Just a short update

It's been a minute since I've posted any updates to this blog. It's not because nothing's been going on, it's partly because I've personally been going non-stop on a number of different new Phonic products and I haven't had anything substantial to add about the Summit.

I should give an update on what's going on with the Summit. We are planning on releasing a new firmware - and have been saying as much for almost a year! Nobody at Phonic can quite sure when it will be released, but it will be quite a large update and will coincide with the release of the new generation of Summit Digital Mixer: IS16.

The IS16 is in the final stages of development now and should be in mass production VERY soon. Basically they've spent some time perfecting the MIDI control section. Granted, it's a bit annoying to spend so much time on one function, but the end results look to be worth it. The MIDI control functionality will be compatible with almost all of the most popular DAW programs (Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Nuendo, among others).

Just to clarify: this is a brand new feature of the IS16 and won't be available from the Summit firmware updates. Sorry about that, but it's a feature that's not only controlled by software but hardware too.

The new Summit firmware (whenever it will be released) will feature new functions like multi-band graphic equalizers that should enhance live setups significantly. The method of effects routing will also be updated to provide a little more flexibility.

Promusic Summit Video (Español)

German Summit Workshop Video

In dieser Video-Workshop-Serie stellt Ralf Gräbe, PHONIC-Produktmanager des deutschen Vertriebes Musik & Technik, die Features des digitalen Mischpultes Summit vor.

In this video workshop series Ralf Gräbe, product manager for PHONIC products with the German distributor Musik & Technik, presents the features of the new digital mixer Summit.

Working on the REAL S16

Phonic engineers are working on what is set to be the real "S16" console (despite a few Summits being called S16 in the past few months, these are not going to be S16s). It will be a significant upgrade of the original Summit, both in speed and features.

Stay tuned for more information.

Cheap Gear Guy Receives His Summit

New Summit / S16 video is now online!

View it now in HD!

New S16 video in the works

Phonic has a new introductory video for the Phonic Summit S16 Digital Mixer in the works. It should be online in the next few weeks, with a better quality version being played at the NAMM show in January.

Summit FireWire / USB drivers updated!

The Summit drivers have been updated to version 5.18 on the Phonic website. These are Phonic signed drivers which will install more smoothly on Windows 7 than ever before.

Download them here:

FireWire
USB

It's not too late...

...to enter the Phonic Shout Out! contest.  Not too many entries in at the moment so you have a good chance of winning. 

Remember, there's a Phonic Summit up for grabs!

There's a great entry in from the Philippines at the moment which is getting a bit of buzz, but if you don't feel like putting that much work into your production - just use your cell phone cam and talk for a few minutes about Phonic! You could have an entry in within 5 minutes of reading this, if you wanted to win something!  There's some digital interfaces, mixers, and all kinds of great gear going out.

Summit Name

Just a note for everybody in the US, if you've bought a Summit you've probably noticed that the unit and the documentation barely mention the name Summit on them. That's because the name in the US has been changed to simply "Digital Mixer" or "Digital Mixer S16". You can call it Summit if you want, everybody will know what you're talking about. But we're not going to be officially calling it that for the time being.

For people in every other country: Summit, Summit, Summit, Summit, Summit, Summit...

Summit "Down Under"

As I've said somewhere previously on this blog, Australian magazine "Mixdown" has reviewed the Phonic Summit in its latest issue.  What I should have emphasised is that this isn't a case of there being a review, followed by Australian customers desperately searching for a shop that actually sells the Summit; it is now available in Australia!

Phonic's new Australian distributor is putting its full support behind the Summit and can be contacted for dealer info. 

CMI Music & Audio
36-38 Export Dve
Brooklyn, Victoria 3012
Australia
Phone: +61-3-9315-2244
Email: cmi@cmi.com.au
Website: www.cmi.com.au

Quick Update

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been away for a while, but everything should be going back to normal from now on.

First off, we have some updated operating instructions for the Summit user manual that can be found here.  These include updates on the new features available through the firmware updates.

Speaking of firmware updates, there are also new instructions for performing firmware updates.  Those can be found here.  The process is a little more involved than previously, but it's the only effective method at this point.

So, just to recap what's been going on in the past few weeks: the Summit has been selling very well indeed, and customer response has thus far been extremely positive. 

One customer, who emailed our support site with a feature suggestion, commented that he mastered the unit's operation within a few hours of purchasing it.  Nice going!

Shout Out! Contest Reminder

Don't forget that Phonic is running it's Shout Out! contest all the way through to December. Check out Phonic's facebook fanpage for the competition entry page, rules and all the other info you may need to know.

All that's required to enter is you, a camera and an internet connection. Film a short tutorial or testimonial video based on Phonic products (you don't even need to own one if you're editing technique's good enough), and you could win a Phonic Summit Digital Mixer (the very theme of this blog), a Firefly 808 recording interface, a Powerpod 820 powered mixer, and a bunch of other prizes.

Videos are best uploaded to youtube or facebook, then entered to the video via the fanpage. There's no limit to how many times you can enter (just how many prizes you can win), and no limit to how many times you can vote for your own video (there's a cap per day, so get your friends and family involved).

Check out the competition page here.

Summit Reviewed!

There are already a few reviews for the Summit floating about. Australian-based Mixdown Magazine has reviewed the unit in their latest edition (September 2010). It received favourable remarks from the reviewer, who ended the review with: "The question is... do you want to make you[sic] recording process simpler, easier and higher quality? Then take a look at the Phonic Summit digital mixing console."

There are also a pair of reviews in the German publications Keys and Recording Magazin. As noted earlier this week, I don't understand German, but I'm assured they're very thorough.  Check out the latest issues of these mags for details (and a full look at the reviews!)

We have some US-based reviews coming up. I'll keep you all updated on that.

New Summit Video from Jay of US Music Fame

As of September 16th, this has been removed by US music. Hopefully we get a new one shortly.

Session Music Phonic Summit Video (German)

I don't understand German myself, but I'm sure this is a fantastic video.


www.session.de

Session Music
Hanauer Landstrasse 338,
60314 Frankfurt, Germany

Summit Concept Art Part 4

This is a pretty recent concept art (I think late last year).  Really close to the home stretch, when we were finalizing the design. We actually had a few of these done up as working prototypes even. 

 

We ended up changing the input channels to 16 mic/line (instead of having the 4 1/4" connectors without the XLR), and the general color scheme was altered. At the end of the day, the woodgrain acrylic looked pretty tacky. The red we went with goes well with the design and kind of suits the product.

Summit Delay Function

We don't tout it as much as we probably should, but the Summit Digital Mixer actually has an adjustable delay on every single input and output channel.  That includes all 16 input channels, as well as the 8 multi outputs, the main outputs, and the control room outputs.

To the left you can find an image of the delay function for a single input channel (four channels will be shown on screen at any one time).  As you can see, there's an on button, as well as 3 controls for adjusting parameters.  The "Time", of course, adjusts the delay time (up to 2 seconds), whereas the "Mix" determines the amount of your mix will be delayed.  Finally, the "Feedback" determines how much of the signal will be fed back through to the channel (particularly useful for electric guitars!).

This is the case for input channels.  Output channels, on the other hand, just let you adjust the delay time alone.  This is all you need, however, as it allows users to compensate for the distance between speakers in larger setups.  And don't forget the firmware updates mentioned a few weeks ago: the latest firmware has a new function that lets users change the adjustable parameter on the delay function between milliseconds, meters or feet.  That takes a lot of the headache out of live setups!

Phonic SHOUT OUT! Contest

It's really simple to enter: if you have a phonic product lying around (more than likely it's being put to good use, though), just pick up your camera and record a short tutorial or testimonial (or something in that vein) and submit it to the Phonic Shout Out contest.

If you do, you could win a Phonic Summit Digital Mixer (there's one for each of the top 3 videos).

You really have nothing to lose by submitting something, right?

Submit your entry now to www.phonic.com/shoutout

And by "NOW" I mean from September 2nd onwards.

Summit Concept Art Part 3

Just thought I'd upload another concept art piece for the Phonic Summit. At this point it was called "Intuitive 32" - at least according to the design. This design is a lot more compact than what we ended up with, but didn't work on an engineering level and was a bit too crammed for the most part.

There are a few functions here Phonic employees wish they could have retained for the final version, but the way they ended up developing the unit didn't leave much room for any of the bells and whistles.  We'll see for the next version though.