Line 6 StageScape M20d Reviews

4.8/5.0 based on 8 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Jed Demlow
from Columbus, OH
May 14, 2013Music Background:
Working musician

Awesome.

Every working band can benefit from the M20D. And Sound Engineers relax.. The M20D makes your job easier and helps you make the band sound even better! Remarkable amount of power under the hood in deep tweak mode. Just go get one!

Dan
from California
April 5, 2013Music Background:
Musician

Stagescape m20d

Awesome mixer.....5 minutes, and I was up and running!!! Love the wireless feature!!!!!!

John DiLeo
from New Haven, CT
March 8, 2013Music Background:
Performing Singer/Songwriter, 30 year Pro Engineer and Sound Designer, Associate Prof of Media

Excellent Unit!

The Stagescape M20d is a revolutionary product. While it is marketed at making getting a decent sound easier for non-engineers, it has many features that make it very desirable, even for experienced engineers. First off, it contains a huge number of high quality effects, from compressors to gates, delays, reverbs, doubling, limiting, EQs, feedback suppression . . . While the m20d is not cheap, to buy all these units would be prohibitively expensive and the racks would be huge and weigh a ton! Not to mention all the knobs to bump and cables to get old and patch contacts getting dirty. I am a singer/songwriter/performer who has worked as a professional sound eng for 30 years as my "day job." The last thing I want to do at a gig is spend a long time as the sound eng. This unit effectively has freed me from that. And while the quick tweak interface in aimed at the novice, it's quick and easy to get good results. And if you're so inclined, it's simple to go in and deep tweak, say adding 3 dB of 8k to a mic and widening the Q. Add the ability to record a 20 second loop and go out into the audience to tweak the sound from an iPad and we are firmly into the realm of "revolutionary." This has already improved my live sound. With all my years of experience, I never realized how profoundly hearing my own voice through my head was affecting my solo sound checks. The ability to go in the audience and hear my own vocal purely through the sound system is a big deal! Finally, you can record performances multitrack (at the inputs), no hassle, right onboard onto an SD card or USB stick. I add one mic for the room and one on my guitar amp (neither to mains), load it onto my DAW after the gig and . . . wham! Instant high quality multitrack recording. BTW, I use it with 1 or 2 Bose L1s with 2 subs, singing and playing keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, and iPad based backing tracks.

The m20D is a wonderful unit. It's rock solid and sounds really good. Like any unit aimed at non-engineers, it does have some quirks and minor limitations. To make a complicated unit easy-to-use this is unavoidable. The price gave me pause at first but for all it does it's a value almost beyond belief. A great investment.

TF
from Virginia
February 9, 2013

M20d DreamScape System

I recently purchased an M20d, with Line 6 speaker system. So far, I am very impressed. There may be a number of details that those deeply engaged in professional sound mixing may critique, but for those who gig frequently, and run their own sound/mixing, this is indeed a dream. It takes some time to get used to the visual interface, but for the ipad generation, do not believe it is a big effort.

I did not find any issues with speaker stability (have the Line 6 speaker poles), nor with the wireless dongle insertion, even in a very heavy bass drum beat situation. It set up quickly, though you need to keep in mind the need to use prescribed wireless dongles, and make sure (if you have cellular AND wireless functions on your ipad, to shut off the cellular before connecting, or it may interfere).

Great care and service from my Sweetwater engineer, as always.

Harry Smith
from United States
December 30, 2012Music Background:
Acoustic Guitarist and Live Sound Engineer

StageScape M20d vs. PreSonus 16.4.2

I use my mixers for live sound mostly, and am very familiar with analog mixers as I have owned many over the past 15 years. Just 6 months ago I bought my first digital mixer, a PreSonus 16.4.2, but just sold it last month because it was just too complex for me to learn how to us its many features (and I read it's User Guide many times, and watched many videos in an effort to learn). But for live sound I found it too difficult to quickly locate the controls I needed to make for during performances.

Still wanting the digital features of a mixer, I just bought the Line 6 StageScape M20d, (after also considering the Mackie DL1608) and in the first 7 days I have been able to learn and use most of its features! When the M20d came out 6 months ago I considered buying it but thought the small 7" screen was too small to manage all the controls. I was wrong. Now that I own the M20d, I am AMAZED of how easy, simple, and QUICK I can control and adjust settings.

Here are some of the best features of the M20d: 1) I can quickly record 20 seconds and hear it immediately; 2) I can easily add various mics and instruments and adjust their FX and EQ settings; 3) the ability to record multiple channels to a USB or SD media... or computer is quick and simple! And lastly, the iPad control feature works perfectly. It holds the WiFi signal and is responsive. (This was something the PerSonus did poorly, and was another big reason I sold it.)

Although the M20d was the most expensive of the 3 digital mixers I considered, I am convinced it is the best value because it is so easy to use and offers great iPad controls and multi-channel recording.

R. Johan B.
from North Coast of CA, USA
October 29, 2012Music Background:
Pro Musician, Hobbyist Live & Recording Engineer

Simply Stagescape

Had the Line 6 Stagescape M20d in my sights since it came out. I had many questions about it: Is it worth the money? Will it do what I need it to do? How easy is it to operate? Has the sales rep tried it? Any feedback from purchasers who haven't written a review? And seems like a lot more questions. John, my sales rep, answered every last one of them.

The Stagescape is geared toward people like me: a musician who wants a quick PA setup & mix, but who doesn't want to take the time away from the music, and really not that good of an engineer.

Is it worth the money?
I had my eye on other mixers as well, so first of all, the price: It's high for a regular 16 channel digital mixer, BUT, it includes a lot of effects onboard that the purchaser would otherwise spend a lot of money on. Adding up the cost of mic processors, compressers, gates, reverb, delay, doublers, preamps, and a lot more that would one would normally stack up in a rack, it came out to cost a lot less than the costs of the outboard equipment I had in my rack, and a lot of my rack mounted gear is low-end equipment!

Will it do what I need it to do? Is it easy to use?
Experimenting with the Stagescape at home, yes, but the real test came with an event that featured multiple bands, where setups and tear-downs had to be quick, with on-the-fly soundchecks. Being it that I was still learning some of the ins and outs of the Stagescape, it was very easy to use in that situation, as it has auto recognition of which cable is plugged-in, then shows a list of icons that can be chosen for the equipment that is actually in that channel, with each icon coming with automatic presets. There are several of each type to choose from, from male or female vocalists and the vocalist's role, acoustic and electric guitars and basses, to drums and percussion, and even external playback devices. Each can be put on the "stage" just using touch and sliding the icon into position No need to look at a list written on tape on the mixer. Once chosen, it is easy to Tweak each icon with simple and easy to use parameters. Even getting in and changing some of the "advanced" settings was made simple.

It did, for that event, what I needed it to do.
It was basically an assistant engineer for me that I could just set-and-go on-the-fly. Was easy to adjust, on-the-fly, using only the touch screen. Didn't have to mess with settings on rackmount gear as it's all onboard the Stagescape. Also, doesn't need Direct Boxes.

What else can it do?
It can save all of those settings that you've made so you won't have to redo them at the next gig. It can save all of those settings so you won't have to redo them at each venue. It can also record, live, each of the 12 mic-input channels and the 2 main output channels, each remaining separated when recording, which makes it easy to make small edits if one is releasing a "live album". Monitors are easy as well. No having to try to find which bus the channel is on, it is simply touch the icons, and use the lighted knobs to adjust the monitor mix.
It can also do a lot of things that I haven't discovered or haven't needed to use yet.

It's that easy.

It's also very light and easy to carry/move around. I bought a road case with the Stagescape to protect it. The screen, after all, is a touchscreen.

My questions were all answered by my sales rep, as well as another rep. They took the time to answer all of my questions, even though it took a few phone calls and emails.

If you are a musician, like me, who wants easy setups, this is for you. If you are a band who wants to just play, this is for you.
If you are an house band and don't want to have to redo your sound checks every time you play, this is for you.
If you are a not-so-good sound engineer (like me), this is for you.
If you don't want to lug a rack around that is loaded with heavy gear, this is for you.
If you're used to all of the touchscreen devices that are being used pretty much everywhere, you will feel right at home with the Stagescape.

There is so much more I could say about Line 6's Stagescape, but this review is long enough already.
So, simply put: I recommend the Stagescape. It is a fun, simple to use, and awesome device!

Carl James Steen
from Chichester N.Y.
April 12, 2013Music Background:
Part time musician, have participated in a few band projects.

Great and Easy To Operate Mixer

I was using the Presonus 16:4:2 digital mixer which was a good product but I just could'nt deal with the engineer status I had to be to operate it, as easy as they say it was, it really took knowledge of sound engineering. to master it and to have to perform on stage and operate the board it did'nt work for me. Welcome to the Line 6 Stagescape M20D! Just a pleasure to understand and operate I really love this mixer! The only improvement so far I could use is 6 auxs and 16 or 24 mic inputs but then your talk'n bigger board bigger weight more to carry. I like this unit just fine! Sweetwater was fabulous with the deal as I had other transaction difficulties to conquer and they came thru!

Tom Kennedy
from Chicago, IL
October 5, 2012Music Background:
Local Musician

M20d - Reviewed

I purchased the M20d as well as a pair of main Line 6 monitors and the associated subs for a complete system. Very easy to set up and get going. Sound is fundamentally very good. People in clubs, particularly musicians love to come and see the setup. Many are downright fascinated and have heard stories that the M20d will not only make great music but will drive your band van and pick the green M&M's out of the bowl for you!

The devil is in the details:

First, we attempted to go with a wireless Ipad control for our sound technician. every time we hit a strong bass note the wireless connection died and reset making critical adjustments impossible. We actually found that by duct taping the witeless fob to the board we mitigated much of the problem, not all. Have personally had no similar diconnects with the competing Mackie board. Duct tape on my brand new M20d! Yikes!

We found the preset sounds to be lacking tight midrange, particulary missing some key guitar tonality in the mix. Seemed overly compressed. We were going direct in to the board via an Axe-fx processor for guitar. We have been going direct in with the Axe-fx for about 18 months with amazing results but we found it challenging with the M20d. It was harder in general than expected to dial in the right mix. Our antiquated system actually sounded better under similar circumstances. In fairness this is new to us and I anticipate we will find a way to master the unit and deliver great sound. Nonetheless, it is far from plug and play to deliver truly great sound.

A related problem, is the issue that the monitors don't sit squarely on top of the mountiong poles, they rock around a bit which seem strange in such a high quality setup.

This is a very cool product and I realize there was risk being an early adopter of the system. My most frustrating issue is the current round of rebates being offered that do not apply to my purchase. I have been penalized by Line 6 for taking a risk on their product. That is bad mojo.