Digital Consoles

Do you prefer to work on an analog console like an SSL 4000 or on an more portable digital console like an Avid S3?

Digital Mixing Consoles differ from their predecessor the Analog Mixing Console in several ways, while both console formats share many concepts, some say that analog will soon be phased out completely, but other veteran audio professionals argue that analog is here to stay and would rather continue to use a hybrid workflow. Digital consoles have almost entirely gotten their design as well as functionality from the earlier analog consoles. Consoles like the SSL 4000 E and G series have ruled earlier eras as the preferred complete mixing environment for most media and entertainment industries for decades. The concept of mixing in the box has allowed Engineers, individual studios, and also home project studio owners to eliminate lots of outboard rack gear from their signal flows. Still, digital console have enabled these same people to keep the hands on experience in a new and exciting digital realm.

Digital consoles do not pass actual voltage through them instead they convert voltage into digital information, which is why there is also a difference in metering. Most digital consoles interface with DAWs and other digital software putting the digital medium at your fingertips, thus controlling and allowing easy storage and recall of any current or previous sessions. Almost all digital consoles allow you to control effects and routing capabilities within the software. Very little noise if any is introduced into the signal path routed into a digital console, but analog to digital (A to D) conversion will take place going into the console and digital to analog (D to A) conversion on the way out, for example leaving the board coming out of your monitors.

There’s nothing like being able to have control over your software, with a digital console the size doesn’t matter since most allow you to have continuous banks of faders that give you specific control over every I/O or channel strip in your sessions software, be it Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Final Cut, ect. I would say that nowadays companies like Avid formally known as Digidesign and Solid State Logic (SSL) to name a few, continue to corner the market with their makes and models of digital consoles, which are both world renown. Avid’s S6 console and SSL’s Duality set the standard for digital mixing in music, postproduction, live broadcast, and film.

From the moment the very first digital audio workstations were engineered, it was only a matter of time before creative minds would later think of a way to bridge consoles with computer software. Today even the smallest digital mixing consoles can conduct as many task as the huge 48 to 96 channel analog mixer, based upon computer speed, processing power, and the software’s capabilities. Years ago my first digital console was the M-Audio ProjectMix I/O control surface. While it could not function as the interface for Pro Tools HD it could handle the job of controlling HD as long as the designated complete control over Pro Tools as well as other DAW software in their respected mode, I had spoiled myself and could not see going back to just using a mouse, if I didn’t have to. Today we have technology that allows audio professionals to control DAWs remotely from an iPad, allowing the professional to be more mobile in and outside of the studio. The are digital consoles small enough to fit in a carrying bag that allows you just about the same functionality as their bigger counterparts. I personally agree with industry veterans, using a hybrid approach provides you with the best of both worlds, but that’s me!