Mixers - Analog vs Digital

Bruce Nelson

We live in a world where technology is changing at a record pace. Many people are into buying the latest electronic gizmos, while others are content without the fancy gadgets, preferring to use familiar products that they know work well and they know how to use. In the realm of audio, new digital products give us countless new features and extreme flexibility, but this comes at a cost. Though not necessarily harder to use, products of today are more complex.

Features of Digital Mixing Consoles

Many churches are switching to digital mixing consoles, and others wonder if they should follow suit. There are advantages and disadvantages to switching. A feature that is an advantage to one church may be a disadvantage to another, depending on the level of expertise of their sound engineers.

The Allen & Heath iLive Digital Mixing Console System.

The most enticing feature to most churches is the ability to store mixing console settings and recall them at a later time. This is most valuable in a church that has more than one worship team. It allows you to quickly switch to the mix for the current service without altering the mixes for other services. A common fallacy is that you can save a perfect mix and recall it each week and will still sound perfect. There are too many variables outside of the console that can affect the sound of the mix. Singers' and musicians' volume levels vary from week to week, or even from song to song. The size of the audience or congregation greatly affects the way the room sounds. Even air density and humidity change the way a room sounds from week to week.

Another feature unique to digital consoles is built in noise gates and compressors on every channel. The uses for noise gates and compressors are beyond the scope of this article, but basically gates mute microphones except for when the intended sound is present. Compressors can smooth out inconsistent volume levels and enhance the sound of instruments. Improperly set gates and comps, however, can significantly degrade your mix.

Most digital mixing consoles have a wide selection of EQ options. For EQ-savvy engineers, these features are extremely beneficial, but mastery of EQ is very difficult.

Most digital mixing consoles have the ability to interface with digital multi-track recorders. Most people don't realize that analog consoles can also interface with digital multi-track recorders without any addition analog to digital conversions.

Analog Mixing Consoles

The Soundcraft GB8 analog mixing console.

Since most churches don't have multiple worship teams, the ability to save a separate mix for each team is not usually necessary. Even if you have multiple worship teams, as long as there is an dedicated mixer channel for each potential musician, there is no need to store and recall their settings, as those channels won't have to be changed when they are not being used.

External noise gates and compressors can be used with analog consoles. Most of the time, gates are not necessary, and most sound engineers in churches do not have the experience to use gates. Compressors are generally desirable on vocals if properly used, but again, most sound engineers in churches do not know how to properly use compressors.

Most analog consoles may have less built in EQ options, but often the sound of analog EQ is superior to that of digital EQ. With the use of external EQs, either standalone or built in to a digital signal processor, significant EQ options are easily achieved.

With an analog console, what you see is what you get. Nothing is hidden. There are no layers or hidden screens. Any feature can be accessed just by reaching for it, and any features can be accessed at the same time, while on digital consoles it is often necessary to change screens or layers to access some features.

What does this mean for me?

In a large church with multiple worship teams and proficient sound engineers a digital mixing console is a great way to go. In a smaller church, with variations of one worship team, the added features of a digital console are really not necessary and not worth the added cost. An analog console is probably a better choice. Both allow for high quality recordings. Both are capable of sounding good.