SAC doesn't have a single input or output, it's software, and in terms of actual use the inputs and outputs possible with a SAC system are defined by the hardware used.
True, though the majority of preamps used with SAC systems match inputs for outputs so a simple 16 input SAC system would likely have 16 outputs. Mine has 32 inputs and 32 outputs. More to my point, subgroups and auxes are all virtual within SAC and each of the 25 independent mix consoles has 6 stereo auxes, 16 stereo subgroups and 8 stereo routable outputs.
My reply was to the complaint that subgroups were missing or annoying to use on many of the low end digital consoles. I regularly use subgroups for group processing, feedback notching for lapel mics, parallel group compression for drum kits and I've played around with Dave Rat's bus compression mixing scheme.
There are also a number of digital consoles where you can have multiple work surfaces creating separate mixes of the same inputs to different outputs. It is a nice feature if needed, and not relevant if not needed, but the general concept is not unique to SAC.
No, though it's a little more unique that full independent eq, dynamics, bussing, etc. are all built into one host for each of the mixes that would be done via auxes or matrix mixes on most consoles. It's certainly unique to the lower cost digital consoles originally under discussion here.
Personally, I have a number of problems with the SAC interface. A simple example is mute and solo buttons that are not that bright when inactive and simply a darker shade when active. Hardly the same as simply scanning the board for a nice bright LED. This type of issue was made much more relevant for me after being part of a digital console demo with someone who was color blind. The physical button and knobs part of the console they could work with, although color coding was not of much benefit. However, the LCD screen portion was virtually useless for them. So there is an example of a person very capable of mixing on an analog console and even many digital consoles but that would likely be totally unable to mix on SAC.
Frank already covered it. Check out a number of the alternate shades now available for SAC. My personal favorite is Hap's Lights On shade. It's easy enough to tweak or modify any existing shade to meet your particular needs as long as you have the graphics ability.
