Just Wanted to Know...

Discussions about the use and operation of SAC (Software Audio Console)

Just Wanted to Know...

Postby tatkin » Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:44 pm

Ok... I may have dreamed all this but wasn't there some big 'deal' between SAC and some group over in Europe where they were going to buy the rights to SAC and integrate it into a GRAND new solution??? I seem to remember pictures from some trade show of prototypes and Bob in the background doing his thing...


What ever happened to this whole adventure?

Just curious...
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Re: Just Wanted to Know...

Postby shmick » Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:57 pm

Yeah, the montarbo / montair thing. Lot's of talk and no action. It's SAC plus an iCON QCon Pro midi surface.
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Re: Just Wanted to Know...

Postby airickess » Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:31 pm

No action at all and no talk either, at least on the Montarbo website.
The airconsoles site is still up but hasn't changed one bit since I last saw it back in January.
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Re: Just Wanted to Know...

Postby tatkin » Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:33 pm

Oh... so pretty much normal, standard operating procedure for 'stuff' involving SAC :roll:
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Re: Just Wanted to Know...

Postby jlepore » Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:52 pm

Yup. :lol:
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Re: Just Wanted to Know...

Postby RBIngraham » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:36 pm

It was at NAMM.

To be fair about it, the only ones making a really big deal about it were some of the forum members getting their hopes all up. The real deal is that the company behind Montair Consoles (just SAC turnkey system builders) struck a distribution deal with Montarbo, an Italian audio manufacturer. And probably just because they could, they snuck in some mentions of SAC and their systems and that Montarbo might be working on something with them. But if you looked at the press releases from Montarbo on the subject, there was little to no mention of SAC.

Some folks read a lot more into that distribution deal than what was obviously really there.

And frankly I have not heard anything about Montarbo products since then. So either the Italians didn't have product ready to be sold in this country yet or their distributor isn't doing all that great of a job at getting people to sell their products and create some buzz. Or maybe a bit of both. Distribution deal don't last very long if product is not being sold, typically. I've seen them go south first hand more than once, while working for software developers. Product X strikes a deal, product isn't sold... they find someone else who will do a better job... etc...
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Re: Just Wanted to Know...

Postby Paul Henry » Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:52 pm

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Re: Just Wanted to Know...

Postby randyhyde » Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:10 am

It costs a fabulous amount of money to put something like this on the market. Although SAC+PC is basically COTS equipment, their custom-produced fader board (even if it's just using Berlinger gear underneath) is not something that you can quickly and easily tool up and produce. Note that custom-built SAC systems (including fader hardware) in the past have run $10,000-$20,000 -- this just isn't something you can throw together using parts from the PC junk file and the cheapest equipment around (granted, they still seem to use Behringer preamps) so it's not going to be cheap.

In the $10,000-$20,000 price range there are some very fine digital systems (A&H GLD and Midas Pro 2 immediately come to mind). It's hard to compete against the big names with SAC and a bucket full of parts. Of course, at the low end, the $2,000-$5,000 systems (A&H QU, Presonous StudioLive, Berhinger X32, SoundCraft, Mackie, Midas M32, etc., with more showing up every day) are providing real hardware that largely works out of the box.

It would be a hard business justification to make to produce a product line based on SAC knowing how much money it takes to get into the business. I can easily understand why someone would want to take care putting out a product based on SAC (especially when you can't control the software's destiny).

The niche for SAC (high channel count, separate FOH/Monitor desks, VST support, weight/size, remote operation w/stage box, modularity, matchability, etc.) seems to be getting smaller every day as "real" consoles start including these features. Certainly if I were choosing a console today I wouldn't consider SAC, even knowing all the great things that SAC actually does (the sound *is* better than most of the sub-$20,000 consoles I've listened to).
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