The History of Mixing Consoles
Every day something you hear, see, or pass by is created by using a mixing console. A console is used by the radio station you listen to, by the television station you watch, by the musician who made the music in your headphones, by the announcers at your game and even in the cartoons your children watch. They all use mixing consoles to make it happen.
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History
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An early mixing console was made in 1958 by the Willi Studer Company of Switzerland. This device, the Studer 69, used reel-to-reel tape and it was portable. Still, these early devices were bulky. As advancements in technology were made, mixing consoles became lighter and more compact allowing for more features and capabilities to be included in the unit.
The commercial availability of digital signal processing (DSP) in 1982 greatly facilitated this miniaturization process. The Neve DSP-1 was introduced as the first commercial digital mixing console. It was initially thought that mixers would then become purely digital. The Neve machines, however, could not compete with comparable analog machines. Because of this delay, analog and digital consoles have instead merged only gradually over the last 25 years.
Types
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Mixing consoles started out in the 1950s as purely analog devices with only one or two channels. More options developed as more applications for mixing consoles arose. Revolutions in electronics provided the digital technology needed for these new applications. Where digital mixer consoles possess more features, many users still chose analog mixing consoles for their ease of use. Hybrid mixing consoles, combining both digital and analog inputs into one piece of hardware, retain the advantages of the old with the features of the new.
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Features
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Mixing consoles have many features that are as diverse as the applications needed. Most consoles can provide phantom power, produce stereo sound from mono signals, add external effects and have multiple inputs from either analog or digital sources. Additional features are channel equalization, trim and gain for each channel, as well as metering (monitoring the volume levels) for each channel or the master output levels. Metering is useful for preventing overmodulation, or clipping of the signal. Almost all mixer consoles have sliders, meters, a channel toggle switch and a channel input source (e.g., a microphone, disc player, live input, computer).
Misconceptions
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Many people think mixing consoles are used merely to input sound or to control volume. They can, however, be used for much more sophisticated tasks. Lee "Scratch" Perry was one of the first artists to use a mixing console as a musical instrument. In addition, mixers are becoming more similar to computers with the ability to store and manipulate data. The current line of mixing consoles includes features that used to require additional, separate equipment such as a studio sampler and an effects box.
Speculations
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The future of mixing consoles is, as noted, the hybrid mixer. These devices allow video-based hardware control and computer-based editing. Migrating studio consoles into personal computers will allow more home-based recording and production work. Such a move also allows parallel development with the desired features of computers (e.g., ergonomically friendly keyboards and voice-controlled software) showing up on studio consoles. In addition, studio consoles are getting smaller and more powerful. They are also getting less expensive. These developments will enable more musicians to seize creative control over their art.
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