Touch-screen technology eases the transition to digital.
Back in the mid-1990s, when Klark-Teknik introduced its DN3600 graphic equalizer, the company literally touched on a concept that was way ahead of its time for the audio industry. In addition to being programmable, the DN3600 was one of the first graphic EQs to not feature sliding faders on the front panel. The DN3600 had a backlit LCD screen displaying 31 “virtual” sliders (one per EQ band). When the DN3600 was introduced, it was (and is) cool, not just because the front panel was unique and looked nice, but because the graphic interface made a great piece of audio gear easy to use.
The DN3600 was a harbinger for the audio industry. The replacement of hardware controls with LCD screens and touch panels is now redefining mixing console topology. Desks from Studer, DiGiCo, Soundcraft and Mackie employ touch-screen technology to make management of digital consoles easier — especially for those of us with a history of operating analog desks. The problem for analog heads is that we are accustomed to a physical control for every audio parameter. Our analog consoles had redundant pushbuttons and pots on every channel. When the digital revolution arrived, audio manufacturers realized that the control surface need not reflect the audio engine within — they could provide one set of controls for any number of channels and then assign those controls to a particular channel that required adjustment.
Early digital mixers like the Yamaha 02R and Ramsa DA7 used a “selected channel” section which provided one set of the controls we expect on every channel. Some of these controls were “hidden” beneath the surface and required paging through menus for access. In a live sound situation, this kind of interface can be clumsy and slow. When you need to kill feedback in a monitor, you don’t want to do more than grab a control and turn it down. The need to select a channel for adjustment slows the process and, some might say, adds a small amount of fatigue since your brain is doing extra work. It sounds minor, but over the course of several hours’ work, it adds up.
Initially, digital console technology was driven by the need for a large numbers of channels, high processing capabilities (EQ and dynamics on all channels, for example) and the ability to run at high sample rates. Manufacturers quickly determined that, in spite of the fact that a surface control on a digital console can be assigned to any function, live engineers must have a fader, mute button and input trim control on every channel. Further, they have realized that multiple button pushes are unacceptable when it comes to accessing parameters.
Today, the goal is to make the product easy to use, via a graphic interface using touch-screen technology. A touch screen is provided for each bank of faders. In the global view of the console, the screen shows small EQ and compression curves and virtual aux knobs for each channel in the fader bank. That’s a good start because the typical console parameters are visible without paging.
To adjust the EQ for a given channel, look at the screen and find the small graphic EQ curve corresponding to the channel you wish to adjust and then tap it. The screen “explodes” to show a large view of the EQ settings for that channel. In the case of the D5, a series of rotary controls underneath the touch-screen correspond to virtual knobs on the display. Turn the knob to adjust the EQ parameters.
The Studer Vista and Soundcraft Vi Series take the conecept further. These desks use Studer’s Vistonics II graphic interface in which the rotary controls are built into the touch screen. In this case, the rotary knob is physically placed where the visual information is located, making the interface a snap to use and reducing the fatigue of constantly looking at a screen that’s in one location, while adjusting knobs in another section of the desk.
This type of GUI also makes it easy to access parameters that might have otherwise been buried in the menus. In most cases, access to parameters requires one tap on the screen. While you adjust the parameters for one channel, the other screens continue showing the global view of channels for the remaining fader banks, so you literally never lose sight of the overall console picture — just like an analog desk.
Of course, for situations where space is at a premium, these desks can control more channels than the number of physical faders banks seen on the control surface. But for those of us mixing live shows, where we need access to every parameter of every channel, and at all times, the GUI is a major step in the direction of making a digital console feel like an analog desk. Once you tune your brain to the concept, it really is a great way to work.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is out on tour this summer mixing front-of-house for Blue Öyster Cult. He can be reached via e-mail at Woody@fohonline.com.
