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[Tim McCulloch]

My analog days our A rig was PM4K FOH and PM4kM at monitors. FOH was a minimum 6 person lift. I tried it with less once or twice and people got hurt, so I put my foot down and if that desk went out, we had a minimum of 6 audio crew. The Monitor desk was HEAVIER, mostly due to its more robust case, and while it could be done with 6, to put it up on the racks really needed 8 people.

The Easy-Tilt wasn't a thing yet. And then even then it was only useful maybe half the time. At least we weren't picking the desk up from the floor anymore....

You're giving my hernia flashbacks, Brian!  PM4Ks at each end of the snake, double-wide fx racks, multi pin insert system to maintain... I'm not missing any of that.  As for the perceived sound quality I'm more forgiving of memories and preferences but nothing sucked back then, and there's no reason for digital to suck these days.  I'd venture to say that without modern digital consoles, sophisticated IEM mixing - the kind that needed more than a Paragon II with Uptown - wouldn't be possible.

I've told this story before so I'll tighten it up more... but years ago I bought a Yammy 01v on fleabay and considered the purchase price to be tuition at the school of things digital. Played with it, made sound come out, put it on a shelf for months.  Took it to a CYO convention we'd done for years, the main pain point was the turn around on the last day, from youth presentation to mass with the Bishop - over the lunch break.  I took the analog stuff, too, but pushed myself to remember how to use the Yammy.  When it was all over I'd said goodbye to analog; digital mixing made it possible for me to deliver an audibly better product to my client in a physical package that cut my FOH footprint by 2/3.

I have rose-colored memories of the muscle memory of operating the same analog mixer for years, with the outboard layout never changing.  I developed the same muscle memory for a couple of digital mixers, too.  In that regard it's all about familiarity and consistent use, not sine waves or 1s and 0s.

[Justice C. Bigler]

Analog shit is too heavy.

The biggest improvement we can make to concert sound, is to stop playing in these shitty arenas and stadiums that are just giant echo chambers.

I recently took my wife to see a band that she wanted to see in Houston, at the Minute Maid Park. The sound was absolute shit. I could only understand about one out of every ten words they were saying, and that only while speaking in-between songs.

It really begs the question, "What the fuck are we doing in this industry?"

We spend millions of dollars for high end PA systems, hours setting up, tuning and dialing in the PA, hundred or thousands of man-hours to transport and set up the show; and it just all seems for naught because you can't actually hear the music in these shitty stadiums and arenas.

Does it really matter that you're using multiple millions of dollars in Meyer or L-Acoustics PA? Or have a nice vintage analog console with boutique outboard gear from some ancient recording studio, or even the newest wiz-bang digital console? Or have the highest paid most famous engineers on the planet working on your show for thousands of dollars per day? If you can't actually hear the god-damned music?

I mean seriously, the entire industry is just a giant ego stroke if the end result is a shitty experience for the audience. And that experience starts and stops with the shitty venue in which the show is played.

[Scott Helmke]

"Everybody out to FOH!!!"

Yeah, I don't miss those days. 

Though there is the question of what to do while the audience is leaving. On a house system it was a convenient time to zero the board out for the next night.

[Chris Hindle]

My analog days our A rig was PM4K FOH and PM4kM at monitors. FOH was a minimum 6 person lift. I tried it with less once or twice and people got hurt, so I put my foot down and if that desk went out, we had a minimum of 6 audio crew. The Monitor desk was HEAVIER, mostly due to its more robust case, and while it could be done with 6, to put it up on the racks really needed 8 people.

The Easy-Tilt wasn't a thing yet. And then even then it was only useful maybe half the time. At least we weren't picking the desk up from the floor anymore....

Back in those dark, early days, a local Boy Scout troupe were our assigned "helpers" at one festival.. Having 12 kids looking at a PM4K-48 was a treat all in itself. "What, put this up there?"
Mediocre sound maybe, but I never had a Yammi fail on me. Analog or Digital.
Chris.

[Tim McCulloch]

Back in those dark, early days, a local Boy Scout troupe were our assigned "helpers" at one festival.. Having 12 kids looking at a PM4K-48 was a treat all in itself. "What, put this up there?"
Mediocre sound maybe, but I never had a Yammi fail on me. Analog or Digital.
Chris.

A number of years ago we did a show in a small town.  Part of the local crew was the Boy Scout Troupe.  I'd forgotten how high the 'boy' ratio was.  "I need four... er... 8 over here, please!"

[Chris Hindle]

A number of years ago we did a show in a small town.  Part of the local crew was the Boy Scout Troupe.  I'd forgotten how high the 'boy' ratio was.  "I need four... er... 8 over here, please!"

2:1 was just about right at 9 AM. Slipped to 2:1 + a couple of Dad's by 11 PM......
Loved mixing on that the desk. Not so much moving it around.
10 years ago (15 maybe?) Solotec Montreal called we up.
Used PM4K-48 Tour Pack from Nashville, CDN $5.000, Delivered.
errr, No thanks.
Chris.

[Al Rettich]

In a un-named theater, loading out one cold and icy night a Soundcraft Europa wasn't held when it was pushed up the ramp. It proceeded to roll off the back of the truck falling to the ground, then falling into the stage floor. During this fall the case split open, for the console to slide into center stage taking two people down. Before this happened it was easily a 6-8 person lift.. Don't miss those days.

My analog days our A rig was PM4K FOH and PM4kM at monitors. FOH was a minimum 6 person lift. I tried it with less once or twice and people got hurt, so I put my foot down and if that desk went out, we had a minimum of 6 audio crew. The Monitor desk was HEAVIER, mostly due to its more robust case, and while it could be done with 6, to put it up on the racks really needed 8 people.

The Easy-Tilt wasn't a thing yet. And then even then it was only useful maybe half the time. At least we weren't picking the desk up from the floor anymore....

[Mac Kerr]

In a un-named theater, loading out one cold and icy night a Soundcraft Europa wasn't held when it was pushed up the ramp. It proceeded to roll off the back of the truck falling to the ground, then falling into the stage floor. During this fall the case split open, for the console to slide into center stage taking two people down. Before this happened it was easily a 6-8 person lift.. Don't miss those days.

I only had to deal with Europas twice, the first tie was one of then at the back of aluminum scaff seating risers, about 15’ in the air at the Louisville Convention Center, the other was two of them on 4’ high staging decks in the Dallas Convention Center. I wouldn’t want to repeat either experience.

Mac

[Chris Hindle]

OK, Al and Mac count for 3 Europa's.
Who bought the other 5 ?? 
Just how un-truck-pack friendly does a console have to be??
Chris.

[Riley Casey]

We acquired a Europa as part of an inventory buy out. I think we used it all of five times in five years and only for local shows where the truck pack idiocy hurt less. It was a nice console to mix on once you had it in place but one thing the bugged me endlessly once I learned it was that the gate on every channel decision was because the original compressor on every channel idea was shot down because it cost an extra dual opamp per channel. 

OK, Al and Mac count for 3 Europa's.
Who bought the other 5 ?? 
Just how un-truck-pack friendly does a console have to be??
Chris.

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