While the history of digital pro audio goes back over 60 years, to Bell Labs’ post-war work and more concretely to the introduction of Lexicon’s Gotham Delta T-101 delay in 1971, digital audio’s real traction began in the late 1980s, as digital tape formats and later DAW platforms freed music from analog’s artifacts, such as tape hiss, and afforded music production not only nondestructive editing but a seemingly limitless number of tracks on which to perform it.It was in that same decade that digital began to impact mix console designs, as Texas Instruments and Motorola developed 24-bit and later 32-bit floating-point chipsets that could provide the power needed to process multiple digital audio channels.
“...we think engineers will always want some level of tactile experience from digital consoles.”Matt Larson, Vice President of Professional Audio Products, Digico.
Yamaha’s DMP7, introduced in 1987, was among the first: a MIDI-controllable 8-channel 2-bus mixer with three sweepable bands of EQ per channel, three internal effects processors, and motorized faders, and was intended for the studio. However, live sound largely resisted the migration to digital for another decade and then some. It’s not that the technology wasn’t capable; rather, digital was held back in the live realm due to the very nature of live events: unlike the overdub process that was further enhanced by digital recording (with the elimination of analog generational noise), with live mixing you only get one chance to get it right.
The First Commandment of Live Sound—“Thou Shalt Not Screw Up”—kept mixers rooted firmly in the analog camp for years, as digital’s architecture went against the culture of engineering, which wanted to see everything and have it all at hand, all the time.Thus, the development of digital live-sound consoles was an incremental process, one that included early models that offered digital control of analog signal paths, like the Soundcraft Broadway desk. But by the turn of the century, digital live-sound consoles were proliferating, led by examples like Yamaha’s PM-1D in 2001, Digico’s D5 Live in 2002, and the Midas XL8 Live in March 2006. Digital consoles had crossed the great divide of reassurance for live applications, in the process becoming both more featured and easier to use.
The right touch
A key turning point in this evolutionary progression was the integration of the touchscreen into the work surface of the desk. “That’s what made it possible to put new features within reach onto the work surface,” says Matt Larson, vice president of professional audio products for Digico. He points out that the shift to digital consoles allowed new operational features to be added to the consoles via software, such as saving a performance’s settings in a single file, and those features could be accessed in a “soft” manner, without having to be locked to a particular knob, vastly increasing the flexibility of a console’s configuration. But that same software had to be designed in such a way that let engineers work in a familiar manner. “Audio engineers have traditionally always wanted to be able to reach over and touch what they wanted to do on a console,” he explains. “Even as younger Millennial and Generation-Z engineers move into the FOH mixer’s seat, with their experience moving between apps on mobile devices, and as the console processing gets faster and faster”—Digico’s recently introduced Quantum engine can manage up to 2,000 channels across 688 processing paths at 96 kHz—“we think engineers will always want some level of tactile experience from digital consoles.”
The future, and the present, are predicated on another set of expectations, says Tres Cozad, systems application engineer at Yamaha. “Users of digital consoles are not always going to be the same engineers who’ve used them in the past—they could be doctors or bus drivers, or anyone else who volunteers at churches,” he explains. “As a result, digital consoles have to very user friendly and have to become even more intuitive in their operation.”Cozad specifically cites Yamaha’s ProVisionaire Control software, which lets users drag and drop on-screen widgets for functions such as faders and switches to configure a console work surface, all without any programming knowledge needed. That same software can also be used to control access to the console, so a minimally trained user can run a small event with access to one or two microphones and perhaps a CD player or keyboard input, with a high degree of confidence.
“Users of digital consoles are not always going to be the same engineers who’ve used them in the past—they could be doctors or bus drivers, or anyone else who volunteers at churches.” - Tres Cozad, Systems Application Engineer, Yamaha.
Finally, consistency of the console user experience will become even more critical as the trend moves further from the megachurch model to the distributed-church model. “We make consoles in a number of form factors and sizes, to fit the various kinds of locations that satellite churches are using,” he says. “But whether they’re working on a large CL5 in the main church of a CL1 or CL3 in a smaller location, the user interface on each console is virtually the same. That will give any church a maximum amount of productivity between the console infrastructure and their staff and volunteers.”
The future may include no need for a console at all, or at least no need to be connected to one, thanks to the ability to mix via wireless devices such as iPads. In addition to letting the FOH mixer hear the sound first hand from any position in the room, this newest wrinkle in live-sound mixing is also innately appealing to the next generation of mixers, for whom the untethered touchscreen is just a normal part of life. Digital consoles were tempered in the touring domain, an environment in which their lighter weight, smaller footprint, and general robustness (compared with analog consoles) provide clear benefits. All of those advantages, along with ever-improving processing (and decreasing latency in the A-D/D-A conversion process), extremely flexible I/O routing, and the ability to store “scene” configurations for instant loading, mean that house-of-worship users will get a continuously better experience year after year.
Console Quick Takes
Each digital console line has its key distinguishing hallmarks. Here’s a quick look at what makes some unique.
ALLEN & HEATH
Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing console
The Allen & Heath product lineup is unique in its highly varied and flexible system ecosystem centered on a common 96-kHz FPGA XCVI processor. From the compact, award-winning SQ up to the stadium-class 216-fader-strip dLive S7000, the XCVI core provides industry-leading <0.7ms latency high-resolution audio performance. The XCVI core also powers a wide array of DEEP effects and dynamics processing. DEEP processing from dLive digital mixing system is available as an add-on within the SQ and Avantis series. No third-party hardware, no added latency, just studio-quality processing on every channel. And whatever your system requirements, Allen & Heath offers a comprehensive range of I/O hardware, remote controllers, and personal monitoring, including dedicated solutions for Dante integration.
AVID
Avid Venue S6L-16C digital mixing console
Avid’s Unified Platform Strategy is a concept that expands the Avid VENUE | S6L family of products so that all new products benefit from a single hardware and software architecture. All components are 100% software, hardware, and Show File compatible, enabling customers to build the optimal live-sound system for their venue while retaining the highest quality audio. S6L family includes five control surfaces, three engines, and four I/O racks that scale in price and capability to allow users to scale the system to meet the needs of any application. The result of the Unified Platform Strategy is a coherent, unified portfolio of products on a single platform where all devices are compatible and interoperate with each other.
DIGICO
Digico SD12 digital mixing console
From the introduction of the D5 Live digital mixing system in 2004 through to the current generation of SD-Range and S-Series products, Digico mixing consoles have consistently been a top choice of sound engineers for their intuitive workflow, versatility, robust reliability, pristine sound quality, and ability to effortlessly handle massive amounts of I/O. Today, those strengths have only continued to improve with the manufacturer’s rollout of the powerful Quantum engine, based on seventh-generation Super FPGA processing, and 32-bit “Ultimate Stadius” preamp and output cards. Through it all, Digico has consistently maximized its users’ ROI by rolling out software and firmware upgrades that have future-proofed its products, and the company has also brought forward-thinking native integration of KLANG and L-ISA immersive technologies into its consoles’ worksurfaces.
LAWO
Lawo mc236 digital mixing console
The mc²36 is Lawo’s audio mixing console is designed for live, theater and house-of-worship purposes and features a powerful DSP micro-core with a 512x512 audio matrix and integrated I/Os. As the console is natively equipped with RAVENNA/AES67/ST2110 technology, the mc²36 can be seamlessly integrated into IP infrastructures. The console has redundant power supplies as well as DSP redundancy. The 21.5-inch full-HD touch-screen displays work hand in hand with touch-sensitive, color backlit encoders; for example, the Dynamics window opens automatically as soon as one of the Dynamics encoders is touched. Once the parameters have been set, the window closes automatically thanks to the Auto-Close function and releases the main view.
MACKIE
Mackie DL Series device-based digital mixing
Since the Mackie DL series launched in 2012, Mackie has committed completely to wireless, third-party, device-based digital mixing, capitalizing on the trend that phones/tablets are becoming capable of more each year, so why not let them be your mixer as well as your phone, web engine, camera, and calendar? This design approach resulted in some very aggressive, market-disrupting design decisions at the time: to remove all of the physical faders, knobs and buttons traditionally featured on a mixer, and replace them all with a full-color, high-resolution, screen-centered work surface (and app) that is ultra-easy to use, while also shedding the higher cost of the components that typically make digital mixers more expensive.
SOLID STATE LOGIC
Solid State Logic Live L200 digital mixing console
The SSL Live platform brings studio-grade mic pre’s and processing to the stage, with outstanding audio conversion, 64-bit native floating-point audio engine, 96-kHz operation, and class-leading summing. There are two unique features that revolutionize live sound workflow:
Stem Groups—a unique type of hybrid mix bus that takes the key functions of a Sub Group — an input, an aux and a matrix—and rolls them into a single powerful tool. Stem Groups offer flexible routing options within the mix engine not found on any other live console.
Super Q—allows the user to “spill out” the elements or destinations of a selected fader/path across the control surface. For instance, querying a mix bus will show channels that are contributing to that mix; pressing a VCA’s Q button will show all channels under its control. Contributions can be displayed either on the rotary encoders at the top of each fader strip or automatically flipped onto the faders.
SOUNDCRAFT
Soundcraft Vi7000 digital mixing console
Soundcraft Vi consoles feature patented Vistonics screen technology that allows touch-based operation with the capability of having encoders mounted directly above the screen. This enables control and visual feedback of console parameters without the need to move users’ eyes off axis from the screen. Operating a Vi requires only a push of a hardware or software switch or the turn of a knob, which conveys the feel and immediacy of an analog console. Another key to its speed is the absence of drop-down menus, which eliminates the need for a trackball or mouse. Any function of the Vi can be accessed by simple tactile controls. This combined with clean, uncluttered fader bays creates a seamless workflow that allows engineers to focus more on the mix and less on the equipment.
YAMAHA
Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing console
Yamaha’s console evolution saw its early digital recording consoles being adapted for live-sound applications. Notably, Yamaha’s 01V, introduced in 1998 as the successor to the ProMix 01 project studio-type mixer, could be paired up with powered speakers to form a compact, high-performance live sound system. Introduced at the turn of the century, the PM series would go on to become the standard for live touring applications for over a decade. The PM1D, the first in the PM-series, offered a separate control surface, DSP engine, and I/O components, as well as two DSP engines that could be connected in “mirror mode,” and redundant cable connections, for extremely high reliability. A true inflection point came in 2005 when the M7CL left analog-like ergonomics behind for what many consider the first true “digital” design. This included the adoption of a touch screen for control while eliminating the cursor keys, dial, and enter keys that had previously been used on digital consoles, proving that digital mixers could be just as easy, if not easier to operate. Furthermore, all primary control functions were concentrated into just two display pages, with Yamaha’s new Centralogic concept allowing direct hands-on control of all channels from the console’s center position. Since then, Yamaha’s CL, QL, TF and Rivage console lines have built on those trends.
