Reasons for Owning a Recording and Mixing Console

In this video, Sweetwater‘s Mitch Gallagher is joined by recording engineer and studio builder Rob Russell to discuss several reasons every discerning studio owner should employ a recording console, a studio centerpiece and the ultimate tool for pumping out pro-quality mixes when it matters most. Check it out!

#Sweetwater

[TessaAnderson]

This got pretty complicated but I watched it and enjoyed the over my head level info.
I really enjoy living in this time of YouTube material that is free.
This stuff is worth money

[sonicpalacevideos]

Great interview guys. Please send one of those large scale consoles my way!

[AstrixMusic]

If you grew up using one that’s really the difference otherwise a virtual console has all the same features, with an external controller it gives you a more tactile experience. A physical console you use patchbays to deliver plugins or those outboard effects. Virtual you just select to add the plugin which is a virtual emulation of the hardware. I honestly think it’s a step forward. You don’t have the expense of all that hardware that’s needed to support the use of that large board that in most cases you have to have a room sized right to fit it in, and you can obtain inexpensive emulations of all of those outboard effects for far less than the physical units. I’m so happy that this medium changed and became more affordable for the rest of us. Otherwise I think I would be using one of those mini recorders with included mixer… lol

[stevecolley]

Picking up a Soundcraft Ghost 32 Channel this weekend 😁 This video answered alot of questions I had about the benefits of using a mixing desk.

[arthurnam]

Using an Allen and Heath GS3000 console in my home studio. Having the ability to eq in the way into the daw is huge. My daw is essentially a tape machine.

[RaleighTHEVAMP]

ROB!! He’s the man.. helped me out immensely and legit one of the most humble / insightful dudes.

[Jamminn]

This video should be titled Reasons for Owning a Recording and Mixing "Council". 🤣 Despite the different pronunciation, great info from Rob and Mitch.

[jonashellborg]

I do most of my audio stuff in the box, actually on an Ipad. But there is something special about using hardware buttons, dials etc. When I say capture a live band using a regular mixer, sending mono to a DAW, doing any EQ tweak on the mixer, I find that I don’t look at the sounds as I do in the box, I simply listen and make adjustments. I also then tend to focus more on microphone placements and choice of microphone, the room sound etc. The glowing multi coloured computer screen can be a distraction, I find.

[Sam-zoho]

The question isn’t do I need it the question is how do I afford it

[MountainViewStudio]

Reasons for NOT owning a mixing console: $1000-2000 /per month for power bill. However, if I were rich and well known mixer I'd probably have a nice Neve console. For now, my Neve 5059 summing mixer works pretty awesome ;)

[uriel-heavensguardian]

Awesome video!!!!
I
Love
The
Hands
On.
It’s less of a hassle!!! And sounds far superior.

[MKD]

To recall a mix can be tricky on a console, also every channel is slightly different, which could be desired, but at times you just want consistency, 250. 000 dollars or more on a top console is unreachable for most, maintenance if something goes down on it, cleaning the panpots and faders, getting the patch bay sorted for outboard gear, (which is not a major issue), if you have outboard gear that is. A console is great if you have the money and is ideally suited to a dedicated acoustically treated studio space. This may sound shocking, I love the results I get in the box, if you're emulating the signal flow and buss routing of a console ITB, the results can be perfectly good. Yes for some purists it may not be the real thing, but to able to pull up 5 different types of consoles in one session to test them and try them out, is handy, to recall a mix and have nothing change, is handy and while getting a balanced unified sound and mix is slightly easier on a console, some would say, if you know what you are looking for and know gainstaging and signal paths / flow, then mixing ITB box is not something that is lacking, for a fraction of the cost. The trouble is, once you have a good console, or any console, you are locked into that sound, unless you have endless buckets of cash for preamps and outboard gear. If Andrew Schepps can mix full albums ITB from start to finish, then that's good enough for me, that said, where did the source material come from, probably track on a Neve with Neumann mics and neve preamps, in the best studio in the world.

[alexisaacson]

Bruh. Having a console to record into then mixing fully in the box. Magic. So easy.

[Jonathandavidk]

Rob used to be my sales engineer. He was the best!

[azuresky]

I would love to work on a "council"

[joshpetermann]

If you have to ask this question, you don’t need one. 😂

[austinrian]

Those chairs look super comfy! What's the make and model?

[budgetguitarist]

I think a big console is mandatory for a commercial recording studio. I wouldn't book time in a studio that didn't have one. But it's a very expensive path for the vast majority of people who are watching this video right now. I use a X-Touch for automated faders and it's a lot of fun! And it was pretty inexpensive.

[infinagon]

They're having a pronunciation war of console.

[deanroddey]

I JUST made the move, and just moved meters for the first time yesterday. I had a shaman come by and scent me with sacred herbs at that moment (kidding of course.) I went old school, pure analog. My goal is to the make the DAW a digital tape deck as much as possible. I've rejected the modern music paradigm, i.e. music as a component of the IT department. I want to spend my time getting better at writing, arranging, performing and engineering, and not at MIDI/wave form editing.

I'll still have to use a couple plugins (since I'm in an apartment, so no real drums or piano), but that's it. EQ, compression, grouping, f/x, summing, monitoring, etc... will all be in the analog domain. The audio goes into the DAW once, and after that it only comes back out, it's never going out and back in again multiple times in order to insert analog gear, and being subject to all these random latencies.

And I can't agree more with the phase thing. It's horrible in the DAW. And that affects your decisions if you are processing on the way in, because very small delays act as EQ, and affect what you are hearing as you track..

I've been working for a month getting this all set up (including selling off all my old setup), so I'm ready to start actually using this guy. Though it'll still be a couple weeks before I get it all debugged and figured out and work out some sort of initial work flow to start with, which I'm sure I'll tweak over time.