Mixer: digital or analogue?

"It's rather a matter of pragmatism or mentality, not quality anymore."

That the conversions with a good AD converter from analogue to digital signals reduce the sound quality - that, I don't really believe in. High-quality digital equipment provides sound at least as good as analogue technology. I studied in Detmold at the college of music, where there is also a sound engineer training. There was a blind test: microphone signals were transmitted both via XLR and with different, digitally converted signal paths.

In no(!) blind test was the direct analogue signal perceived as the best sounding signal. And the testers were sound engineers, people with good, trained ears.

I think, provocatively put, that the biggest analogue fans sometimes just hear what they want to hear in direct comparisons. Or that there's some kind of placebo effect: If you're convinced the great full valve sounds better, it will sound better in your ears. And on top of that, there is the occasional belief that 'more expensive must sound better'.

Realistically we can say, that there is almost no purely analogue signal chain any more anyway. Especially not in the live area. Sooner or later the signal will be converted somewhere. So why not use a high-quality analogue-to-digital converter as early as possible and then leave the signal digital? For example, there are also perfect, digitally modeled valve amp sounds, i.e. plug-ins - nobody can tell me that there is an audible difference between digital and analogue. Of course, there are both analogue and digital mixers that are manufactured cheaply and sound correspondingly bad.

Regarding valves and certain compressors, I do understand the love for analogue technology. It is like driving a specific classic car model: it's not better, but the feel and the interaction with the technology is simply a little different - perhaps more beautiful in a very subjective sense. With analogue mixing consoles, you can at times celebrate mixing more. However, here is the most important point: analogue mixers are perfect for beginners. Let me make it even clearer: everyone should start and learn on an analogue mixing console, not a digital one. Analogue mixers are very logically structured. If you want to have a compressor in the channel, you have to plug a connector into the right place by hand. Then you have to plug the other side into the input of the compressor. Then you take the compressor's output and plug it into the return path.

When I turn the pot X, Y happens. And if this plug is not plugged in anywhere, nothing happens. This is basic audio education, which I sometimes also miss in musicians.

What I mean to say is, it's craftsmanship. Sure, digital mixing is also craftsmanship, but because analogue mixing is a more tangible craft, you learn much more consciously. This is a bit like my advice to every driver to learn driving a manual car. Even if you only drive an automatic afterwards. Anyone who gets their driving license with an automatic gearbox will never fully understand what 'clutch' and gears are. In addition, analogue mixing consoles are also eternally repairable, solderable, durable. A digital mixing console works either completely or not at all. I would probably never have started mixing if everything had been digital back then. That would have been too nerdy for me.

The reason why I don't think analogue mixers are dying out is the price-performance ratio of very small versions. This is almost always better with 2 to 4-channel mixers.