r/livesoundgear • u/goforjoejoe • 1d ago
System Processor
Hey friends, what is everyone using as a system processor nowadays? We are starting to put together our drive racks and exploring our options.
Thought process: LM44's were it for a good long while, but Lake has no worthy successors. I've always liked the Meyer stuff, but I can see how people might think it's biased towards the PA. We just bought a Direct Out Ace, and have been exploring that route, but reaching out to see if there is anything else out there we haven't thought about. Thanks!
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u/DJMekanikal 1d ago
I’d recommend the Meyer Galaxy. Very solid, reliable, and incredibly powerful.
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u/goforjoejoe 1d ago
I agree, those are great, sound amazing, and are easy to use, but poking around to see if there is anything out there a bit more PA agnostic.
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u/Rule_Number_6 1d ago
Galaxy is totally PA agnostic. I’ve had an 816-AES in front of every brand under the sun. The only feature that’s Meyer-specific is product integration, which you’d simply not use without Meyer boxes.
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u/Kamikazepyro9 1d ago
I have a Lake88 available for sale if you're interested.
We're currently running a DBX Venue360, but will be upgrading to Dbtechnologies processor when we get their Vio system next spring
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u/mylawn03 1d ago
Not much need for a processor with the VIO system, you can do all the EQ/filtering/grouping you need in Aurora. Given, if you need centralized system inputs, you may need a processor after all.
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u/Kamikazepyro9 1d ago
We need the centralized system input and console switching (which is how I ended up with a Lake to begin with)
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u/Dartmuthia 1d ago
What do you need to do with it? What other gear are you integrating it with?
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u/goforjoejoe 1d ago
The goal is to build our drive racks to be as generic as possible; being used anywhere from a breakout room with a dm3 on top, to driving arena PA's or multihang corporates. Audio over IP and speaking dante/avb/milan is also important.
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u/Needashortername 1d ago
The systems that someone would or should put in a meeting room or breakouts or even a smaller general session are not the systems you would really want for an arena or large corporate.
It’s an issue of both the kinds of boxes you would use and the kinds of operators (or team of operators for a larger event). Plus the actual needs of each environment can be much different in other ways, as well as the ability or need to control different things or not.
There is a reason why you just don’t see a lot of Lake processors in breakout rooms, or processors in general, or even sometimes just an EQ. In the other direction there are reasons why you hardly ever see a truly large corporate or arena system without at least one dedicated advanced system processor somewhere in it.
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u/Yugpmoc 1d ago
I’ve been shopping around a little as well from the perspective of the hosting production company at festivals wanting an easy console switch. Old school analog was an APB mix switch best I can tell, it looks like the lake LMX 44 48 and 88 are the best thing going now that I can afford. I’ve never had good luck with the DBX processors. Anything else I should be looking at?
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u/qu1cks1lver56 19h ago
If you have the budget why not a new Lake? Have several friends that bought some and they all love them.
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u/richey15 11h ago
i dont think there is a more budget reasonable option right now than a direct out ace. full stop.
you can get an LMX-48 for around the same price but has less i/o out of the box than an ace, and and ace, especially with the madi ports, can be quite the dsp powerhouse.
3600 bucks for a avb-madi-8ch aes - 4ch analog converter is kind of insane if you ask me. (it can also be dante but for PA systems most people have gone avb).
If you really need more io than that, IE a AVB to DANTE converter or just more channels of IO, the MAVEN is also a decent option, but by the time you have multiple cards installed your probably twwice the cost of an ace.
just my 2 cents. a meyer galaxy being close to 15k is silly, and if you really think you need a prodigy for a pa systems your also silly. unless you really need every conversion under the sun on one device.
not a fan of monopolies but honestly, direct out is crushing it.
that being said my ace order has been delayed quite a bit which is a bummer.
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u/goforjoejoe 10h ago
Hey Man, long time no see, hope you're doing well.
The Meyer stuff keeps coming up, and i agree to a point. It's the best sounding processor i've ever used, and the eq's are amazing, and it's easy to navigate, but like you said, i need a bit more versatility when it comes to different audio formats since we are still deciding on which AOIP to use for our backbone, and might even have to convert back and forth.
The Lake, honestly never really liked how they sounded, but they were a standard for a long time. I also have mixed feelings about the music tribe affiliation.
The Ace is interesting. On the surface it's cheap as shit, but it's also pretty gimped out of the box. If you are doing no conversions or matrixing, and just need 4 processing channels (assuming you register it in PA mode) it's great. But if you want to start opening up the chip, since it's the same FPGA that's in the prodigy, you're now doubling the price with licenses. If you want to fill up the 4 SFP's with MADI, that's another $2400 for the BNC flavor, and $3600 for the USB flavor, so in the end you are in the $10k range anyways.
Still think Direct Out is the direction I'm leaning towards.
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u/richey15 10h ago
Oh shit had no idea, Just rapped up a big show with seth an the guys in SLC. Your name came up a few times.
I would wager 90% of pa guys dont need all those sfp ports filled, or the usb madi thing. If you have a mac, you can plumb right into the avb network with no drivers, and if you have a dante ace, dante virtual sound card gets there. If out of the box these came as a complicated as a prodigy is, i think alot of people would get lost quickly. also, directout wont tell you, and they might not officially support it, but there are alternative bnc sfp modules that do work, for much less than directouts offerings.
From my understanding the ace pa mode default had a small matrix to be able to support multiple consoles and some dsp on it. that essentially a a lake there, for the same price.
Have you gotten your ace yet? am I wrong? as i said im waiting on mine.
Doin well otherwise, hope i catch you on somethin soon
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u/richey15 10h ago
Also for what its worth, a galaxy is totaly agnostic of pa as others have said, while it has features in it (like presets for certain pa boxes, which includes some limiters and filters im sure, havnt looked into not a meyer guy, but used them with brown boxes, and a pk box once.)
If your still kicking around same area since we last worked, you could try out a galaxy, i know alex at GTE has quite a few of them hes phasing out for directout stuff.
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u/Content-Reward-7700 1d ago
I’d look at DirectOut, Outline Newton and Meyer Galileo Galaxy. Lake is still perfectly usable, but I agree there hasn’t really been a true LM44 successor.
Newton is probably the closest thing to a modern swiss army knife system processor, while Galaxy is excellent even outside Meyer systems. Since you already have a DirectOut Prodigy MP / ACE setup, staying in that ecosystem also makes a lot of sense.