EAW makes a mixer: what is changing about digital?

[soundlight]

I was just gonna focus on the new EAW console offering here, but I decided to broaden it out.

Yeah, It's not out, yet, but it looks pretty dern cool. It definitely takes after the M7CL a bit for design, but a bit more raked.. It's a "collaboration" between the LOUD Technologies companies. It's the UMX96. I'm interested to see how they plan to break in to the market with Yamaha controlling it greatly, and Soundcraft, Midas, and A&H now making offerings. It takes a very different breed of product to make a statement in the digital console market these days, such was the truth with all of the major digital consoles/console series that are out there today - Yamaha's 0 series (01v, 02R, and their followers and variants) are their own breed, the Yammie DM series really builds off of these mixers, Tascam's mixers have their own unique layout, (but lending some to the Yamaha DM and 0 series), and other small console companies have kinda fallen into the mix, with Ramsa making a huge punch with the DA7. The Yamaha PM1D is its own breed of animal itself, and the PM5D and M7CL build off that but are both different in terms of layout, features, and operation. The Mackie offering (TT24) is intended to hit the mid-market, and it does this well, working on an easy-to-use layout about the size of the standard 24ch analog board. The LS9 fights back in the affordable market with the LS9, with 32 channels for the low price of a penny under $8K before shipping and tax, and includes a very entry-level feature set compared to the big Yammie boards, but includes the headamp automation, which the original PM5D did not (but the PM5D RH and M7CL have), which smokes the Mackie when it comes to recalling multiple bands, because the gain automation means that any band's set of gain parameters can be called up like the rest of the parameters. Then we jump up to the Digico D5 (no, not chronologically here!) and D1, which are very high-end and are a very different style of user interface. Then we get in to the consoles that the analog companies are making. Allen and Heath has come out with a very unique design visually and in terms of operation and software, just like Soundcraft and Midas. Of course, Midas has to make theirs more expensive than anyone else just because it says Midas on it...

But the question is, will a new console from a company such as EAW be able to make an entrance in to the market, and what would it have to do to be able to come on board with the likes of Yamaha as competition? It certainly looks like they've got a very, very nice featureset in one package, but will the price be able to compete (I think that it will because of the LOUD Group companies' track record with this), but will the stability of the newer Yamaha consoles be matched?

[soundlight]

I can't remember every console on the market, and I may have missed some big or small ones, so chime in if you can think of one that I didn't...and to the question...what does it take to enter the digital console market these days with Yamaha and a few other companies as such a big players?

[Peter]

Taking a quick look at the specs (specifically the last page) the big thing that jumps out at me as an "oh no" moment is the fact that there are only 4 stereo effects slots. The LS9 even has 8 stereo effect slots.