INTRODUCTION
The Midas PRO6 Live Audio System is the second networked digital audio system from Midas. Employing technologies developed from the class-leading XL8, the PRO6 offers the same exemplary sample - synchronised audio performance in a compact package.
Although the PRO6 standard system comprises a Control Centre with a footprint similar to that of a 32 channel Verona and only two 7U 19¡± rack units, it's diminutive size belies its ability to provide up to 80 simultaneous input processing channels and up to 32 (+3) discrete mixes in monitor mode, all of which feature EQ and a choice of many dynamics processing options. By adding additional I/O hardware the PRO6's network can be expanded up to 264 inputs and 264 outputs. These connections can be patched and routed on a scene-by-scene basis, by use of the PRO6's powerful snapshot automation.
- Dual ¡°Daylight Visible¡± Screens with 3-way KVM switch
- XL8-Style ¡°Fast Zones¡±
- XL8-Style Dual Operator ¡°Channel Strips¡±
- 10 VCAs
- 6 POPulation Groups
- Configurable ¡°Area B¡±
- 16 Input Faders
- Up to 80 simultaneous mix channels
- 16 Group/Aux & 16 Matrix - 32 Mixes in ¡°monitor¡± mode
- Surround panning including LCRS, Quad and 5.1
- Dual-Redundant Linux Control Computers
- Dual-Redundant HyperMac (192x192) digital snake included
- 8 Fully-assignable FX engines ? with new FX options
- Up to 36 KT Graphic EQs - with optional DN9331 Rapide control
- 3 AES50 Ports on the Control Centre for I/O expansion and XL8 connectivity
- 24 Configurable inputs on the Control Centre *
- 24 Configurable outputs on the Control Centre *
- Three year factory warranty
- Weight and Dimensions
Control Centre - 1365mm x 924mm
Weight - 95Kg / 209.4lbs **
DL371 - 7U, 22Kgs / 48.5lbs **
DL351 - 7U, 27Kgs / 59.5lbs **
* Dependant on I/O card options fitted
** Note: weights are out of flightcase
- Systme Components -
- PRO6 Control Centre
- DL371 Audio System Engine
- DL351 Modular I/O

PRO6 CONTROL CENTER
The Control Centre is a typical robust Midas steel frame, which employs engineering principles similar to those used for established analogue products. The frame is fitted with three integral power supplies, only two of which are required for full operation. The power supplies are auto-voltage sensing, auto-switchover, fitted with locking AC connectors, are hot-swappable and are interchangeable with the PSUs used in the DSP engine.
Also integral to the Control Centre are dual-redundant GUI and master control processors, and a high-speed network router. The rear of the control surface has dual-redundant HyperMAC ports (Cat-5e and Optical) and four AES50 connections, one of which is terminated internally to the configurable I/O on the rear of the console. This is the same format as the I/O which is located in the stage rack, which means that the connector panels are interchangeable between these two locations.
Current options are any three of the following four options:
- 8 analogue inputs (XLR)
- 8 analogue outputs(XLR)
- 4 AES/EBU inputs and 4 AES/EBU outputs(XLR)
- 8 analogue inputs and 8 analogue outputs(balance 1/4¡±TRS jacks)
The left-hand side of the surface consists of a 12-channel ¡°fast zone¡±, where an operator will find the ¡°must have now¡± controls, a detail panel which is the interface with all of a selected channels control parameters and a display screen. The PRO6 has a second 4-channel ¡°fast zone¡±, located on the far right-hand, which allows for easy access for dual operators, or the ability to ¡°stick¡± high-priority channels onto the surface for instant access.
The centre section of the surface features the aux mix masters, VCA faders, POP group select buttons, mix group select buttons, second detail panel and daylight-viewable TFT display screen. Also, the main (matrix) mix masters, automation control, dual trackball control panel, communications panel, monitoring control and the second daylight-viewable TFT display screen. A 3-way KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switch is incorporated into this area to enable an operator to view and control external computers from the control surface.
- Overview -
- 3 integral PSUs
- Dual redundant GUI processors
- Dual redundant master porcessors
- Dual redundant HyperMAC ports
- 4 AES50 connections
- 4 I/O card options
- Dual daylight viewable TFTs
- 3 way KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse)
- 16 input faders

NAVIGATING THE INPUTS : VCA and POP Groups
- Overview -
- 6 POP groups
- 10 VCAs
- Colour coded
- Digital write on strip
- Bring the console to the engineer
THE AUDIO
The Midas microphone pre amp has become the benchmark throughout the audio world and its current expression in the PRO6 sounds better than ever. Still built from discrete components and based on the designs which were so successful in Midas analogue consoles such as the XL3, XL4 and Heritage, the PRO6's dual (analogue and digital) gain stages enables users to shape the mic amps' character according to preference.
The Midas PRO6 is the world's second live audio console to feature a unique and comprehensive automatic latency management system which, in addition to managing all internal routing and processing delay, also includes compensation for external analogue inserts. This means that all audio samples are synchronised before summing, resulting in absolute phase coherency at all outputs.
The Midas PRO6 feels, as well as sounds superb. All variable controls on the console are genuine potentiometers, not encoders. These access the FPGA engine through A-D converters and Midas' custom interpolation algorithms ensuring a linear, analogue-style, silky smooth ¡°feel¡± to the mix.
- Audio Precessing -
The input channel processing
Each of the 56 full-function input channels has:
- Analogue and digital gain
- Phase reverse switch
- Input delay
- Swept high pass filter with choice of two filter slopes
- Swept low pass filter with choice of two filter slopes
- Frequency-conscious compressor with choice of 4 compression styles
- Frequency-conscious noise gate with external side-chain
- Insert point
- Treble eq filter with choice of four filter types
- Parametric hi-mid eq filter
- Parametric lo-mid eq filter
- Bass eq filter with choice of four filter types
- Routing via level controls to 32 aux mix busses
- Routing via pan control to left, and right master busses
- Routing to mono master buss
- Panpot (sis)
- Direct output
Each of the 8 auxiliary inputs has:
- Input gain
- Source from internal FX or external network input
- 4-band swept EQ
- Insert point
- Fader
- Panpot (sis)
- Routing via level controls to the 16 matrix busses
- Routing via pan control to the Left, Right and Mono master busses
The output channel processing
Each of the 16 auxiliary mix busses has:
- Subgroup, Auxiliary or Mix minus modes
- Dual mono or stereo pair modes
- 6-band parametric eq
- Optional 31 band GEQ (replaces PEQ)
- Frequency-conscious compressor with choice of compression styles
- Insert point
- Routing via level controls to the 16 matrix busses
- Routing via pan control to the Left, Right and Mono master busses
- Direct input
Each of the 16 matrix busses has:
- 6-band parametric eq
- Optional 31 band GEQ (replaces PEQ)
- Frequency-conscious compressor with choice of compression styles
- insert point
- Direct input
- Mix minus mode
Each of the master output busses has:
- 6-band parametric eq
- Optional 31 band GEQ (replaces PEQ)
- Frequency-conscious compressor with choice of compression styles
- insert point
- Direct input
EFFECTS PROCESSIGN & GRAPHIC EQs
The PRO6's FX and dynamics algorithms are more than high quality, easy-to-use Linux-based FX processing. They are incorporated within the PRO6's automatic delay management system, so that wherever they are patched, the audio will be absolutely phase-coherent when summed into the mix. All FX and dynamics can also be re-patched scene by scene
The PRO6's processing can be user-configured to provide up to 36 Klark Teknik Graphic EQs and one stereo effects processor, OR 8 GEQ's and 8 stereo effects, or a choice of several different combinations of GEQ's and FX.
The 8 effects processors can be freely chosen from:
- KT DN780 reverb
- Stereo pitch shifter
- Square ONE 8-chanel dynamics processor
- Stereo delay
- Stereo flanger
- Stereo phaser
- Multi-band comp
The Klark Teknik GEQs can be patched into any output or insert point.
There are many patching options for the effects processors:
- Assign to any insert send/return
- Assign to any network input or output
- Assign FX out to aux return
- Assign FX in to aux send (post fade)
- Assign FX out to bus direct in
- Assign FX in to channel direct out
A Klark Teknik DN9331 RapidE motorised fader graphic EQ controller is available as an option. This unit provides rapid adjustments of the graphics with real hardware, not a mouse and screen. The graphic channel is selected by either a console SOLO button (Solo Tracking System, STS) or by buttons on the RapidE itself.
AUDIO CONNECTIVITY
The physical fixed audio connections for a PRO6 standard system (all located on Control Centre)
2 x Local monitor A (L and R) XLRM
2 x Local monitor B (L and R) XLRM (Centre in SIS mode, L and R rear in surround mode)
1 x Talk output XLRM
1 x Talk back XLRF
1 x Talk mic XLRF
The physical configurable audio connections for a PRO6 standard system
56 x XLR mic/line inputs via DL351 stagebox
16 x XLR analogue outputs (8 on Control Centre, 8 on the stagebox)
8 x Balanced ¨ù¡± trs line inputs on Control Centre
8 x Balanced ¨ù¡± trs line outputs on Control Centre
8 x Digital (4 x AES/EBU) inputs on Control Centre (XLR)
8 x Digital (4 x AES/EBU) outputs on Control Centre (XLR)
2 x Local monitor surround outputs on Control Centre (Centre and Sub) XLRM (assignable in non-surround modes)
This gives the standard PRO6 system a total of:
72 x Inputs
34 x Outputs
Therefore, the standard PRO6 has a total configurable audio input/output count of 104 connections
Note: The I/O cards are interchangeable between the stagebox and the Control Centre. Also compatible with DL451's (not included with standard system).
The PRO6 can have much more than the standard connectivity by adding DL451 I/O units. There are 7 spare AES50 connections available. This means that potentially another 336 audio connections can be achieved (subject to other system limits).
This gives a maximum input/output count of 528 for PRO6, dependant on hardware configuration. Note that these spare AES50 ports are not restricted to connecting to DL451s. They can also be used to directly connect to any AES50 equipped units, such as DL431's or a DN9696 hard disk recorder. All connectivity is controlled via the GUI.
What the configurable audio connections can be used for:
Mic/line inputs
Mic/line auxiliary inputs
Insert returns
Bus direct inputs
Dynamics sidechain inputs
Direct outputs
Insert sends
Input to onboard FX processor
Output from onboard FX processor
Aux/group buss outputs
Matrix (main) outputs
Stereo main output
Mono main output
NETWORK
The Midas PRO6 standard system consists of a control centre and two 7U 19¡± rack units, which are inter-connected by a networked data system. The network carries both proprietary control data and open architecture AES50 digital audio, and uses readily-available standard Cat-5, Cat-6 and fibre optic cabling and connectors. The Midas PRO6 Live Audio System features automated patching of considerable power and capability. To better understand this, think of the PRO6 in terms of three interconnecting levels.
Network level: 264 inputs x 264 outputs (max capacity)
The PRO6 network level has 12 AES50 ports, (one of which provides N+1 redundancy). The remaining 11 ports provide 528 ¡°terminations¡± or possible connections, which are configured as 264 inputs and 264 outputs. Any source can be patched to any one, or any number of destinations, within the network's 57,600 nodes. The network also supports point-to-point routing, which can be totally independent of the PRO6's mixing functions. The number of physical connections, and their type (analogue, AES/EBU), are dictated by the number of and configuration of the various I/O hardware devices. Both the utilised hardware configuration and the routing within this can be reconfigured on a scene-by-scene basis. AES50 implementation throughout means all network latency is deterministic, managed and consistent, resulting in absolute sample-synchronous, phase-coherent audio reproduction.
Engine level: 120 inputs x 120 outputs
The PRO6's processing engine has 120 inputs and 120 outputs. The inputs are available as input channels, virtual tape returns, insert returns, buss direct inputs, dynamics processor side-chain/key inputs and FX unit inputs. The outputs are available as buss outputs, insert sends, direct outputs and FX unit outputs. The engine can source from any 120 of the 264 inputs and send to 264 of the network's outputs (by routing 120 engine outputs to multiple destinations) on a scene-by-scene basis.
Mixing level: 80 input processing channels
The PRO6 mixing console has 56 primary input channels, plus 8 aux returns, which feature EQ and insert points, giving access to the internal processing in the PRO6's virtual FX rack. These 64 inputs feed 35 mix busses. 16 of these busses are individually configurable as aux or group or mix minus, and can also be configured as additional inputs with EQ and dynamics processing. These 80 processing channels then feed 16 matrix busses (which can be configured as aux sends) and Left, Right and Mono masters.
All audio paths can be routed to multiple destinations and the console format can be reconfigured live on a scene-by-scene basis.
MIDASNET
MidasNET uses the physical connectivity of Ethernet (Ethercon connectors and Cat-5E cable), but NOT the data protocol, which is too slow for high-quality, low-latency real-time audio distribution.
MidasNET connections carry digital audio, control data, and standard Ethernet traffic, bi-directionally, down a single cable. Cat-5e for ¡°local¡± (24 channel) connections, and a single Cat-5e (or fibre-optic) for the digital ¡°snake¡±, which is the equivalent of a 384 channel analogue multicore!
All digital audio is transmitted using the AES50 protocol (implemented as SuperMAC) and the HyperMAC high-capacity system. AES50 is an open-architecture protocol and HyperMAC is a standards candidate. These protocols benefit from extremely low latency, robust feed-forward error correction, and advanced system clocking. The use of this AES standard means simple, straightforward interfacing with ANY 3rd party hardware which feature this connection. The benefit of combining audio, control, clock and third party Ethernet data into one single network means that all Midas digital network hardware interfaces on a single RJ45 connection.
MidasNET also runs self diagnostic software in the background in real time measuring important hardware performance such as processor temperatures, error correction rates and connection integrity. Any unusual variances are instantly notified to the user before any audible issues occur. MidasNET runs at 96kHz sample rate. Each network link has a latency of only 70¥ìS. Comprehensive management of delays are provided, including automatic compensation for external analogue insert points.
SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS