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Should You Go Digital?
On one hand, not much has changed in ten years. On the other hand, everything has changed.
Back in the “old days,” all audio mixing was analog. And when I say “old days,” I mean about 30-40 years ago. While it seems like a long time, it’s important to remember that audio mixing in general and digital mixing in particular are relatively new concepts. Early mixers were simple four- to eight-channel affairs and about the size of a typical 48-channel digital mixer today. As the industry grew, so did the channel count, features and footprint.
Roughly 20 years ago, analog mixers gained basic automation. Through the use of mute groups and, at the high end, flying faders, engineers were able to program cues and play them back in real time. A few years later, digital mixers appeared. Early ones were rather limited in channel count and not necessarily suited to live work; however, they paved the way for the digital desks we know and love today.
It was really only about 10 years ago that large-format live digital mixers appeared. They were big, expensive and offered features sound engineers had been dreaming of: built-in effects, recallable mic pre’s, real automation, digital patching and full EQ, and dynamics on every channel.
On the one hand, not much has changed in 10 years, and yet everything has changed. Digital mixers still have the aforementioned feature set, but have gotten much easier to use, sound quality has improved and prices have fallen. Welcome Moore’s Law to the world of audio.
Now that digital audio mixers are everywhere, it would seem like a no-brainer decision to upgrade that old dusty analog mixer to a shiny new digital one, right? Not so fast. As with all things in system design, choosing a mixer is all about compromise. What you choose will depend on what you value.
While digital mixers certainly deliver a lot of useful new features, there are arguments for staying in the analog world. Space prevents me from working out all those pros and cons, but let’s see if we can dispel a few common myths.
Myth #1: Digital is inherently better
Many hear “digital” and immediately think it has to be better than “not-digital.” That is not necessarily the case. In fact, many argue that digital sounds worse than analog. While that may or may not be accurate, it’s certainly true that a well-designed analog system will sound more than good enough for any church setting. In fact, I would argue that almost any modern mixer, digital or analog, from any major manufacturer will sound good enough to not be the weakest link in most church audio systems. To decide between analog and digital, we have to move beyond this point.
Myth #2: Digital mixers are easier to use because settings can be saved and recalled
While the second half of that statement is true, the first half may or may not be. To the uninitiated, the idea of storing all your settings this week and simply recalling them next week sounds great. However, there are hundreds of variables that go into sound, most of which are not recallable. Consider just a few of them: the age of the guitar strings, how strong or tired the singer is, how hard the drummer hits, temperature, humidity—all these factors dramatically affect the sound. To put together a great mix, the engineer still needs to be able to easily and quickly adjust gain, EQ, compression and the mix itself. If he or she is not comfortable with a digital board, or those controls are not easily accessible, frustration and a less-than-ideal mix will result. Simply hitting “recall” does not negate the need for trained and competent audio personnel.
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Mike Sessler is the technical director at Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, Calif. He has been involved in live production for over 20 years and is the author of the blog http://www.ChurchTechArts.org. He also hosts a weekly podcast called Church Tech Weekly on http://www.TechArtsNetwork.com.
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