Staff at Midas' Kidderminster factory with the 500th Heritage 3000.
September 2002 marked another landmark in Midas's 30-year history as the Heritage 3000 bearing serial number 500 rolled off the production line at the Kidderminster factory.

In just three short years since the launch of the award-winning Heritage 3000 it has become the industry standard for concert touring and the backbone of console stocks for rental companies all over the world. Its status as the premier console of choice for this market, particularly in partnership with the flagship XL4, is further underlined by the fact that eight out of ten of the top-grossing tours to come out of the US used Heritage 3000s or XL4 or both. According to Midas' head of sales, David Cooper, the Heritage 3000 is a perfect example of a manufacturer responding to customer demands and coming up with exactly the right product. "Our customers needed a console that could handle itself both on stage or at FOH with ease, would stand up to the rigours of touring, and still retain that unmistakable Midas sound. It also had to be at the right price. The Heritage 3000 delivered all of that and became a style icon in the process!"

The Heritage 2000 and Heritage 1000 have also been hugely popular in the installation and theatre markets and, in the case of the Heritage 1000, with rental companies as well. Over 300 Heritage 2000s have shipped since its launch two-and-a-half years ago, while the two-year old Heritage 1000 has sold 250 units, making a total of over 1000 Heritage consoles sold worldwide. "It's a fantastic achievement," said Cooper, "and one of which I think we can be justifiably proud."

A recent upgrade to the Heritage software means the console is fully compatible with the newly-launched Klark Teknik digital equalizer, the Helix DN9340 and the slave version, the DN9344. The primary application will be for monitors where the software offers an ‘auto-solo’ function, so that the channel of Helix assigned to a given input or output will appear automatically on the control surface of the master unit at the push of a button. This function is also available to owners of Legend Series consoles. In fact, the Legend 3000 may well turn out to be the biggest selling Midas console yet: already 250 have left the factory since shipping commenced in March. "It's been a stupendous 12 months," stated Cooper, "and there are more exciting developments underway, so the next 12 months could prove to be even better!"

(Lee Baldock)


Latest Issue. . .