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[Kent Thompson]

Having all the options available on a digital board for me has generated a lot of educational "what if" scenarios that I would have never had previously. Some turned out good others didn't.

[Kent Thompson]

The Midas Pro1 and Pro2C, maybe, but the full-sized Pro2 is still a pretty significant step up in price, and the Pro1 only has 40 channels and only 16 faders.

The GLD is about the same price range as the Roland, but still has fewer faders (although it has LED scribble strips which I love). The GLD also doesn't support remote control with a laptop like the Roland and iLive do.

EDIT: Corrected numbers.

The A&H consoles have a workflow that I really like and are well laid out in my opinion.

[Jason Lucas]

The A&H consoles have a workflow that I really like and are well laid out in my opinion.

The A&H offline editing software is also the most intuitive that I've used so far.

[Kent Thompson]

I have learned to embrace the layering and use it to my advantage. For instance I put the drums on the second level and place drum DCA's on the top level in its place. Most of the time this is all I need. I also figured out which channels I am accessing the least and put them on lower levels (matrix,aux masters,effects. I rely heavily on my DCAs. Layers are not evil. Just sit down and think about what you are doing and come up with a workflow that fits.

[Jason Lucas]

I have learned to embrace the layering and use it to my advantage. For instance I put the drums on the second level and place drum DCA's on the top level in its place. Most of the time this is all I need. I also figured out which channels I am accessing the least and put them on lower levels (matrix,aux masters,effects. I rely heavily on my DCAs. Layers are not evil. Just sit down and think about what you are doing and come up with a workflow that fits.

Yeah but what happens when the DCAs are on a separate layer? They are on the M-400.

Having AUXs and stereo returns on a separate layer makes sense, and that's how it's setup on our board.

If the DCAs were on the same layer as the inputs I might use them more. Technically I can put them on the same layer if I make use of the User layers, but honestly everytime I've used DCAs I wound up not really liking them. I wind up missing the individual control.

[dick rees]

Yeah but what happens when the DCAs are on a separate layer? They are on the M-400.

The M-400 is more of a recording desk than a live board.  It's just not set up well for live use.

..... everytime I've used DCAs I wound up not really liking them. I wind up missing the individual control.

Properly set up, the individual channels are one button push away.  That's not a deal-breaker.  And with the DCA's your group can have control of channels on different layers.....if you want it that way.

[Jason Lucas]

The M-400 is more of a recording desk than a live board.  It's just not set up well for live use.

Properly set up, the individual channels are one button push away.  That's not a deal-breaker.  And with the DCA's your group can have control of channels on different layers.....if you want it that way.

One button push is one too many. I like the faders to be within reach at all times. It makes it much easier to react to changes. Luckily I can fit all of the mics and instruments on to one layer, barely. If we ever want to do more though, like putting more mics on the drums or guitar amps or we want to start using stereo keyboards then we won't be able to put it all on one layer and I'll probably have to rely very heavily on the user layer.

[dick rees]

One button push is one too many. I like the faders to be within reach at all times. It makes it much easier to react to changes. Luckily I can fit all of the mics and instruments on to one layer, barely. If we ever want to do more though, like putting more mics on the drums or guitar amps or we want to start using stereo keyboards then we won't be able to put it all on one layer and I'll probably have to rely very heavily on the user layer.

There's distance and there's distance.  In the land where you have 48 faders for 48 channels, the distance between channels 1 and 48 can be as much as six feet (analog) plus the time to get there.  Boards with multiple layers have less physical distance, that being replaced by the "distance" of time required to push a button.

Pick your poison.

[Jason Lucas]

There's distance and there's distance.  In the land where you have 48 faders for 48 channels, the distance between channels 1 and 48 can be as much as six feet (analog) plus the time to get there.  Boards with multiple layers have less physical distance, that being replaced by the "distance" of time required to push a button.

Pick your poison.

Sure, but with a 48 channel console I would keep the channels I use most often closest to me, and then put channels like stereo returns and such farther away because I don't need to adjust them as often. I can pretty easily reach something 3 or 4 feet away.

One problem I run into with layers is needing to adjust something on one layer as well as something on another layer at the same time. With an analog console the only problem with that might be the reach, whereas with layers I cannot actually adjust two channels on adjacent layers at the same time without doing one of two things:

1. Assign the two things I need to adjust to a DCA or pair of DCAs.
2. Have the channel on the first layer selected and adjust the level on screen and then move to the second layer and adjust the other channel with my other hand.

I've made use of the second method a few times but my preference is to simply setup my user layer so that both of those channels are on the same layer.

[dick rees]

Sure, but with a 48 channel console I would keep the channels I use most often closest to me, and then put channels like stereo returns and such farther away because I don't need to adjust them as often. I can pretty easily reach something 3 or 4 feet away.

As I said, there's distance and there's distance.  The above statement can be applied to one long layer or multiple layers equally.   It's all about how you set it up. 

As to the speed of operation:  what happens when you need to quickly patch or re-patch something?  How quickly can you dig into the dog-house and pull a processor insert from one channel and insert it on another?  How quickly can you activate the processor on the channel on a digital desk?

As I said......pick your poison.