Analog vs Digital mixing desks

Firstly, I should say that everything I say here is purely my own opinion ;-) This is a debate that's been running for some time in the live sound and PA Hire world... the relative benefits of analog and digital mixing consoles.
Analog offers familiarity and ease of use, having been around since the dawn of sound re-enforcement, it's what most engineers will have learned their trade on.  Digital offers a brave new world of layers, built in effects and dynamics, and work flows that are completely different to the traditional analog cousins.

Digital has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years.  Interfaces have improved, sample rates improved along with sound quality.  Prices have come down a bit.  Progress in the analog world has been slower, with few manufacturers putting in much R&D into this area any more.

It appears to me that if you've got decent money to spend on a desk (like, over £7000), then digital appears to be the favourite option.  Analog desks in this price bracket tend to be vast and incredibly heavy devices, sometimes needing up to six people to lift them onto a stand. They need a big rack of outboard with them to compete in any sense with a digital board.  Digital desks are for the most part much lighter and easier to handle. They have all the outboard built in, so that's another rack that can be left behind.  Most people agree that the sound of digital desks holds up pretty well too.

The difficult comes when you're spending less money, as the choice of digital desks tends to dry up a bit under £7,000 or $10,000.  You are left with a few 16 or 12 channel offerings like the smaller Yamaha LS9-16 or the O1V-96.  There's a few left field offerings like the Presonus Studiolive as well, but their unusual interface could be perceived as a little bit rider-unfriendly.  If you need 32 channels, as many live sound engineers will, you're a bit stuck.

In the analog realm however there are a good few well respected desks in this price bracket, such as the Allen & Health ML and GL series, and the Soundcraft GB and MH series.  Some of their larger offerings are still pretty heavy, and you do have to wonder how their values will hold up with digital boards getting cheaper.

So perhaps the best decition is to wait untill the prices of digital mixing desks has dropped, and hire a mixing desk should you need one in the meantime!

Me operating a Yamaha M7CL digital desk