>    I'm a live guy.  I ALWAYS have to mix by hand. 
 > 
I like to mix by hand too.. it's as interesting as playing music sometimes to 
have those faders move and be controlled under my hands.. Now with the 
automation out there. I usually only get to do the mix once and then it's 
locked into the automation, and then from there it is minor manipulation to 
fine tune the mix. 
 
 I've been doing some live sound mixing again for a local dinner theatre on 
comparably primitive equipment that requires some real live mixing, not a lot 
but some.. Mixing for concerts is the same way. IT can only be done live and 
right there on the spot and the mixer better be with what is happening on the 
stage or it's going to get very ragged in a hurry. Live mixing for a band 
you've never heard before is something like being a musician jamming on a 
stage with other musicians on a tune that you've never played before. Takes 
lots of experience to second guess what might happen next, and that assumes 
that you are together on what you are doing at that moment or not. You only 
get "one pass of the tape" on something like this for a live audience. I've 
mixed for a number of "battle of the bands" and professional shows where 
there just isn't time to rehearse, it's "Hi, how ya doing... 1... 
2...3....4.." and you're off and running.
But... just because you do live sound doesn't mean that you can't use 
automation for some things.. like board setup for a particular tune to a 
opening levels, rerouting effects and such... a MIDI patch change on an 
automated console that will listen to MIDI Machine or Show Control. Since 
levels can be different from night to night, perhaps the trims could be 
adjusted to compensate for that. The past few years I've worked with lighting 
consoles quite bit and just capturing snapshots of the console is a nice 
thing ti have handy if you are doing a technically elaborate show where the 
number of knobs to be turned exceeds the time to do them in.
 
 After all, if one doesn't have to deal with the BS, then perhaps the 
performance will be better if you can concentrate on the production, musical 
and sound considerations. I use a Mackie 1604 on my keyboard setup with an 
Otto-64 which allows me to play music rather than mix. This setup allows me 
the capability to coordinate lights and sound (with a sequencer) so that I 
can perform live without needing to worry about the sound and lights while 
dealing with the musical aspects. (I've working on a solo MIDI 
music/multimedia show concept because I'm not playing enough music these 
days.. too much technical stuff!)
 
 Bonnie *:>
--- FLAME v1.1
---------------