C1644 4-bus Concert Series Mixer

"The Carvin C1644 is an absolute knockout in its functionality and performance. In the bang-for-the-buck department, the Carvin is a stunning, made-in-America achievement."

Carvin C1644 Concert Series Mixer

by Edd Forke'

The Carvin C1644 is a 16-channel, four bus mixer that has been optimized for live sound use. The C1644 is part of the Carvin "Concert 44 Series," which includes the company's 8 - 32 channel four-bus mixers.

FEATURES

Made in the U.S.A., the Concert 44 Series is a "true four-bus design" that allows for increased mixing flexibility over stereo consoles. You can assign channels to any of the four subgroups or to L/R. This allows you to mix all the vocals, for example, and assign them to one subgroup. Similarly, you can assign all the instruments to another subgroup. By assigning both the instruments subgroup and the vocals subgroup to the LJR output, you can now instantly balance the house mix by moving two faders.
Every channel has a balanced XLR and line (1/4-inch) preamp with an insert jack for a compressor or EQ. The insertjack also serves as a direct out when plugged to the first click.
Low-impedance, low-noise preamps are used on every channel. Carvin says the balanced common-mode rejection is better than 70 db to eliminate all cable noise. A 125 kHz switching power supply is built into the C1644.
There are phantom power switches, providing power through the XLR connectors, for use with condenser mics. Phantom power is engaged in groups of eight channels.
The EQ section, with blue-topped knobs, features a three-band EQ with a sweepable mid, 15 dB cut and boost range. Both the low and high are "shelving,"which means they are effective from 20 Hz up to 20 kHz.
Below the EQ section are four gray monitor sends. Every channel can send up to four different monitor nixes and retain access to two effects sends. In practical terms, this means that virtually all performers can have their own monitor mix.
The C1644 also offers two independent nine-band equalizers. These provide one-octave adjustments to control feedback and to zero in your overall sound. The C1644 also boasts two built-in 24-bit effects processor sets, each offering 256 stereo effects.
Each processor offers chorus, reverbs, nice meaty-textured flanging and cool echoes with fully adjustable parameters for damping, decay, depth, speed, time and regeneration
Controls on the C1644 are logically laid out, making the mixer easy to use. Given that it is just slightly larger than a briefcase, it packs a lot of features and control options. The knobs and buttons have enough space around them to easily make adjustments without the requirement of elf-like fingers.
For looks, the C1644 is true to its classic, slightly retro look, but not to the degree of some of Carvin's other products. The C1644 is all business, with a dark gray platform and white lettering. Red caps adorn the input gain and pan pot knobs; blue knobs point out the EQ section while gray knobs are used for the monitor and effects I and 2 controls.
The build quality is first rate. There were simply no flaws in the C1644's cosmetics or function. The feel of the pots and sliders is smooth and consistent.
Not to be missed. though- is the best feature of the C1644, the sound. The C1644 "passes" audio through, adds nothing unless you want it to. and it is quiet.

IN USE

A visiting ensemble from another church provided a great opportunity to put the Carvin in through its paces. The system consisted of the Carvin C1644 mixer. Electro-Voice 257B mics, Crown CE1000. CE2000 amplifiers and a Bose Panaray speaker system.
The C1644 with its built-in effects processor eliminated the need for an outboard processor. I was anxious to hear what the Carvin's unbound effects sounded like in this sonically dead venue, and their resolution was quite good.
I assigned the guest vocalists' mics to the Group 1 and 2 faders. Our team's mics were assigned to the Group 3 and 4 faders and a guitar and keyboard to the L/R fader. I am quite familiar with our team's characteristics. but not the visitors so I wanted to quickly control each group of singers with its own group faders which the C1644 allowed me to do.
The careful layout of the controls made the Carvin a pleasure to use. There is just enough space between the controls to avoid clutter and claustrophobia.

SUMMARY

The Carvin C1644 is an absolute knockout in its ftinctionality and performance. In the bang-for-the-buck department, the Carvin is a stunning, made-in-America achievement.

- Edd Forki, a regular contributor to Pro Audio Review, is a sound reinforcement engineer specializing in gospel music.

Carvin C1644 Mixer

These days, it is almost always hard to fault the incredible performance of inexpensive solid state pro audio gear, and Carvin's no-nonsense C1644 is no exception. It's within a few dB of as quiet as things get, just about equally clean, and it offers a plethora of flexible, reasonably accurate EQ features. What more could you ask for, for such short money? (Well, to answer my own question, maybe some kind of telltale or other visual indicator on the channel strip pushbuttons. But I digress...)

The following graphs, like the tabular results above, reflect performance of a single channel (Channel 9). Various spot checks indicated that the remaining channels were effectively identical.

As Figure 1 shows, the C1644 was reasonably flat within the audio band, rolling off around 1 dB at either extreme octave. The lower (bass) plot shows response with the channel-strip's lowcut filter engaged, yielding -6 dB/octave below 160 Hz.

Figure 2 displays the Carvin's sweepable midrange channel EQ, with curves for maximum and minimum boost/cut at the maximum and minimum frequency settings plus 1 kHz, as well as curves at ±3 and 6 dB (roughly) for the outer two settings. With moderate Q, good control, and regular response, this all looks pretty decent.

The C1644's high and low channel-strip EQs show up in Figure 3, again at ±3 dB and 6 dB, and max/min settings. Both are quite broad, shelving type filters that I would judge likely to prove more useful for overall program equalization than narrowband timbre tweaks. While the Hi EQ is quite well behaved, the Lo side shows a few dB interaction, well into the midrange (and even treble) regions, reducing the effective boost and cut by a dB or two depending on the setting.

-D. Kumin