No more cumbersome large-frame analog consoles that take four or more stagehands to move and set up.
No more promoters and event planners crying about how much room said large-frame analog console and associated outboard drive and effects racks are occupying at front of house.
4 comments:
The advantages of compact digital mixers are clear. Small footprints, increased processing abilities, and incredible bang for the buck make these mixers an increasingly smart and popular choice. All kinds of venues, large and small, benefit from these mixers. What were once huge investments for this kind of gear have gone down greatly and the feature set is continually increasing making investing in a digital console of any kind a good choice. The only issue I see with purchasing a digital mixer for a small venue like a school or church is that you need someone with the knowhow to run it. But other than that it makes a lot of sense to buy a digital mixer especially ones that now have the ability to expand their fader count by linking together. All in all I think we are going to see a continued increase in these kinds of consoles on the market, but I don't think they will push analogue mixers off the market entirely.
Having worked for a corporate sound company over this past summer I have seen first hand the benefits of the small compact consoles that this article is referring to. Being primarily a Soundcraft company we have several Vi6's and Vi1's that we regularly used on bigger gigs that a large format console was appropriate. Being a corporate sound company we also had a lot of smaller gigs that these larger Vi consoles were not appropriate (weddings, small fundraisers, etc.). Wanting something that could interface with our Soundcraft racks we decided to go with a Soundcraft Si Performer 2. With 32 in board preamps, 4 Lexicon effects processors, 16 output mixes, and processing for each input and output channel this console was great for what we needed it for. Once we outfitted it with a MADI card we were able to connect one of our Vi stage boxes and up the input channels to 64. The only problem I had with the console was that it was in a 22 fader format which is strange. Typically you see intervals of 8 or 12.
I think that digital consoles are really cool, and I really want to become more comfortable working with them. I've always preferred working with analog consoles because I'm a very visual person and I like to be able to see everything that's going on, but seeing these new, more compact digital consoles it's pretty clear that for these smaller scale events digital is the way to go. I don't have much experience with digital, but hopefully I'll learn how to use the Soundcraft in the Rauh at some point. To be completely honest it kinda scares me, and once when I was standing next to it someone hit a button that cause all the faders to move and I literally jumped. I think it's great that we have this sort of technology at CMU, at it's really important that we get the opportunity to learn on such state of the art technology. That being said, I really hope that when/if the Chosky console is replaced, it's replaced with an analog console. It might be enormous, but I just think that there's something really cool about working with an analog desk, and knowing that you are physically touching the sound, as opposed to just a collection of zeroes and ones.
As much as smaller consoles and digital consoles are great in many ways. I still feel a little bit sad that I am entering this world as larger analog consoles are leaving it. I miss the feeling of being able to have a physical knob for every control. I know it is impractical, but I find it easier to understand how consoles work when there are all physical controls.
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