VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[chrisvoco]

Anybody have experience with any of the various digital mixers, particularly the offerings from A&H, or Soundcraft, or Midas, or Yamaha, or the MOTU 828, that you control across the network? Started preparations to redo my office/studio, and I'm stuck on the horns of the mixer dilemma:

1. Footprint. My old analog consoles take up space - I'd like to go from many several square feet down to a few rack spaces.

2. My consoles are biting the dust. It is time to stop repairing them and move on.

3. They generate a substantial amount of heat (only a good thing in the winter).

4. I like to imagine a modern digital mixer has less crosstalk in general, and eliminates several points where RF creeps in in an analog one.

5. I'd like routing flexibility without needing to physically unplug/re-plug stuff.


I've always been stuck on thinking I need physical pots to slide, in case I ever need to, I dunno, mix in the dark, I guess, or do super cool DJ moves while talking and looking elsewhere (with plenty of java and Chesterfield Kings). That myth has been busted, because I always have lights on, don't need to work by feel, there's nobody dancing here in my office, and I seldom actually move the pots. So, I'm thinking mouse or tablet control is just fine.

One fearful factor: repairs. My initial feeling was that you can always repair an analog console yourself. Then I got to thinking, what do you spend your time fixing on one? Hardened caps and scratchy pots. A "stagebox" or rack mount digital mixer eliminates the pots entirely, so at least half the worries are gone right there.

So, tell me I'm wrong, or tell me I'm right. Or just tell me if you use one and like it.
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Finally, Ford stops starting to say things and starts.

[MBVOXX]

I migrated from tape to Pro Tools in 1995 and installed a 24 track controller in 2001, which worked great until software development made the Control 24 obsolete. These days, the newer series of single fader controllers are actually very useful. and if one fader isn't enough, then the 8 fader models are the way to go. You can daisy chain them if you want a full array of 24 or more.
I've been using an Artist Mix with an Avid Dock and it's a perfect match for Pro Tools. But other options out there work equally well with other DAW software. Check out the SSL UF line along with others. And, if you want more, there's the big step up from desktop controllers to console layout controllers.
The sky is the limit. And if you match hands on hardware to the same builder software, they are glitch free with in depth control features.

[verbcrunch]

Sorry to reply almost 4 months later...

Yesterday I did a live radio show on WZBC using a Metric Halo LIO8 as a mixer. It's an audio interface with 8 analog + 8 digital in and outs. I controlled it using an Artist Mix. Using the mixer was just like running the board live at a radio station. It's all done with MIDI or EUCon controllers - both tactile faders and iPads. I stopped using actual mixers 15 years ago.

The Metric Halo boxes use Dante-like ethernet connections to send and receive audio and can be controlled from anywhere on your wired network. There are other audio interfaces like this, but I'm not sure which ones work with the EUCon protocol.
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Jeff Berlin
Humble Voice Guy
http://www.jeffberlin.com

[JohnV]

I have a foot in 2 worlds of this and am dragging myself into the 21st Century....kicking and screaming.
-- BUZZWORD ALERT --
I am working for a video production studio and learning to swim in a TRICASTER (NEwTec)/VIDEOHUB/DANTE/REIDLE network world on a (forgive me) Behringer32 digital console.
It's a widely-completely-routable digital web of
- analog lav mics on the main news set,
- analog SHURE SM7B's on the pretend-garage 'podcast' set,
- Digital/DANTE mic lines from the roof of the building ( a news desk backed by an open-air 24/7-live postcard panorama of Washington DC )
- various programable analog IFB in-ear monitors to all sets indoor and roof
- SKYPE AND ZOOM HARDWARE, etc etc etc
-- END BUZZWORD ALERT --

...exhale...
POINT BEING:
This is what you can do these days.
The Home Game version can use as much or as little as you need of the analog and/or digital functionality.
More than "ANALOG to DIGITAL" is the idea that "you;re likely not tracking 15 mics at once any more". You need A Few Good Preamps and a recording system that YOU find intuitive and conducive to a logical and easy (again FOR YOU) workflow.
I find Less really -IS- More.
At the home room I am running a handful of reasonable mics, My DAW-of-choice is LOGIC with an RME FF800 interface (which has a lot of functionality with it's own internal mixer) and a leftover Mackie MCU Pro controller that gives me 8-motorfaders, knobs, scroller and some text windows. With that at my disposal, for tracking and editing I bemusedly find that I mostly have my hand on my trusty 'ol KENSINGTON EXPERT MOUSE trackball, staring at the wide monitor.
Old Habits.
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SoundscenesDC, main talent and production offices just 385k km up the gravity well in LuNoHoCo Center, old satellite studios still bookable at the future site of Johnson City!