm motorised faders covering channels 1-16, 17-32, and the aux/USB/FX-return layers. A separate bank of eight motorised faders covers DCA groups 1-8, bus masters 1-8 and 9-16, and matrices 1-6. Those faders are the MIDAS PRO motorised type, rated for one million cycles. Processing runs at 40-bit floating point, with 32 input channels, 8 aux channels, and 8 FX returns feeding 16 aux buses, 6 matrices, and main LRC. Scene memory holds 100 total-recall scenes including preamplifiers and faders, plus 500 structured cues and 100 snippets. The virtual FX rack offers eight true-stereo (16 mono) processors drawing on more than 60 effects models. Four effects, such as delay, chorus and reverb, can run concurrently with eight channels of 31-band graphic EQ. A stereo precision limiter provides up to 18 dB of input gain ahead of limiting, with attack from 0.05 ms to 1 ms, release from 0.05 ms to 1.04 seconds, and a knee control sweeping from hard limiting to 10 dB of soft limiting.

The main display is a 7-inch TFT LCD at 800 x 480 with 262k colours, daylight-viewable. Each channel has its own small 128 x 64 LCD with RGB backlight for track name, number, colour and source graphic. Metering is a 24-segment main meter spanning -57 dB to clip. The built-in real-time analyser offers bar-graph and spectrograph views with a 10-second window, at 100 bands of constant relative bandwidth from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The manual notes this is three times the detail of a typical third-octave RTA. It can be overlaid on the channel parametric EQ and FX rack graphic EQ screens. Power comes from an auto-ranging switch-mode supply accepting 100-240 VAC at 50/60 Hz ±10%, drawing 120 W. The chassis measures 891 x 612 x 256 mm and weighs 24.5 kg. That's two people, but it fits in a car rather than a truck. Operating temperature is rated 5°C to 40°C.

Midas's own documentation bills the M32 as combining "tremendous power and flexibility with a very user-friendly layout," and describes an intended role as a centrepiece for installed and production sound in any setting. That's marketing copy, not a verdict. Mix (August 2014, p.38) covered the console in a product roundup. The same magazine's survey of console-control iPad apps (Mix, November 2014, p.40) noted how central wireless remote mixing had become to this class of desk. Pro Sound's NAMM 2014 Best of Show coverage (February 2014, p.38) also picked up the M32, which is where a lot of working engineers first heard the name.

The M32 pairs that preamp front end with a surface that recalls everything: motorised faders that snap to a saved scene, recallable mic preamps, programmable routing, and full scene memory. Set changes stop being a manual exercise. The tradeoff is that a digital desk of this generation lives and dies by its firmware. The manual itself recommends checking midasconsoles.com regularly for updates. Service information in Appendix E is routine only - monthly cleaning with a dry lint-free cloth, checking controls for freedom of operation, and verifying fader, button and LED function. No solvents, no abrasives, no ammonia-based cleaners on the GUI screen, and no liquids applied directly to it. The faders are described as self-cleaning, which helps in a venue environment.

24.5 kg is manageable but not trivial. The 891 mm width needs a proper case or a sturdy table. The 120 W draw is modest for what the desk does. There's no published street price in the source documentation, and no production-run dates, so the used market is the only reference point.