Soundcraft MH4 at Sound Control's Megastore

8 October 2003

UK - Artists playing live at Sound Control's new flagship venue - situated in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street - will have their sound mixed by a fully-featured Soundcraft MH4 multi-function desk. The first use of the new venue was for the launch of Dido's new album Life For Rent at the end of September. Soundcraft UK sales manager (North), James Baker, has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Scottish-based music chain and was quick off the mark when he learned about the ambitious plan to develop the Megastore's famous live stage and incorporate it as a key feature of the Sound Control London experience.

Sensing that some huge bands were lined up to play weekly gigs he immediately proposed installing Sound Control's flagship store with a flagship-mixing console. "I looked closely at the type of desks other bands had been bringing in - some didn't have all the busses and VCAs. We could easily have provided a Series 2 but decided to go for overkill." The 48-channel board includes eight matrixes and 16 output busses. The MH4 has been designed for FOH, stage monitors, or monitors from FOH, with a brand new bussing system that gives maximum flexibility. Soundcraft have also provided a BSS external processing rack - giving customers an idea of some of the products they should be aspiring to. This includes a pair of FCS-966 graphic equalisers, two DPR-504 quad noise gates, a DPR 404 quad compressor and a DPR-402 dual compressor.

With their first store in the South East, the Scotland-based company now boasts 12 modern superstores from Dundee to London, making Sound Control the first and only UK-wide national chain of music stores. And they see the alliance with Virgin Megastores bearing fruit well outside London as the remodelling exercise continues. In addition to featuring some of the world's greatest bands, the new superstore, which will be open seven days a week, will also contain the largest guitar wall in the country and massive range of stock from all of the major brands.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)