# Soundcraft Si Expression 3 vs Compact 32 Comparison



## THORNSZ

i just want to hear your insights about this two mixers. Some say that the expression 3 is just a repackaging of the compact 32, while when i searched up about the compact 32... some say it is way advanced than the expression 3 plus it cost almost twice as the expression 3. We just bought the compact 32 by the way for my Church youth's worship facility..


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## bishopthomas

I don't know the difference but I also have a Compact 32 and love it. It sounds great and is super easy to use. The iPad app is crap, but I hear they're working on a mew version.


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## THORNSZ

bishopthomas said:


> I don't know the difference but I also have a Compact 32 and love it. It sounds great and is super easy to use. The iPad app is crap, but I hear they're working on a mew version.



if you dont mind, how much it was when you bought it? we had a pretty good deal with proaudio star... cant wait for it! cons about is it that you cant record with it which sucks, tsk! i wanted to have the firewire expansion card together with the aviom card but it only has 1 card socket  didnt realize that before we bought it.

hey, do you know somebody from houston, tx who can help us out set this up and teach volunteers how to use it?


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## bishopthomas

THORNSZ said:


> if you dont mind, how much it was when you bought it? we had a pretty good deal with proaudio star... cant wait for it! cons about is it that you cant record with it which sucks, tsk! i wanted to have the firewire expansion card together with the aviom card but it only has 1 card socket  didnt realize that before we bought it.



I don't really want to say because I got dealer cost on it and it was a demo unit. But it was around a year ago, before these newer versions were released; now the dealer cost on them is next to nothing. Everyone's trying, all of a sudden, to compete with the Behringer. You know, expansion wasn't really an issue for me as I never intend to use it like that.


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## simoneves

Does anyone know the cost of the Firewire/USB/ADAT option card for these things? I can't find it actually for sale anywhere. All I can find are the more "pro" option cards (Aviom, MADI etc.) which are ~$1000 (order of magnitude). I'm trying to decide between an X32 (Firewire built in, of course) and an Expression 3, but if adding the Firewire is going to push the cost up that much...


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## bishopthomas

If I had to do it again and didn't care about name brand recognition (which I do, and I'm also a big Soundcraft fan) then I'd go with the Behringer. The Soundcraft sounds better and is easier to use if you're walking up to one for the first time, but the Behringer has a million more features. The iPad app alone is enough of a selling point for me, the Soundcraft one SUCKS! The X32 has multi function buttons that allow quick access to many of the console's parameters and features. The X32 has a bit more of a learning curve, but totally worth it.


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## THORNSZ

agree, the behringer has way better features than the expression 3! the x32 was also an option for me before we purchased the Compact 32, but i considered the people who are gonna use it. We dont have a sound engineer so more likely the mixer is being run by volunteers with NO experience of any type of sound mixing. The SI Compact 32 is pretty much a basic mixer but reliable. I really caught up with the features of the Studiolive and the X32, but what the sound engineers said it is not that "reliable" yet coz that mixer is new and still under observation. We might change the mixer in a few years, maybe? One down side that i didnt notice from the Si Compact 32/Expression 3 is it doesnt have the record feature -_- which really sucks! i didnt notice that until we purchase it. crap! haha


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## THORNSZ

crap, just got the mixer from the mail... SO STOKED with the audio quality knowing that its on factory settings! WAY BETTER than our old behringer eurodesk mixer!


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## CBR372

I've got the Compact 32 as a secondary console to our Si3 main console. It is incredibly easy to use and I think Soundcraft might have some videos on the console. I also find the soundcraft manuals are very easy to read. I'm in Corpus, so it is bit of a drive for me. But if I am ever in the area I will let you know.


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## bishopthomas

Congratulations on the new mixer. Let me know if you have any questions about it.


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## THORNSZ

CBR372 said:


> I've got the Compact 32 as a secondary console to our Si3 main console. It is incredibly easy to use and I think Soundcraft might have some videos on the console. I also find the soundcraft manuals are very easy to read. I'm in Corpus, so it is bit of a drive for me. But if I am ever in the area I will let you know.



sweet! that'd be awesome


bishopthomas said:


> Congratulations on the new mixer. Let me know if you have any questions about it.



whoa, thanks man! as of now, i'm tryin to learn how to use it... i pretty much know that basics now but i'm trying to figure out how to apply the effects and how to monitor and mix with the headphone... i just cant find the control for it as of now


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## bishopthomas

The effects are pretty easy. Just hit the LEX (Lexicon) button and use the screen and knobs to adjust parameters. To access the FX sends just press the corresponding FX button (there are four, to the right of the mixes and matrices buttons). That's your send level, then they return on the second layer. It's really annoying that you can't reconfigure that so that they can come up on the first layer, probably the thing I hate most about the console.

I believe the monitor section is under Setup on the screen. You can assign outputs to be the cue mix, adjust PFL/AFL, etc.


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## THORNSZ

bishopthomas said:


> The effects are pretty easy. Just hit the LEX (Lexicon) button and use the screen and knobs to adjust parameters. To access the FX sends just press the corresponding FX button (there are four, to the right of the mixes and matrices buttons). That's your send level, then they return on the second layer. It's really annoying that you can't reconfigure that so that they can come up on the first layer, probably the thing I hate most about the console.
> 
> I believe the monitor section is under Setup on the screen. You can assign outputs to be the cue mix, adjust PFL/AFL, etc.



so we just hired a soundman to setup the mixer for us... when we're about to mix the graphic equalizer, we cant just access it because it is lock for no reason. We didnt made any security stuff to it, so its basically all factory settings. I was looking for some default password for the administrator but i cant find it. Do you have any experiences with this before? we're clueless on how making this work done.


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## JohnD

Was the mixer new or a refurb? Have you tried a hard reset(page 57 of the manual)


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## THORNSZ

JohnD said:


> Was the mixer new or a refurb? Have you tried a hard reset(page 57 of the manual)



its brand new bro! i dont know why but they only provide me the quick starter manual... its basically not the whole thing


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## damjamkato

Here's a link to the Compact Series user guide PDF.

Si Compact User Guide V2 (English)


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## bishopthomas

Yeah, do that hard reset. I think it's a combination of the Lexicon button, M1, and maybe a channel(?). That should wipe out whatever is causing it to be locked down.


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## THORNSZ

damjamkato said:


> Here's a link to the Compact Series user guide PDF.
> 
> Si Compact User Guide V2 (English)



Thanks man!


bishopthomas said:


> Yeah, do that hard reset. I think it's a combination of the Lexicon button, M1, and maybe a channel(?). That should wipe out whatever is causing it to be locked down.



What do you mean hard reset? isn't turning off and on resetting it? or do you mean reset it into factory settings? which i dont know how to... if yes, is it easy to do it or is it risky that it may corrupt the mixer's firmware?


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## chausman

THORNSZ said:


> What do you mean hard reset? isn't turning off and on resetting it? or do you mean reset it into factory settings? which i dont know how to... if yes, is it easy to do it or is it risky that it may corrupt the mixer's firmware?



Hard reset as in back to factory settings. The only thing you risk is loosing show files, and since you just got it, it's unlikely you'd loose anything important.


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## THORNSZ

chausman said:


> Hard reset as in back to factory settings. The only thing you risk is loosing show files, and since you just got it, it's unlikely you'd loose anything important.



i havent done that before... i could prolly save the shows in a USB then hard reset it right? but i dont know how. <-newbie


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## museav

One common practice with new digital consoles is to have one of the first things you do be to verify that you are running the latest firmware and to update it if you are not. I don't know if it is related to your problem or not but I know that some early problems with the Si Expression locking up in certain situations were fixed in one of the firmware updates.


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## bishopthomas

Do you already have complicated show files saved? I would just start over. There's really nothing on the SI Compact that you can't easily setup again. It's not like you can repatch all the I/O and such. Hard reset meaning restore factory defaults. And as Brad mentioned, use this time to update the firmware if needed.


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## THORNSZ

oh crap, that means were gonna contact the sound man again and mix it all over after the hard reset? aight man! i'll try to figure out how to update the firmware first or restore to factory defaults


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## museav

THORNSZ said:


> oh crap, that means were gonna contact the sound man again and mix it all over after the hard reset? aight man! i'll try to figure out how to update the firmware first or restore to factory defaults


Digital console recommendation Number 1, save often and not just to the console. Whenever you create something you think you may want to use save it and keep a copy somewhere else. Better to have the files and not need them than to not have them and need them. This is also relevant if you ever have to send a console in for repair, chances are good it will come back in factory default mode and anything you had created will be gone, thus the need to save and save often.

If you are lucky, the person that setup the console may have saved any show or configuration files somewhere that they are is still available once you reset the mixer.


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## THORNSZ

yup we actually saved the show... i'll try to contact soundcraft's customer support to seek advice


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## GForce

The Si Compact is being discontinued. Other than the price and color there are 2 main differences between the 2:
1. The Expression can be expanded up to 66 inputs, in all 3 frame sizes. The Compact maxes out at 40 inputs to mix.
2. The Expression has no external insert points. The Compact has 4. 


If there are any other differences, I'm not aware of what they would be, and I've been in the loop on this product since NAMM.


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## THORNSZ

bishopthomas said:


> I don't know the difference but I also have a Compact 32 and love it. It sounds great and is super easy to use. The iPad app is crap, but I hear they're working on a mew version.



hey bishop, have you tried multi track recording with your Si compact? coz i'm trying to find the firewire SI multi digital card for it but i cant find it...


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## GForce

The most current update is that the new Firewire / USB / ADAT card should start shipping in late June. 

Grant


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## THORNSZ

GForce said:


> The most current update is that the new Firewire / USB / ADAT card should start shipping in late June.
> 
> Grant



sweet, thanks man! i badly need one for our church... we need to record our performances and the sermons


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## mikeosoft

To those of you thinking that the Si sucks because it can't record natively, keep in mind that the x32 is topping at 44.1/48 khz 16 bits versus 96khz 24bits for the Si. For any serious recording, it's non-negligible. For my recordings, I bought an optical madi card, so I can send the main pair to the computer and the other pair to a stagebox, so with one card being able to do two things.


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## bishopthomas

THORNSZ said:


> hey bishop, have you tried multi track recording with your Si compact? coz i'm trying to find the firewire SI multi digital card for it but i cant find it...



Sorry, I've been away from CB for a while. No, I really don't do much multitrack recording anymore so I haven't done so with the SI Compact. I'll check on the price and availability of the Firewire card. I share a warehouse with a Soundcraft dealer so I'll ask him about it tomorrow.


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## THORNSZ

bishopthomas said:


> Sorry, I've been away from CB for a while. No, I really don't do much multitrack recording anymore so I haven't done so with the SI Compact. I'll check on the price and availability of the Firewire card. I share a warehouse with a Soundcraft dealer so I'll ask him about it tomorrow.



oh thanks! that's awesome, can you please check about their dante card too?


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## simoneves

mikeosoft said:


> To those of you thinking that the Si sucks because it can't record natively, keep in mind that the x32 is topping at 44.1/48 khz 16 bits versus 96khz 24bits for the Si. For any serious recording, it's non-negligible. For my recordings, I bought an optical madi card, so I can send the main pair to the computer and the other pair to a stagebox, so with one card being able to do two things.



The X32 USB/Firewire interface is 24-bit audio, not limited to 16-bit. If you really want 96kHz, by all means spend the extra $1400.


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