A+H GLD-80 Chrome Edition

[GaryH]

A+H GLD Chrome Edition 48 ch mixer

I have added yet another Dante enabled horse to the stable. Yes I know I’m crazy. I was able to obtain a used A+H GLD-80 Chrome Edition mixer for a song and a dance. Thousands of dollars less than others out there for sale exactly like it. I cleaned it up a bit (didn’t need much) reset it which did require a bit of physical work, and loaded up the latest firmware update and I dare say it is now in near perfect operational condition. One email to a US A+H distributer and I was in business. They could not have been more helpful. Most refreshing. They sent exact detailed instructions with pictures of the correct jumper and its location!! Refreshing in the “nearly no service” policy for MT gear these days. Lucky for me I guess. It did require a bit of work to reset it but it was essentially very easy. Maybe 10 screws total to remove the back panel. A jumper to short some pins (common on computer related products) then start up, shut down and remove the jumper and….done! This reset was more involved than the usual garden variety as the Admin and User accounts files were full, the previous owner did not know ANY passwords and basically had a mixer that worked but could not save anything or update it at all. Not too useful. Made it more like an analog desk than digital.

The reason I got interested is this mixer at all: it has a slot for a 64 ch A+H Dante Card (M-Dante) just like the iDR stage boxes. PLUS it uses a direct connection to non Dante stagebox Ethernet protocol used on the newer and most current A+H mixer and stage box models should I ever wish to go that way some day down the road. Anyhow that card made connections to my Dante network rather easy. I had the card already so that simplified things and kept down the overall cost. To be fair money wise, the M-Dante card, being a current A+H product, still sells for a lot of money so this is a major consideration for anyone considering a similar project. That said if you are patient and look around, they can be found for very reasonable prices.

The wonders and relative ease of a Dante network wipe away interconnectivity issues between various Dante enabled yet different brand manufacturers equipment. You also will need some free software apps to control the Preamps when using them with MT mixers etc. Free programs similar to X32-Edit also exist. These can run simultaneously on an iPad or pc/Mac etc. with any Behringer or Midas app. I now can interface Midas, Yamaha, Behringer and A+H gear without compromise, at 48k anyway. All of them able to communicate and rout audio to one another. To me this is truly amazing! This quest all started because of my desire to find a reasonably priced Dante enabled stagebox for use with my Wing and M32. MT has yet to offer a stagebox with Dante capability. Wish they had BUT I have learned a lot going in this direction. In that quest I learned a ton about other devices that would interface with my Wing, and M32R Dante enabled gear. All desks (via Dante) can use any of the Yamaha or A+H stageboxes. Not to forget the AES50 boxes can be used with any of the MT gear, and then by using the Dante card via DC to any of the rest. So lets say an M32 with a DL32 and SD8 as it’s sources can send those sources via Card out (X-Dante) routing to say the GLD-80 mixer….or Wing. The GLD mixer can use the Yamaha stage boxes as sources and send via Dante to a Wing to mix or use one Yamaha and one A+H stage box. Multiple crazy options exist. Wild stuff. I don’t know if I will ever use them all together (except here now to experiment and test) but from this I now know I can if I want to. Smaller subsets of the mentioned gear I will surely use. It also means I have many options to choose from to do live events. Don’t like MT gear because of a rider, no problem. The GLD is not a current A+H product but the Chrome Editions which added many new features and fx was put out around 2018/19 (mine dated 2020) and like the X32 or M32 models, are still very useable. In fact I did a closeup comparison to the A+H SQ series mixer desktops and found that though the physical layout was quite different, the actual controls offered were essentially just the same, if not exactly the same but located in a different space. I dont know it well yet but it is fairly straight forward and it's fun.

[Karnage]

Sounds very cool indeed! I'm sticking to smaller setups these days with the Behringer XR18 (used to run a pair of Roland VM7200 digital mixers together with a mic input expander giving 48 mic ins and two controlling locations) but it could happen I need to expand again later. This is useful info and shared experience here.

[GaryH]

@Karnage i do a decent amount of smaller gig’s too so I do appreciate the smaller footprint and less lifting-especially less lifting! I don’t know that particular Roland model but have used Roland desks, they also still sound really good!

[BuckyBoy]

GaryH,
Could you share the info on hard-reset of the GLD-80, please? We've purchased a board that the original owner can't remember the admin password. I've tried searching the web for info but can't find instructions.
I'm referring to opening up the board and jumping connections to remove the admin password.

Thank you for your assistance.
Kevin

[GaryH]

@BuckyBoy Sorry I missed your post. Yes I can help there. Fairly easy. First you have to remove the rear section of the GLD. I did not have to remove the bottom cover but as I recall just a few of the upper screws where the two sections meet so as to allow the back section to come off freely. You will need a torx screwdriver of the correct sixe (gonna say #8 but I forget exactly) The back can then flip up, lay on top of the mixer surface with all ribbon cables attached. Go slowly and carefully and you will be ok. As I recall the cables had enough free length to easily do this. Again just go slowly and it will be fine. There is one specific jumper (JP1) that needs to be shorted. Then turn the mixer on. Shut it down again and remove the jumper. Then restart normally it will be reset to the default factory settings. On my mixer i also recall there not being any jumper at JP1 at all and so I used one from an old PC motherboard to short the 2 pins. When I was done I left it on just one pin side so it would be there in case I want to do it again ever. Note the caution in regards to shorting the wrong jumpers in the pic below! There are 3 there and you are shorting JP1 ONLY. You will find that this process is easy enough!

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESET PROFILES/PASSWORDS:

1. Power off the mixer.
2. Short jumper JP1.
3. Power on the mixer, allow it to fully boot.
4. Power off the mixer.
5. Remove the jumper from JP1.