Regarding Digital Mixing Consoles

03-06-2008, 10:43 PM

I may get reamed for this, but I don't think any of this is the way of the future. It's the way of right the heck now...for certain applications.

For certain applications, devices that are essentially computers with control surfaces don't have the reliability required. (Now, if you've got the uber neat systems that can reboot the audio enginer and the control surface engine separately, you're telling a different story.) However, for little ankle nipping annoyances like yours truly, the small digital mixing console is no less than miraculous. So much so that going back to the "traditional" way makes me desire my own workflow that much more.

Case in point: I'm mixing the farewell show for a favorite band of mine, and I'm using a house system with a Soundcraft...oh what was it...a GB4, I think. My normal console (when I'm in my own house or carrying my little PA somewhere) is a DM24. Just to start, the house rig had been being rewired and retweaked all day long, and the console was anything but zeroed. Having to get everything back to a zero state by hand is time consuming and frustrating when, on my own rig, I reset the mic pres, scroll down to my "Zero Split Monitor" preset, and hit recall. Done. Five seconds. Ready to go.

Further, while contending with an unzeroed console, I had none of my usual goodies. With the GB4, I was stuck with an EQ comprising four bands of what the manufacturer thought would fit most needs...and it was okay. However, just tweaking one channel of vocals was making me miss MY EQ's, which are configured the way that I WANT them (ALL fully parametric filters, by default), with the Q's that I WANT, and sweepability from 20 - 20 on ALL bands. For whatever reason, the manufacturer configuration of the GB4's EQ just didn't feel like it could quite do enough to get exactly what I wanted - and it bugged the crap out of me. Also, on the DM24, I have dynamics processors on every channel, right at my fingertips. No patching, no cabling, and I can choose where I want the compressor to be in the signal path - not so with the GB4 (at least, not on the fly, as far as I could tell).

Of course, this is only a single case, on a single "other" console, but I think it illustrates my point - the point being functionality and flexibility. Years ago, back in school, when I saw a TMD4000, I knew it was the way I wanted to go. Similarly to the functionality of the SSL G series in the studio next door, the TMD was packing flexible EQ and dynamics processing right into the frame of the console - and that immediately set my mouth to watering. (Obviously, the sonics of the TMD weren't the same as the SSL. Still, who wants to lug an SSL to a club gig?)

I can definitely understand why some people don't like the digital workflow, even when steps have been taken to get more knobs on the control surface, but I like what digital does for me. On the subject of getting to feedback quickly, I've never experienced a problem with navigating the DM24's interface swiftly. The console wasn't designed with live sound in mind, but you can make things happen very fast - if you're already familiar with the interface.

...and if that Presonus is reasonable priced (and they keep making them), I just might purchase one when my personal DM24 decides to expire. Hopefully that won't happen for quite a while.