Mark: Both consoles do the ‘Fat Channel’ thing, with the gain, EQ and dynamics sitting up and to the left of the LCD.
Pull the copper multicore out of your old console, pop it into one of these and off you go. Two 32-channel digital mixing consoles that can be considered as drop-in replacements for analogue equivalents. The price of the DSP, the motorised faders and the preamps have come down to the point where you can have your digital console looking remarkably like your traditional analogue console.Īnd here’s where our review begins. Competent Analogue Drop-ins: This relatively new breed of digital console has lots of faders, lots of preamps, and very little need to relearn the craft. The idea is to place the console hardware on stage (like a stage box) and mix via your own device.ģ.
‘Stage Box’ Mixers: Mackie started it all with the DL1608 and now Presonus, Behringer, SM Pro (and inevitably others) are following. New consoles, such as A&H GLD, Yamaha QL, Midas Pro series, and others demonstrate you can meet this demand for as low as $30k.Ģ. There’s a pressing need for ‘unlimited’ routing flexibility, and having the DSP to chuck processing and EQ at any signal at any time. Cheaper Pro Consoles: Here’s a market that’s chewing up inputs as quickly as manufacturers are adding them to stage boxes. Currently, there seems to be three main thrusts to digital console design:ġ.