DJs are constantly looking for the holy grail of mixing equipment; compact, feature packed, & easy to use. Well, it’s time for the Soundcraft Ui16 review, from the mobile DJ perspective, well specifically from the wedding DJ perspective. Will hit the mark in the growing affordable digital mixer market? Read on or jump right to the video.
The Soundcraft Ui16 Review. But Why?
Some people may wonder why I would even be reviewing the Soundcraft Ui16 since I had a pair of Mackie DL806s and sung its praises in this review just a month ago. While I did love the DL806, one of it’s biggest shortcomings is the design of the unit meant that you had to get not only a heavy rack adapter, but it also required 9U of slant rack space to mount it. While it makes sense for those that want to use it in a purely docked state, I knew that my next version of my setup required a standard rack mount unit. So my search began for its possible replacement.
The Soundcraft Ui16 began originally as the uMIX from SM Pro Audio which had a preview unit that came out at the MESSE 2014 show. Soundcraft worked at deal with uMIX, did a few tweaks, and the Ui series was born. Now there are a number of features that I am not going to focus on (like the Digitech processing capabilities) because those are more geared towards live bands, but be aware there are a number of effects that make this a compelling choice for live band mixing. But I am going to focus on how I am going to use this for my Mobile DJing setup.
The Setup
Part of my push towards the Ui16 was to take advantage of not only regular rack mounting, but also buy shallow racks to take up less space and weight. The Ui16 is only 4.3″ deep which is crazy shallow and can also forgo the rack mounting and laid right on its backside, but for my requirements, it fits in the SKB 6U Shallow rack nicely along with a PDU, and my wireless speaker transmitter (currently an Alto Stealth device). My modular design allows me to transport my “mic box” consisting of Sennheiser G3 receivers to either my ceremony rig or my main rig with just a couple of attachments.
The Features
Make no bones about it, this is a feature-packed rig, and even at the MSRP there is a lot of value in what is offered. I am only going to be scratching the surface on some of the things the Ui series has to offer that makes this unit something to strongly consider.
DHTML Interface
For some, not having physical sliders, knobs, and buttons is going to be a stretch. But every company from Mackie to Behringer has its own take on what a virtual console should look like. Soundcraft has taken that and made their virtual console purely browser-based. They made a pretty clean looking interface (which they have a demo of it here) that is very responsive, logically laid out, and will work on any modern browser. So you can pick up sub-$100 tablets and it will work, iPod Touch and it will work, Chromebook and it will work. They made a very wise decision going this route as opposed to being locked into a specific brand or application.
Custom Views
With having so many channels at your disposal, you may not have to use the majority on most nights. Soundcraft has thought of that and allows for custom views (up to 6) to hide unwanted channels. This is extremely useful to have only active channels viewed in your interface and not have to scroll through all the unused channels to get to where you want to be.
dbx AFS
Automatic Feedback Suppression has only been available as separate Drive Rack devices to place in your audio chain. The Soundcraft Ui16 has included this option that lets one ring out your microphones in a fixed setup and then switching to live mode provides added protection from the wayward guest using the microphone that does not know any better to stay away from a DJ’s speakers. So now dealing with softer spoken guests will give you some extra wiggle room to bump up that gain before feedback will occur. No AFS does not eliminate all feedback, but it does a damn good job in the hands of the right person.
On-Chassis mp3 playback and Recording
The Soundcraft has the ability to playback files on the chassis via USB and controlled by the interface. Now this is no substitute for real DJing, but if you had a failure of your laptop, decks, or battle mixer, in a pinch you can playback on your Soundcraft and give yourself some time to troubleshoot the issues. You can even control playback right above the master fader control.
You can also record in 16bit, 24bit, and 32bit WAV files and recording an entire set yields chunked up 2GB files. There is a dedicated USB slot for recording, so for those wanting to playback, there are a number of USB slots on the chassis to utilize.
WiFi and On-Page Configuration
Where some competing digital mixers require a separate router, the Soundcraft has one built right in. It is not perfect, the stock antenna appears to be too tiny for practical use and appears to be under-powered. However, with a replacement +6dbi antenna or a simple external router, I am able to typically walk through an entire reception room without fallout.
With this feature, I am able to control virtually every aspect of my even sound. I constantly get comments on why am I walking around with an iPad and as soon as they see what I am in control of, they are in awe.
Control Of Each Channel
On the Soundcraft, you have the ability to configure a number of parameters including EQ, Gain, Gate, Compression. You can also save your configuration as a preset so you can replicate those settings on every channel you recall it to.
Aux Sends
The Soundcraft Ui16 has 4 XLR outputs plus two headphones 1/4 ports that can be changed over to 2 additional aux outputs. Each channel is controlled individually.
In my case, I have my Aux 1 channel dedicated to my Sennheiser IEM 300 to broadcast out to remote speakers. I can also allow a videographer to hang off Aux 2 to record an unmixed recording of everything. Typically I will send them a master mix recorded from the Ui16 and normalized to keep things sounding as good as possible.
So Much More
There are a number of other features on this unit, more geared towards live bands. I can’t put forth an objective review of these features so if some of these options interest you, I would recommend some of the live sound forums out there who have pretty technical discussions on this.
Wishlist: Two playback “decks” please
I have decided to use the Soundcraft on its own for a couple of ceremonies now. Overall it’s been very solid but I do wish that Soundcraft would have a simple two-player layout so I can do simple transitions between tracks. Since it’s a ceremony I can do a quick fade-out, stop the track, bring up the gain, and start the next track; but it would be much nicer to have a two-deck capability.
Initial Issues
In 2015 with the very first Ui16 I received in I used for about 30 minutes straight, all seemed good, and I took it out to my very next wedding. About 3 hours into its use (sound-checking and halfway into my cocktail hour) I noticed some odd noise. The sound would pop, literally fizzle down to no volume, and cut back. It did this a few times to the point I rebooted it. About 5 minutes later, total audio failure. I tried from a number of sources to see if it was an input, but this was on the output side of the coin. There was no choice but to bypass it and was fairly upset that it didn’t survive its first night out.
The next day I got ahold of the company I purchased it from and RMAed it. I had to make a big choice if to chalk this up as a bad single unit, or bad overall design. I had heard some issues like it being noisy for live bands, but nothing of this magnitude. But I took a look at the big picture and decided to continue on trying this device out, and got a replacement.
From there I received a replacement for my primary reception system and got a second for ceremonies. In general, I was mostly stable but I did run into a random connection issue every now and then.
Solid Use Now
First and foremost I had enough issues with my original Ui16s that I had some long discussions with Harmon on it. They agreed to replace mine since they were one of the first units out to consumers and everything we had done to this point did not result in 100% stability. So they shipped me two new units and I could not be happier along with the most recent beta release. It has been great for many gigs now.
Make this very clear, since Harmon/Soundcraft has put out the latest firmware releases, this unit is rock solid.
Tips
Poor WiFi Range: There is just not a lot that can be said about this. The unit has a poor design on for it’s WiFi transmitter. You can increase the range a bit by purchasing a +6dbi gain antenna (which coincidentally it looks like the original uMIX devices had these) or an external router. I opted for a very inexpensive but high range 802.11g router. In almost all cases I can walk most of a venue’s site with access to my device(s).
If you don’t understand how to configure an external router then here is a tutorial for you:
The Dreaded “Connecting” Screen: A handful of users, including myself, have had an issue with losing connectivity. Usually, this is caused by one of two issues, overcrowding of the 2.4 GHz spectrum along with a weak router can make one lose connection to the device. The other is an actual hang-up of the device so you lose access to the UI. For me I had an issue with the latter and as I noted above Harmon replaced my units and the latest beta firmware updates addressed made things perfectly stable.
The best on the market
It’s hard to really pin down a couple of words to describe this. It is certainly a very capable box and has the right set of features at a great price for Mobile DJs. Being able to walk around with a phone or tablet to different spots of the room and finely adjust sound is literally the perfect tool for the wedding DJ. Crowds constantly raise up and down with voices and you want to try to dial in a consistent sound, and the Ui16 allows you to do just that.
Is it perfect? Originally it did have some random issues I was having was frustrating at first, but I did decide in the end to keep pressing on and I am very glad that I did. With the replacement of my originals and the latest beta firmware I have had access to, the Ui16 is a champ.
Yes, one should bypass the internal router if you are going to walk more than a few feet from the device, but it’s a literal small price to pay ($30 for a good quality inexpensive 802.11g router). These are critical pieces of my mobile DJ performance and they are worth their weight in gold.
Simply put, I could not accomplish what I do as a solo Mobile DJ without it. I hope this Soundcraft ui16 review has given you some quality information to consider it as part of your setup.
Update. This article was originally published on 6/30/15 and I have updated some of the final conclusions on 6/14/17 this after Harmon/Soundcraft replaced my original units and I have been using the latest beta firmware. I also made some quick edits on 10/30/17 to reflect the stability of the Ui16 and included my review video on 11/16/17..
