GLD to Avantis??

Avantis Avantis General Discussions
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So i’m very on the fence going from GLD to Avantis, looking at buying one (to replace a GLD), but at the same time can’t justify the upgrade.

I like the look of the Avantis: The hardware looks like a step up, The Ui i’m a little less enthusiastic about (from a quick hands on demo) but can see the potential in it.

The physical size is much bigger than the gld80, which I loved been so compact yet powerful and usable.

The cost difference is huge and in my very limited hands on look, not a huge step forward (yes I get it’s a 96k fpga engine, but in real terms and ROI it does the same thing, sort of…).

GLD seem to have been hung out to dry… as a product it’s still a fantastic mixer, but seems to have been pushed out in to the cold and thus has very little residual value… which leave a bitter taste moving forward with A&H products… more so when Avantis is priced significantly higher than GLD was (yes I understand inflation, changing supply prices and the mid ground is now filled with QU and SQ, which is my point that GLD has been hung out, lots of little updates and evolution’s that have been forgotten about now that would have helped GLD to keep some value).

Avantis seems to very much still be in beta testing, rather than a finished product… (UI tweeks, features, PC editor missing etcetc).

Dpack, nice idea, bad idea… I’m confused… GLD had 16t’s etc from the get go (yes appreciate not the 96k FPGA / dLive version’s… but… ) seems a bit of a backwards step. And more so there in the desk like a cheap iphone game where you can click on them but get told ‘no, you need to pay for them still’… not what I want to see on a professional mixer… is the future paying for a channel count, per band, per gig or something? I get the payware model in the cheaper MI segment, but not in a ‘proper’ desk. Also concerns me that the dpack is something that will be discounted in the future and early adopters will have paid a premium for.

User forum/engagement: The user forum here are such a fantastic opportunity to engage present and future customers as well as users, yet seem very under utilised imo, again as a GLD customer feel completely left in the dark with it’s life cycle… When A&H could have done so much to engage present (GLD) and future customers.

I’m struggling to get over Avantis been a budget QL (just without some of the more useful bits, yes I appreciate the price difference now, but they used to be similarity priced when I purchased one a few years back so slightly skewed view point from the current market), thought I want to love Avantis.

Interested in opinions.

m

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In your situation I would consider to go the dLive route. A C2500 (which is more compact than the Avantis) and a CDM48 will be more or less on the same price point than the Avantis with a GX4816 stagebox and the dPack (as far as I know) and you will get the full power of the dLive processing.

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“GLD seem to have been hung out to dry… as a product it’s still a fantastic mixer, but seems to have been pushed out in to the cold…”

I agree. The GLD-80 we’ve been using at church is about 3 years old and we’re still getting more and more out of it. To be frank I think we’re limited by our choice of amps but I digress.

Having said that, the C+ software support (ipad only?!?!) and recent attained discontinued status are pretty big challenges to use of the board in an environment that is driven by an Avantis. Can’t even be used as a monitor mixer unless you drop down to 48K.

Our design engineer has recommended the Avantis and he believes the transition shock will be more manageable if we stay within the A&H family. I agree but I’m certainly grateful that we’ll NOT be using OneMix or any other A&H software or hardware for mangeming monitor mixes.

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‘Can’t even be used as a monitor mixer unless you drop down to 48K.’

Use a passive split to feed both desks I/O boxes, then you get 96k on the Avantis, 48k on the GLD and a bit of redundancy to boot (I’ve never quite understood the all egg’s in the one basket approach having a digital split, more so with I/O that uses redundant networking too… not that Avantis does but I digress).

Out of interest why has your design engineer gone Avantis if you have a perfectly usable GLD?

m

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You could also run a Dante split to use a 48k monitor board.

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You could also run a Dante split to use a 48k monitor board.

Thanks Scott, wouldn’t that require a second Dante card in the Avantis?

‘Can’t even be used as a monitor mixer unless you drop down to 48K.’

Use a passive split to feed both desks I/O boxes, then you get 96k on the Avantis, 48k on the GLD and a bit of redundancy to boot (I’ve never quite understood the all egg’s in the one basket approach having a digital split, more so with I/O that uses redundant networking too… not that Avantis does but I digress).

Out of interest why has your design engineer gone Avantis if you have a perfectly usable GLD?

Hey Matt, great questions. Currently we are maxed out on input channels on the GLD. We require more channels for acoustic and rhythm guitar, percussion, leslie micing and for additional keyboards as needed. The Avantis will give us this.

Additional, the hope/perception is we will be more future proof with Avantis than the currently discontinued GLD.

Lastly, by passive audio split are you talking about something like this?
Splitter

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Thanks Scott, wouldn’t that require a second Dante card in the Avantis?

If you are running Dante at 96k to some devices and Dante at 48k to others, then yes it requires 2 cards. If your entire Dante network is at 48k, then only a single Dante card is needed.

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Lastly, by passive audio split are you talking about something like this?

Yes pretty much (that one looks like it has isolated outputs and ground lifts built in, so fairly fancy). At the simplest (/cheapest) level you can have what is effectively multiple y-splits, to feed two I/O boxes from the one set of inputs on a master panel.

My own one is 32 way of XLR-f’s on rack panels (in a 5u I think) case, with two tail coming out the back (y-Split for each input) , short ones goes to the FoH desk I/O next to it and the other (longer) directly into the back of my monitor desk (I’ve a Yammie QL and a GLD so too costly, for me, to do digitally and I get redundancy having to separate i/o systems, as well as no fighting over HA gain’s : O P ).

m

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I have been using the GLD112 at Church for almost a year. The Church has owned it for a little over 4 years and had nothing but issues. I have had interactions with another church that had issues with theirs as well.
We got it fixed in order to attempt to sell it.
We bought the Avantis. I’ve used the avantis for about 3 months. I immediately noticed an audio quality jump up with playing music from my phone and also during my first band rehearsal.
I love the console and interface. The only obvious thing you will miss are the select buttons. The avantis uses the touch screen instead.
I have never liked that the Allen & Heath’s RTA was not overlayed in the PEQ section, however, with Avantis’ second screen that the GLD doesn’t have, you can PAFL the input channel and see the RTA on the second screen.
(I’ve been told there is a firmware upgrade coming in 2020 to do this overlay)

I read the post saying the DLive is the way to go. Yes, the D-Live is Sweet. But there is even a bigger jump in price. With the Avantis, you can get the optional DLive plugins as well.

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I had been happily running my GLD80 for about 5 years before taking the leap to Avantis, and I couldn’t be happier (except for wanting shows to happen again, etc). I’ve had it on a few shows, and I continue to practice at home with vsc and I can’t wait to really get it out there. What I love most is the flexibility and the UI, which I was most hesitant about. No “select” button, for example. Once you get it, I assure you that you’ll like it.