Digital Consoles

I just got back from the AES show in New York. For me the show represented a fundamental sea-change in our business. Aside from the fact that the only analog tape recorder I saw was in a booth for a company that restores vintage tape recorders, there were a couple of things that make me feel like the industry has really finally changed direction in a profound way. The most obvious thing, of course, is the small-digital-console war that's heating up, with Yamaha, Mackie and Tascam all offering (or about to offer, take your pick) interesting, powerful and somewhat different digital consoles for under $10,000. Other manufacturers are also busy developing, behind closed curtains, more small digital consoles.

We call these consoles small (the Yamaha 03D is the smallest, with only(!) 32 inputs), but a mere ten years ago they would have been considered absolutely state-of-the-art in everything but total channel count. The reality that these consoles reflect is that the tools we need have become sufficiently affordable and good (even with all of the caveats about the sonic tradeoffs that low-cost digital hardware may have) that all of us can now have access to really high-powered stuff. The result? The real difference between our relative capabilities will no longer be reflected by the tools we own, but by our experience and production track records.

So, that brave new world is here. With an 02R and a rack of Alesis M-20s (for example), we have sufficient tools with which to absolutely excel in our audio production. And it's only gonna run us the cost of a Honda Civic (maybe an Accord, if you're an upmarket kind of dude/dudette)! All we have to do is be really knowledgeable, competent, talented and creative! In this brave new world, we better fasten our seatbelts and get a good grip on our brains! It's gonna be a wild ride, and to survive we're really gonna have to know what we're doing!