Mixing Console

[karthiks25]

As a newbie, I would like to know what is the use of a mixing console used in recoding theatres and how does it differ from the DAWs like flstudio, pro-logic etc.?

 

[SeaGtGruff]

A DAW is a computer program, and a computer only has so many jacks for audio inputs, and so many ports for USB inputs. Depending on the number of instruments you need to record at the same time, you might need or want to use a mixer to combine and balance the audio from a number of different sources before sending it to the computer to be recorded in a DAW. And the better the signal going into the DAW, the less you'll need to work on cleaning it up once you get it in the DAW. If you're just going to record yourself playing a keyboard, you probably won't need a mixer, although you might want to get an audio interface. But if you're going to record yourself playing keyboard while someone sings, someone plays guitar, some plays bass, and someone plays drums, then you might want to get a mixer. And even if it's just you playing keyboard, you still might want to get a mixer if you've got several different keyboards that you'll be using at the same time.

 

[karthiks25]

ok...
And why is a mixing console is having so many buttons that are clicked, that are moved up/down as seen in the pic attached.

Regards,
Karthik

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Holy cow, that's a starship navigation console or something!

The bottommost controls are sliders to control the volume level of each track. The things above the sliders are dials or knobs, not buttons. Each column of dials and the slider below them are to control a single track, and presumably each row of dials is dedicated to controlling a specific thing about that track.

The mixer display in a DAW usually looks a bit similar, albeit with a lot less dials per track. For instance, you might see one dial that shows the "reverb send level" for the track, and another that shows the "chorus send level," as well as dials for the different equalizer frequency ranges.