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Friday, June 19, 2026
The Quiet Signs: A Look At How To Determine When It's Time To Upgrade Your Mixing Console
ProSoundWeb: Modern shows quietly demand more than most consoles were originally built to handle. More inputs, mixes, matrices, moving parts, and routing decisions. Just more.
There’s a strange loyalty that comes with the consoles you’ve built your career on. For me, the platforms I cut my teeth on weren’t stepping stones, they were workhorses. They paid bills, handled real shows, survived chaotic load-ins, and never once embarrassed me in front of a client. They were stable, predictable, and familiar in the best way.
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While I'm in the lighting world more than the sound world I've found a similar equilibrium where so long as equipment works it feels wrong to consider upgrading or replacing it. I think for me this feeling comes partially from having worked with groups with very limited production budget. When budget is tight I often find that upgrading existing equipment takes a back seat so long as it still works in some capacity. I find a similar phenomenon when time is limited. I think in the lighting world the biggest example I can think of is macros and magic sheets. recording a macro takes time and if I want to add it to the magic sheet that takes time as well. Which means that in the rare situations where you need the command line mid show I've found myself favoring just typing the command on the fly rather than having a macro to trigger it. Because when a workaround works you often stop thinking of it as a workaround.
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