I'm seeing a lot of judgments here that are based on digital consoles that aren't designed for live use. Mind you, that's understandable, because consoles like the
Yamaha PM1D and the DiGiCo
line are quite expensive and not likely to be come across until you're out working professionally (and even then only in limited venues).
That said, you cannot judge digital consoles on a whole if you haven't used these. Recording consoles, particularly the more popular ones from
Yamaha, are super-kludgy and a pain to use. I'm touring with an 02R right now, and it took me a good month or two to become really comfortable with it. Even now I still don't love it, but I've gotten to the
point where I can quickly do anything.
With consoles designed specifically for live use, however, things get soooooo much easier. The PM1D is better by far (although not my favorite). It eliminates many menus, you have tons and tons of faders at your fingertips, it's not the same as
Eqing on a dedicated
channel strip, but it's still not too bad once you get used to it.
The DiGiCo
line, however, is amazing. Everything is super easy to get to, right in front of you, and by having only one
channel strip section for EQ and processing of a bank of 8 faders, things are actually easier to use, because they're less clutterred. Again, a little adjustment is necessary, but surprisingly little.
Anyway, I just wanted to
point out that it's not a fair evaluation to judge a whole
category on the basis of a few common but less than optimal options when there are much better representatives of how things can be done well out there.
--Andy