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On 9/9/05 8:37 AM, in article
, "Guitrzman"
wrote:

Teaching an old dog new tricks. If you have ever tried it, it can be
frustrating; especially if your the dog.

I have an old-school engineering background, large format console, lots
of channels, EQ's, insert for processing, then bussing to those lovely
2" behemoths. Inline monitoring design... it was all so easy.. right
there in front of you.. all hands on.

Now I need to set up a digistudio around a ProTools HD system and I find
myself pulling out my hair to know what to put around it. I have been a
faithful MOTU DP user in my last few years. But never needing to record
more than one or two live tracks at a time, a couple of nice channel
strips have served me well. But now I need at least 16 simultaneous
inputs, and I hate mouse mixing. So I want some kind of front end where
I can use EQ and Dynamics on each input BEFORE it hits the digital
realm, easy to use foldback system, then have some tactile controller to
mix and control the DAW with. It there such a beast? or am I looking at
a rack full of pre's, and eq's and comp's and some control surface for
the back end?

Is there a digital mixer where the eq and dynamics won't induce a
perceived latency that you have found that works and sounds great? I am
just not savvy on the new stuff to know. Your expert advice is
appreciated.

Ron
Well, there's the approach of taking an adequate large format mixer and
using it as the front-end with all your friendly old analog hardware
approach.
But there are indeed a number of very good feels-designed-for-humans
fader/button control pamels that interface with the DAW. Heck, PARIS solved
this a while back and everybody else is catching up.
There's no reason to -have- to mix with a damned mouse.
Remember, the biggest reason for the affordability of DAW systems is that
there IS no $$$$$$$$ hardware to manufacture...
1- INSTALL SOFTWARE
2- GRAB THE MOUSE
3- RECORD/MIX

So these things, when done right, are indeed going to cost more than $99.95.