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Pro Sound Web: Over many years in this business, it’s been pretty amazing to watch how our tools have been impacted by technological advances and also how we’ve been rather accepting of these new directions, particularly with respect to digital mixing consoles.
3 comments:
Philip Rheinheimer
said...
Like all technology, digital sound consoles are advancing at an astonishing rate. They are getting more and more compact, when desirable, but manufacturers are also packing more and more features into them. Networking and improving the user interface seem to be the areas that are focused on most. More and more companies are developing remote control options, mostly for iPads, that allow engineers to tweak or even do the entire mix on their devices. The most interesting example of this was the Mackie DL1608 which doesn't have any physical control surface and is totally controlled via iPad. The only thing I would be worried about is the user interface. Their app must be really good otherwise using the console would be a pain. Improving the control desk and user interface is the other most developed thing. More companies are starting to add touch or even multi-touch displays, some with build in dials for clarity. They are also adding more illumination to help make it clearer, using color or brightness, what channels are active or are performing different functions. Just like any other technology, digital mixers are going to keep advancing and I'm excited to see what the next big development will be.
It is important that sound technology is advancing like everything else. The digital consoles make sound mixing a lot easier because there are more options. It is very helpful that sound consoles are able to be controlled by iPads from a different place in the theater. Being tied down to a board can be very difficult especially if things need to fixed. With the digital consoles there are also different menus and pages that you can do different things on. There are more lights on the board which is easier to see in the dark as well.
Like Philip said, the technological capabilities of todays digital consoles have been advancing, and continue to advance at quite an astonishing rate. This phenomena is making the lives of Live Sound Engineers easier and easier with each advancement that comes out. That being said, I was exposed to the digital console world in late 2010 with my high schools purchase of a Soundcraft Vi4. Making the jump from our Gamble EX56 to the digital was difficult at first but soon made my life as an engineer so much easier. For one thing it rendered most of my outboard gear useless (the only thing that remained was a CD player and a DVD player). This made it so easy to alter things on the fly without even leaving the safety of my console. We also got the console before the iPad app hit the app store so seeing that technological advancement was an astonishing jump. As for the Mackie DL1608 I can talk from personal experience in saying that the User Interface is not good enough for it to be a standalone console
3 comments:
Like all technology, digital sound consoles are advancing at an astonishing rate. They are getting more and more compact, when desirable, but manufacturers are also packing more and more features into them. Networking and improving the user interface seem to be the areas that are focused on most. More and more companies are developing remote control options, mostly for iPads, that allow engineers to tweak or even do the entire mix on their devices. The most interesting example of this was the Mackie DL1608 which doesn't have any physical control surface and is totally controlled via iPad. The only thing I would be worried about is the user interface. Their app must be really good otherwise using the console would be a pain. Improving the control desk and user interface is the other most developed thing. More companies are starting to add touch or even multi-touch displays, some with build in dials for clarity. They are also adding more illumination to help make it clearer, using color or brightness, what channels are active or are performing different functions. Just like any other technology, digital mixers are going to keep advancing and I'm excited to see what the next big development will be.
It is important that sound technology is advancing like everything else. The digital consoles make sound mixing a lot easier because there are more options. It is very helpful that sound consoles are able to be controlled by iPads from a different place in the theater. Being tied down to a board can be very difficult especially if things need to fixed. With the digital consoles there are also different menus and pages that you can do different things on. There are more lights on the board which is easier to see in the dark as well.
Like Philip said, the technological capabilities of todays digital consoles have been advancing, and continue to advance at quite an astonishing rate. This phenomena is making the lives of Live Sound Engineers easier and easier with each advancement that comes out. That being said, I was exposed to the digital console world in late 2010 with my high schools purchase of a Soundcraft Vi4. Making the jump from our Gamble EX56 to the digital was difficult at first but soon made my life as an engineer so much easier. For one thing it rendered most of my outboard gear useless (the only thing that remained was a CD player and a DVD player). This made it so easy to alter things on the fly without even leaving the safety of my console. We also got the console before the iPad app hit the app store so seeing that technological advancement was an astonishing jump. As for the Mackie DL1608 I can talk from personal experience in saying that the User Interface is not good enough for it to be a standalone console
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