AUdIoCoUrSeS
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 2014
|
| Digital Mixing Consoles |
 |
|
Focussing entirely on digital mixing consoles and their operation this week.
This is hardware based rather than software so you are going to have to research lots of different models.
When descibing these do also think about how the function works in terms of the binary.
Describe and explain digital mixing consoles and their operation:
• Comparison with analogue consoles
• Analogue components of digital mixing consoles
• Microphone preamplifiers and line-level inputs
• Talkback and communications
• Interface with analogue and other digital equipment and systems
• Features and functions
• Assignability in digital consoles
• Operational procedures
• Automation and recall
• Plug-ins
_________________
It's all in the ears. - Learn the concepts not the software.
Audio Courses is a way into the music business for you
|
Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:36 am |
|
|
Rico1210
Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 39
Location: Newcastle, UK |
|
|
|
Hi,
found it quite hard this week, had to look at a few consoles. The price of some were massive. 1 i looked at was 13k dollars 8O
here goes:
Comparison with analogue consoles
Digital consoles have the benefit of automation systems with motorised faders, which is a feature rarely seen on analogue consoles.
Unlike analogue consoles, digital consoles can be in constant use as any settings may be stored in the scene memory or on disk to be recalled later.
Digital mixers often include an LCD video display of the settings, up to a high-resolution 320 x 240. This is very rare in analogue mixers, as the magnetic field from the scan coils tends to break into the audio circuits.
Analogue components
The analogue components of a digital mixing console are line inputs and microphone preamplifiers. The signal is fed from the line input or microphone preamplifier to an analogue to digital convertor. Depending on the console, up to 24-bit/96-kHz A/D converters.
Talkback and communications
Talkback on a digital mixing console can be achieved by connecting a microphone to a channel input, and routing the signal from auxilary/insert sends to a performers headphones for communication.
Interface
Many Digital Mixing Consoles integrate closely with digital audio workstations to create a complete MIDI production and mixing environment. Software including Digidesign's Pro Tools system, Steinberg's Nuendo worstation and other multitrack sequencer software can be controlled from the console.
Outputs can be sent from the digital mixing console to external recording systems. Most digital mixing consoles feature an ADAT optical digital I/O interface and the ability to interface with TDIF, S/PDIF and AES/EBU as standard.
Features & Functions
Digital Mixing Consoles come in all different sizes. 24, 36, 56, and 72 channel models with moving fader automation and come with a choice of working at 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, or 96 kHz. The preferred operation being 24-bit/96kHz. They come with auxilary/insert sends for effects processors, surround monitoring capabilities and motor driven, touch sensitive faders. Input channels usually have independent compression and gating/ducking processors for dynamics control, as well as 4-band parametric channel equalizers. Digital mixers usually come with an LCD display, expensive models may have touch screen technology.
Digital Consoles often come with a preset library of effects, compression, gating, EQ, I/O patching, and channel setups. User setups can be added to the libraries for instant recall whenever they are needed. Studio Manager software is also usually included, which makes it easy to relate on-screen controls to the corresponding console functions. Digital Mixing Consoles also tend to have a small number of user-defined keys that can be assigned to software control functions.
Digital mixers can have an internal wordlength of up to 32 bits to accommodate sample attenuations. If a sample is attenuated, it will develop bits that are below the radix point. If 24dB attenuate an eight-bit sample, the sample value will shift four places. To accommodate such a shift, extra bits must be available.
Assignability
In a digital mixer remote control is easy, as changing the coefficients controls the filters. This means that there need only be one set of filter an equalising controls, as it is possible to assign them to any chosen channel. In analogue mixers, the controls are positioned close to the circuitry. They have to be; otherwise performance will be affected. Therefore a control knob is needed for every variable, which makes the control panel rather large. The order in which the signal passes through the mixer is determined at the design stage making changes difficult, also remote control is made difficult because of the construction of the mixer.
Operational Procedures
Instruments, drum machines, samplers, synthesisers are connected to the line-level inputs of the channel. Performers microphones are connected to microphone preamplifiers of the channel. Auxiliary/insert sends can be used to route the signal to effects units and processors, or to performers headphones for foldback. Ouptputs can be sent from each channel to multitrack software or a multitrack recorder.
Automation & Recall
The automation of an analogue mixing console uses a system where the faders produce a varying voltage and this is converted to a digital code or gain coefficient in an ADC(Analogue to Digital Converter) and recorded alongside the audio tracks. On replay the coefficients are converted back to analogue voltages which control VCAs(Voltage Controlled Amplifiers) in sequence with the analogue audio channels. A digital mixer uses a similar system to that of an analogue mixer, whereby the coefficients are obtained in the same way, but are not treated the same upon replay. In a digital mixer the coefficients are not converted back to analogue to control VCAs, they remain in the digital domain and control multipliers in the audio channels directly.
Digital audio processing is by program control, therefore the desk configuration can be changed by running programs for various functions in a different order.
The configuration and the settings of all controls can be stored in memory or on disk, and recalled instantly.
Plug Ins
Digital Mixing consoles often have built in effects processors that include, eq’s, compressors, reverbs and delays and some have on board support for VST plug-ins. Digital consoles often have expansion slots for more plug-ins cards and networking cards. |
|
Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:20 am |
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT. The time now is Fri May 16, 2008 4:44 pm
|
|
|
|
| |
