Soundcraft Si Expression 3 32-channel Digital Mixer Reviews

This is a well built console with great FX, bright and easy to see glowing faders so you can't get confused on what sound you are mixing and tons of processing power built in. It sets a higher standard for digital consoles nowadays.

We use this mixer at our church and so far so good,and sounds great without any issues! the only issues we've run into every now and then is just the learning curves that come with an awesome technology. Other than that,I highly recommend it! The only wish that I would like to add on to this mixer is,the capability to use iphone/android apps for individual monitor mixes. Hopefully soundcraft is working on that. As always,Thank you Scott Bennett(X1738) for your wisdom and providing us an excellent sweetwater service...

This console is a LOT of bang for the buck and is a great value!! I am very impressed! The layout of the work surface and architecture are very intuitive and the color-coded faders make it very easy to navigate, especially for those who are either new to digital consoles or for "green" volunteers. As an example, I had a relatively new volunteer with zero experience with digital consoles almost flawlessly mix a show with only 15 min of instruction (and that was during sound check).

The construction is solid and the processing capabilities are impressive, especially for a console in this size and price range. The few limitations that I found (none of them "show-stoppers") were all things that I would not have expected to find in a console in this price range and there were work-arounds for all of them.

The I/O's make for an easy DIY installation, if you are replacing an existing console. The Visi Remote app is very responsive and provides almost complete control with virtually no latency.

I am very impressed!!

This unique looking mixer will blow your mind with colourful faders and powerful 3d effects will rock your world, get the multi card and connected to your favourite DAW instantly

I like this console very much because of various good products under one console like the Lexicon fx processor,BSS geq etc.Excellent sound quality with good reliability.

First I was confused between choosing sc vs yamaha(As a pro live sound engineer I would never think of Behringer :D Finally I had taken demo of Yamaha ls9 and SC expression.To be honest I fell in love with Expression instantly!!SO AMAZING,FLEXIBLE.LOVE IT!!

Pros: easy to configure, intuitive layout, sonically incredible (it's a Soundcraft, after all), great preamps, Lexi effects, flexible,
Cons: no limiters, some configuring limitations, small screen

My bio: 40 years experience, from THE Midwest punk club in the 80's to stadium & arenas, from TV programs with live bands to theatrical performance.
I use two versions: a 16 channel for a weekly live TV remote and a 32 for my church. I love 'em (in spite of a few configuring limitations) because they are so quiet. I can slam the compressors for the TV show and they don't pump. The musicians at church love that they can WIFI control their own mix (we do 8). Our all-EAW system is QSC & Crown powered (!!,000 watts). I recently mixed on a Allen & Heath that cost 8 times a much and I like the Expression 3 better. The A&H had some modes that tripped me up. I thought, REALLY?!?! Sure, iLive144 has a lot more flexibility and sweet functionality but it's $24k. At $3.5k, this one does everything I need: lots of mixes, sub masters, matrices, Lexi efx. What more could a grey haired FOH fella want? Ok, maybe subs that'll really do 20hz...

I've mixed FOH and livestream on this mixer every week for 2+ years. Coming from an older Presonus and Yamaha TF, it has advantages and disadvantages. The Presonus preamps were awful. Yamaha preamps were much better than Presonus as was the signal processing. The Yamaha was more capable but less intuitive, especially setup and configuration but had a really nice compressor. The real downfall of the TF was unreliable fader operation when switching between layers: faders would randomly fail to return to their proper position when switching back to the previous layer, affecting the level of the channel under control.

Compared to these mixers the Expression has a user-friendly UI, rock solid reliability, and decent mic pres. Like the Yamaha, the Expression has plenty of I/O and routing and I found it easier to learn vs. the TF and easier to train new users (obviously YMMV). With all the positives, we are planning to replace the Expression because the compressor has a hard hard-knee response that is obvious and ugly, especially with vocals. Given our overall positive experience with Soundcraft we will certainly give their other mixers a look.

It's a beautiful designed board, I love the features and the quality in making this an effective design. I was disappointed that when demoing the board I ask questions about specs that I did not see mentioned; namely the Bit rate and Sample Frequency. I was told that it was a 24 bit, 48Khz. (code for 44.1 KHz.). Base on the work put into it's design, I assumed that is would be capable of 32 bit, 96Khz. Sadly disappointed, although still at the right price. The preamps sec very nicely, maybe it will come later as an upgrade.

This console is a bunch of bright, pristine and robust hardware jailed in a poor software definition, screen is too small and it lacks in a fully parametric Q for bands 1 and 4

I like the great processor engine (can handle up to 64channels simultaneously with a external digital snake) with dynamics and EQ each,

It also lacks on simple isolate features in gain and 48v that other brands perform good, I might think its easy to resolve so I had touched base with Soundcraft support but no response so far from them (1 year ago)

This is makes this console to be kept for really small applications with tons of unnecessary chanels

I have an Si expression 3 and a x32 and definitely I would go for a x32 once more if I need to choose again

No PC or MAC-based support (can't edit my show files from my show PC or control anything from the computer) and the only useful remote is for iPad only. Software updates are few and far between. I miss Yamaha Studio Manager...

I've been doing live sound for 10+ years now on both digital and analog boards and quite simply, I do not like this board. It certainly does a lot and I acknowledge it's a powerful board. However, the user experience is not intuitive, which makes it difficult for (1) training new techs, (2) on-the-fly changes, (3) multi-use spaces, and (4) compatibility with various software and hardware interfaces. The iPad is the best way to manage the board remotely which is an unfortunate limitation. Scene management and I/O routings are frustrating to configure, and the on-board touch screen is far too small to be a useful feature (I am often frustrated by the limitations on this alone).

On a personal note, I do not like the sound of this board. I understand it's a personal preference but I find the sound of the preamps and FX processing to be inferior to those on boards like the M32 (and even X32!), GLD112, and CL series. I also feel like the buttons, knobs, faders, and touchscreen all simply feel cheap in build quality.

Overall, it's a powerful board and it works. But I do not like it, and I believe for the price there are FAR better options. Go with the M32 is my recommendation.

This console was no where near up to par with even the Behringer X32! It was being used in a theater that does multiple shows a day with turn arounds as well, so different patch set up each show. This console has very weak scene management and poor resolution on everything! EQ, Compressor, Faders. Also show files were not being saved and recalled correctly. It would be hit and miss everyday. We now have upgraded to the Allen & Heath GLD 112 and all is well once again. Please try before you buy to make sure that this will work for your situation.

Without question, this is the worst console I have ever mixed on. I would rather mix on a Mackie analog board than this thing, and I mean that sincerely.

Why? Here are a couple of reasons. There are no scribble strips, so board tape is essential. The touchscreen is tiny and the software is bad. None of the EQs have RTA functionality, which makes ringing out mics or wedges absurdly difficult. The routing makes absolutely no sense even with combing through the manual. The board doesn't multitrack via USB. The headphone jack is underneath the console for some reason, even with an empty space bigger than the entire controls on the top left of the board. The "On" setting isn't saved per channel, rather it's saved per mix. So if you have a channel off for the main mix and turn it on while an AUX mix is selected, no audio will be passed through, but the light will illuminate. Other digital consoles like the SQ-5 do this globally, and it makes for a remarkably confusing and frustrating experience. There are no copy, paste, or reset buttons, making EQing similar channels more time consuming. The knob on top of each channel can be set to gain, filter, or pan, but there's also a dedicated gain knob for each selected channel, leading users to accidentally pan a channel when they meant to gain it, or vice versa.

There is no reason to buy this thing in the year 2023. The SQ-5 is basically the same price and is significantly more powerful and easier to use. The X32, while Music-Tribe has their own problems, is cheaper and more functional than the Expression. I refuse to understand why Soundcraft is even selling this thing at this price