Review : Soundcraft Ui16

What’s in a name?

The odd thing about the Ui is that while Soundcraft is an English company, the Ui was actually conceived in Melbourne, Australia by SM Pro Audio. The firm was acquired by Soundcraft earlier this year, and now the Ui12 and Ui16 have landed on shelves. The Ui series has a feature set which make it a good choice for small musical acts (duos, trios and such). While it sits in a realistic price bracket to garner strong appeal in this market, it would work equally well in corporate AV.

Ui12 and Ui16 both look largely the same, the key difference being the number of connectors on the box. I call it a box, because even though I know it’s a mixer it bears a much closer resemblance to a stage box than a console. Like the thing everybody’s doing now, Soundcraft has released a mixer with no faders, but it’s a bit different from many others out there.

For starters, WiFi is built into the box. You can plug in power and audio, then connect wirelessly to the unit and start using it immediately. Unlike other systems, the Ui interface will run on virtually any device with a browser, so your control choices are limited only to whatever you can lay your hands on. There are no app updates to download nor any other annoying incompatibility problems. As much as the interface works well, frankly the idea of relying solely on any 2.4GHz device working reliably for the duration of a gig scares the pants off me. Perhaps anticipating such WiFi reluctance as mine, the designers were smart enough to include an RJ45 Ethernet connection, so you can run a cable direct from the Ui into a laptop and leave another instance of the interface running there. If the WiFi fails, just walk to the laptop, continue mixing, and keep your pants on. If for some reason you prefer to use your own WiFi gear, you can disable the on-board Ui WiFi and do this.