alternative of mixing (and/or editing/processing) desk for theatre and live performances!
Stella
I am an MSc student in Music Technology at the University of York and I am
starting my final dissertation project, for which I was thinking of taking
into account basic problems and limitations related to the use of
traditional (analog or digital) consoles and trying to create an alternative
system for mixing (and editing) in live performance situations (mostly from
the point of view of the sound engineer, but also perhaps from the point of
view of the performer).
As I have had a very small experience with mixing consoles, I am (just)
assuming that all these individual knobs and faders cannot by handled by
just 2 hands, in the case that something has to be changed quickly during a
live performance. Do you think I was thinking especially about the EQ
setting on each track (central frequency and Q affected); changing the
settings on one track (let say the Q), the EQ filter settings of the rest of
the tracks could change in such a way that the mix would remain clean. The
same with levels, but also as a way to spatialise.
In fact, I have been thinking of a virtual (3D) environment, controlled by
an appropriate external hardware interface, which will represent several
parameters of the input sound. These will be coupled in such a way that the
user (the sound engineer) won't need to touch and change all the knobs and
faders on each track individually, which is (I assume) a problem for a live
performance engineer.
My basic question to the whole group is whether there could be a way of
"grouping"/"mapping" some parameters to each other, in order to decrease the
needed motions of the sound engineer and therefore the needed time for the
manipulation of the sound (in regard to the performance context, the
achieved goal and his own taste), which is critical in real time
performances. But I don't know:
1. Whether the by me addressed problem (the limitations of the existing
traditional mixing desks and the need for quick manipulation and alteration
of sound in live performances) exists at first place or if it is just my
assumption...!
2. Whether it is possible to solve the problem I just addressed by just
coupling or mapping audio parameters or whether this problem cannot be
solved that easily (it may end up to be a system making the sound worse and
this may be why traditional mixing desks are still used) and
3. Whether I could extract some information from the sound source, which
would enable me to interact with it and change it (in contrary to the
manipulation of pre-defined sound (samples)).
Intuitively I have the feeling that the process of EQ-ing or fine tuning
levels cannot be "globalised" and detached from its specific channel. But I
would like your opinion, because it may be that my initial idea may have
some ground for thought.
A system in this direction is the Audiopad by MIT
(http://web.media.mit.edu/~jpatten/newaudiopad.html), although it seems to
be working more as a performance tool rather than as an alternative of the
mixing desk. This is the reason for which I have been thinking that the
system I have been thinking of may ultimately turn to an extention of the
mixing desk, which will give the sound engineer or performer bigger
flexibility or a different way to go about manipulating sound.
I would appreciate it also if you could give me your opinion about any basic
problems and limitations related to the use of traditional (analog or
digital) consoles, you have been facing because of it (which may inspire me
with ideas about an alternative improve system) and ...
whether you could come up with an ideal mixing console or a mixing/editing
system that would replace the existing "model" of mixing and would make
things easier for engineer and/or performer.
I would appreciate any opinions and thoughts on the topic!
Thank you all,
Stella