A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic instruments, or recorded sounds. Mixers may control analog or digital signals. The modified signals are summed to produce the combined output signals, which can then be broadcast, amplified through a sound reinforcement system or recorded.
Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application that runs on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD and Microsoft Windows. Its primary author is Paul Davis, who was also responsible for the JACK Audio Connection Kit. It is intended as a digital audio workstation suitable for professional use.
Dynamic range compression (DRC) or simply compression is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds, thus reducing or compressing an audio signal's dynamic range. Compression is commonly used in sound recording and reproduction, broadcasting, live sound reinforcement and some instrument amplifiers.
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture and, more generally, sound recording, editing, and mastering processes.
A digital audio workstation is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrated stand-alone unit, all the way to a highly complex configuration of numerous components controlled by a central computer. Regardless of configuration, modern DAWs have a central interface that allows the user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into a final produced piece.
In the domain of digital audio, a control surface is a human interface device (HID) which allows the user to control a digital audio workstation or other digital audio application. Generally, a control surface will contain one or more controls that can be assigned to parameters in the software, allowing tactile control of the software. As digital audio software is complex and can play any number of functions in the audio chain, control surfaces can be used to control many aspects of music production, including virtual instruments, samplers, signal processors, mixers, DJ software, and music sequencers.
Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound reinforcement and music recording industries. SSL employs over 160 people worldwide and has regional offices in Los Angeles, Milan, New York City, Paris, and Tokyo, with additional support provided by an international network of distributors. Solid State Logic is part of the Audiotonix Group.
Scholz Research & Development, Inc. was the name of the company founded by musician and engineer Tom Scholz to design and manufacture music technology products.
TASCAM is the professional audio division of TEAC Corporation, headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, California. TASCAM established the Home Recording phenomenon by creating the "Project Studio" and is credited as the inventor of the Portastudio, the first cassette-based multi-track home studio recorders. TASCAM also introduced the first low-cost mass-produced multitrack recorders with Simul-Sync designed for recording musicians, and manufactured reel-to-reel tape machines and audio mixers for home recordists from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. Since the early 00's, TASCAM has been an early innovator in the field-recording and audio accompaniment to video with their DR-series recording platforms. TASCAM celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021.
An aux-send is an electronic signal-routing output used on multi-channel sound mixing consoles used in recording and broadcasting settings and on PA system amplifier-mixers used in music concerts. The signal from the auxiliary send is often routed through outboard audio processing effects units and then returned to the mixer using an auxiliary return input jack, thus creating an effects loop. This allows effects to be added to an audio source or channel within the mixing console. Another common use of the aux send mix is to create monitor mixes for the onstage performers' monitor speakers or in-ear monitors. The aux send's monitor mix is usually different from the front of house mix the audience is hearing.
In audio processing and sound reinforcement, an insert is an access point built into the mixing console, allowing the audio engineer to add external line level devices into the signal flow between the microphone preamplifier and the mix bus.
A channel strip is a device that allows the output of an audio device to be amplified to a line level and integrated into some other system. An audio channel strip may be a stand-alone unit or one of many units built into a mixing desk. It usually includes a microphone preamp with a switchable phantom power voltage to power condenser microphones and some form of audio equalization. Some designs also offer other facilities including audio compression, de-essing, noise-gating and limiting.
Harrison Audio Consoles is an international company based in Nashville, Tennessee that manufactures high-end mixing consoles, Digital Audio Workstations (DAW), audio plugins, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound reinforcement and music recording industries. The company is renowned as an industry innovation for its "in-line" mixing console design that has subsequently become the standard for nearly every large-format music console. Over 1,500 Harrison consoles have been installed worldwide, presenting a significant percentage of the overall world market share for high-end audio consoles. The company founder, Dave Harrison, was inducted as a Fellow in the Audio Engineering Society for this technical contribution of the recording industry and in particular the first 32-bus "in-line" console.
Euphonix was a professional audio company located in Mountain View, California, United States. Euphonix produced the first successful line of large digitally controlled analog audio mixing consoles in the late 1980s and has since moved on to all-digital systems. In 2010, it was acquired by Avid.
Soundcraft is a British designer and importer of mixing consoles and other professional audio equipment. It is a subsidiary of Harman International Industries, which is owned by South Korean company Samsung Electronics. It was founded by sound engineer Phil Dudderidge and electronics designer Graham Blyth in 1973.
Parallel compression, also known as New York compression, is a dynamic range compression technique used in sound recording and mixing. Parallel compression, a form of upward compression, is achieved by mixing an unprocessed 'dry', or lightly compressed signal with a heavily compressed version of the same signal. Rather than lowering the highest peaks for the purpose of dynamic range reduction, it decreases the dynamic range by raising up the softest sounds, adding audible detail. It is most often used on stereo percussion buses in recording and mixdown, on electric bass, and on vocals in recording mixes and live concert mixes.
A Virtual Mixer is a software application that runs on a computer or other digital audio system. Providing the same functionality of a digital or analog mixing console, a virtual mixer takes the audio outputs of many separate tracks or live sources and combines them into a pair of stereo outputs or other routed subgroups for auxiliary outputs.
In sound recording and reproduction, audio mixing is the process of optimizing and combining multitrack recordings into a final mono, stereo or surround sound product. In the process of combining the separate tracks, their relative levels are adjusted and balanced and various processes such as equalization and compression are commonly applied to individual tracks, groups of tracks, and the overall mix. In stereo and surround sound mixing, the placement of the tracks within the stereo field are adjusted and balanced. Audio mixing techniques and approaches vary widely and have a significant influence on the final product.
In audio engineering, a bus is a signal path that can be used to combine (sum) individual audio signal paths together. It is typically used to group several individual audio tracks which can be then manipulated, as a group, like another track. This can be achieved by routing the signal physically by ways of switches and cable patches on a mixing console, or by manipulating software features on a digital audio workstation (DAW).
