Midas HD96-AIR — A Mix Product of the Week

New York, NY (October 25, 2024)—At the recent AES Show in New York, Midas showed off the newest addition to its Heritage D-Series, the HD96-AIR, a compact, lightweight digital console incorporating all of the features found in the larger-format HD96-24-CC, including the capability of handling 144 inputs at 96 kHz, and 123 time-aligned and phase-coherent mix buses.

The HD96-AIR is built into a package featuring a hinged, adjustable, 21-inch full-color TFT screen with capacitive touch sensing and multi-gesture sensing. It can be operated with or without faders, and console control can be expanded with up to four Midas HD96-FB16 16-channel fader banks. Advanced features include onboard dual-redundant power supplies, snakes, and two built-in format converter slots.

As is the case with its big brother, the HD96, the HD96-AIR provides 24 VCA groups, 24 POPulation groups, up to 48 assignable 1/3-octave Klark Teknik DN370 graphic equalizers, and up to 24 multichannel digital signal processing effects engines(!).

Midas HD-AIR Console Launched at ISE

Local I/O includes eight XLR inputs and eight XLR outputs. The HD96-AIR supports HyperMAC and AES50 networking, allowing for up to 480 inputs and 480 outputs at a sample rate of 96 kHz. It also includes a dual network bridge format converter with up to 128 bidirectional channels and asynchronous sample rate conversion.

Audio input processing includes dual-slope high- and low-pass filters, 4-band parametric EQ with three shelf modes, 4-mode creative input compressors, gates, insert point on/off with processing order change, direct output with adjustable level and processing pick-off point, and delay-compensated aux return mode on inputs.

Output processing includes 4-band parametric EQ with shelving/HP/LP options, 4-mode creative dynamics, insert point on/off with processing order change, and direct input with adjustable level and processing tap-off point.

Connectivity includes two HyperMac (192 channels of bi-directional digital audio) on EtherCon XLR, two HyperMac (192 channels of bi-directional digital audio) on Opticon XLR, word clock I/O, Ethernet and two expansion slots.

The HD96-AIR package measures 32L x 17.5D x 8.5H inches and is sufficiently light that it can travel as checked baggage.