Digital mixing consoles: manufacturers are offering powerful digital mixers for all applications, and budgets too

Post, Feb, 2003 by Marc Loftus

"Generally, a lot of people go with a 24- or 32-fader system, so the console control surface costs around $30 to 35K," notes Wood.

When asked about how Digidesign's affordable tools are impacting the way studios bill their clients, Wood says, "It's allowing a natural market progression. Video people understand the NLE process and they want it with audio, too. They expect the same market developments to happen in audio that they've seen happen in video."

SOUNDTRACS

James Gordon, sales director for Soundtracs (www.soundtracs.com) in the UK, describes 2002 as a "transitional" and "peaky" year. Gordon says, normally, the company sees slow but steady sales throughout the year, but in 2002, it saw a number of sales right out of the gate, particularly in New York and Boston, before things slowed a bit.

Soundtracs offers a broad line of 24-bit, high-end post-oriented consoles, starting with its DS3. The console is available in 24- or 32-fader configurations and is ideal, says Gordon, for commercial TV and smaller film projects.

The company's DPC-II is in the middle of the Soundtracs line and has seen a lot of success, especially in New York, with facilities doing TV work. And at the higher end is the D4 with more bussing than the other two, Gordon says the D4 can be used for TV work as well as for high-end music and film work.

The differences between the Soundtracs releases are mainly the number of busses and the physical layout of their design.

Soundtracs offers its own networking solution in Net-Tracs, which consists of a central server that allows each Soundtracs console within a facility to backup to the server or swap projects from one room to another. It also offers an on-board effects package that can be added to any of its consoles. The package includes approximately 40 different effects, six of which can run simultaneous.

MACKIE

Mackie (www.mackie.com) offers a number of control surfaces designed to accompany DAWs. At the recent NAMM show in Anaheim, the company announced that its Mackie Control will now interface with Digidesign's Pro Tools.

Mackie Control is a nine-fader MIDI controller that provides mixing, editing and automation control for any supported digital audio workstation. The system already supports Cakewalk Sonar, Magix Samplitude, MOTU Digital Performer and Steinberg's Cubase and Nuendo products, as well as Mackie's own Soundscape 32.

The company added HUI Mode to Mackie Control, which gives the unit Pro Tools support. The Pro Tools-compatible mixing surface will begin shipping in late Q1 of 2003. Mackie will also provide a Pro Tools-specific Lexan overlay. Existing Mackie Control users can upgrade to the latest Pro Tools support via a HUI firmware upgrade.

AMS NEVE

AMS Neve (www.ams-neve.com) expects this year to be an exciting one for film/post facilities as the company reveals new options for its DFC film mixing console. Over the last year or so, AMS Neve has invested a considerable amount of resources in developing new processing technology. This has led to the new XSP DSP tower plus MIOS96 and AES96 interface options. At NAB, AMS Neve we will be profiling these latest developments as well as launching a number of new features.