The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

I retired for active involvement in the sound business just at the time when digital mixers were being introduced into the sound reinforcement industry. Consequently, I have observed from the sidelines as this change in technology moved into the live sound world. Sometimes it is easier to be a backseat driver than it is to learn new production skills.

The biggest impediment to having rank and file sound people (not those on the bleeding edge) embrace this technology has been that there were too few knobs capable of doing too many things. Sound people with years of analog mixing experience couldn’t just step up to a new mixer and build a mix. Intuition as to which knob will give the desired result simply didn’t matter anymore.

Digico, long a leader in digital mixers, has introduced a new series of consoles, the SD7 that speak directly to this problem. Instead of embracing the line of thinking that computer processing power would allow the manufacturer to decrease the number of knobs on the mixer (now called “control surface” in digital-speak), Digico is turning this idea on its head.

Decreases in cost and size of computer processing allows the SD7 to have MORE knobs and sliders. The result is that this mixer looks almost like a conventional analog desk. This is the part of the digital puzzle that has been missing, and it is an idea that will lead a whole generation of “over 40 something” sound people to take the digital plunge.

Recognizing that having separate knobs for tone control (eq) and aux busses (monitors and effects) is of more value than making a mixer as small and multi-functional as possible is an idea that is long overdue.

The Digico SD7 is expensive and you shouldn’t expect to see them in churches and schools anytime soon (probably never!). What you will see is some of the more reasonably priced offerings from companies like Yamaha and Mackie following Digico’s lead and using additional processing power to make their lower priced digital mixers something that late adopters will actually recognize.

When that happens, I just might come out of retirement.

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