[Ardour-Users] Ardour 2.8.5 released

[John Rigg]

On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 09:42:47PM +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> I was googleing on German for "professionelle digitale mischpulte",  
> because digital mixing consoles are seemingly used on stage and that's  
> to funny, I was linked to something about Harrison.
>
> Mark's idea seems to be up to date, computers seems to be used on stage  
> too. Modern digital (live) mixing consoles aren't stand alone solutions  
> all the time, they indeed seem to need the additional PC or Mac.

Digital hardware mixing desks are becoming more common. It's taken a long
time for them to develop to the point where they are actually useable
for live work, but the current digital mixers like the Midas XL8 and PRO6,
Yamaha ML7C and others are getting popular with pro PA companies. The
advantages of instant recall along with not having to carry huge, heavy
analogue multicores and effects racks are considerable.

These are quite different from commodity computer gear though. You might
see computers at pro gigs, but it's very unlikely that they are being used to
mix the sound. A PC or Mac might be needed to set up system networks
and interface with amplifier DSP etc., but the actual audio processing is
invariably handled by dedicated hardware.

John