Shadow Hills Industries The Equinox
The Equinox is essentially a complete recording console in a small format that only takes up 2U in the rack. The Equinox includes two GAMA microphone preamps, 30 analog summing channels and a mastering-ready monitor controller. The microphone preamps are Golden Age Microphone Amps with 60 dB gain, 24-stage, gold-plated attenuators, 48 volt phantom power, 20 dB pad switching, phase reversal and 1/4" DI input.
Features
Compact counterpart to a recording console
Two GAMA microphone preamps
30 analog summing channels for the DAW
Selectable output transformers: nickel, iron, steel
DAW and monitor box connections as Sub-D sockets
Extensive monitor section
The most interesting feature of the amplifier section are the switchable output transformers, which allow different sound colors. You can choose from:
Steel - hand-wound, based on an American-made transformer that was popular in the 70s. It sounds "tight" and "punchy", with a clear coloring and bass emphasis - real rock'n'roll sound.
Nickel - hand-wound, based on the transformer from an LA Custom console. Very clear sound, but with a slight and musical softening of the transients.
Iron - modern version of the classic St. Ives 1166 Neve output transformer. Warm, round sound, with a very detailed and present midrange.
The summer is a 30-channel passive mixer with copper conductors as a bus and special resistors to enable the best-sounding passive summing. DAW inputs 3 to 24 are summed as stereo and routed fully to left and right, while DAW inputs 25 to 32 are sent to both bus channels in mono. The summed signal then goes to the Golden Age amplifiers with selectable output transformers. With these, the user literally has the choice between the sound of three different classic consoles on the Mixbus.
The monitor section includes a choice of four input sources, three outputs to monitor speakers, a 24-level monitor level control, a monitor level DIM switch, a switch for the built-in talkback mic, a cue output and a stereo/monaural Switch.
If the Input Select switch is set to DAW 1-2, The Equinox acts as a stereo mix output for the DAW. In this mode, the incoming signals to DAW 1-2 are routed past the GAMA preamps and into Monitor Level Control. This means that the microphone preamplifiers can be used stand-alone and recorded via the DAW I/Os.
The monitor section has three pairs of outputs to address monitor speakers and a cue (or headphone) output. Only one speaker output can be selected at a time. The cue output is independent of monitor level and talkback.
Attention: This device requires the Shadow Hills PSU as a power supply, which is not included in the scope of delivery!