Crest Audio, a division of Peavey Commercial Audio, will ship its Tactus digital mixing system prior to InfoComm 2017.
Crest Audio partnered with Waves to create Tactus, a modular touch-screen based mixing system for live performance digital mixing.
The Tactus system consists of hardware and software incorporating Waves eMotion LV1 software. The Waves eMotion LV1 mixer application runs on a Windows PC or Mac with one, two or three multi-touch screens.
Crest Audio Tactus systems use Waves Soundgrid audio network protocol and comprise three hardware units: the Tactus.FOH, Tactus.Stage and Tactus.Control. Each one addresses the input and output, monitoring and control as well as synchronisation requirements of audio signals at the stage and front of house points.
The modular system is scalable and suitable for touring, corporate events, houses of worship, performing arts venues and live music concerts.
It provides a customisable touch-screen operating interface for control of audio routing, processing and mixing tools. It is designed to work with the new Waves eMotion Mixer for SoundGrid and allows the use of Waves audio processing plug-ins for live events.
Tactus hardware compirses the Tactus.FOH, the audio processing core for the system, and the Tactus.Stage, a 32-in/16-out remote stage box. The modular capability of the Tactus Digital Mixing System, which interconnects via standard Gigabit Ethernet cabling and an internal Gigabit switch, allows multiple configurations in a range of channel counts to best suit each application.
The Tactus.FOH is powered by the Waves SoundGrid audio processing and networking platform. Its frame provides eight local microphone/line inputs and eight line outputs as well as addition to two AES outputs and serves as the audio signal processing engine.
Tactus.Stage includes 32 microphone/line inputs and 16 line plus to 2 AES outputs. The digitally controlled mic preamps feature ultra-low input noise, high slew rate, very low THD, and 66dB adjustment range in 1dB steps. An integrated gigabit Ethernet switch allows for networking. Users also benefit from the option of combining Tactus.Stage I/O interfaces for a total of 64 stereo inputs by 32 stereo outputs.
Tactus.Control, available later in the year, is a motorised fader board complimenting the eMotion LV1 touch screen by providing moving faders, lighted buttons and knobs for the most commonly used functions. It has 16Ch. + 2 Master motorized faders, with Mute, Cue and Select buttons along with a multi line scribble strip display. These can follow screen layer selections or be locked on a layer for expanded control.
The Waves eMotion LV1 mixer application runs on a Windows PC or Mac with one, two or three multi-touch screens. One or two Tactus hardware surfaces with moving faders can be added for tactile control if desired connected via USB to a PC running the eMotion LV1 software and connected to the Waves SoundGrid network the Tactus.Control allows tactile feedback to the sound engineer as typically required for live performances without having to look down at a touch screen.