@kmetal, I'm not bustin' your chops Kyle, just showing my age. The Yamaha 02R and 01v came out mid 90's, followed by the DB8 you mentioned, a couple years after. And in my mind, those were 'first in the game' of digital mixers a project studio might be able to afford. And only the 01v would be suitable to consider leaving the house for a bar gig back then. I think in reality, the X32 and the like, are much more like the layered and menu-driven 01v - enhanced by the colorful tricks now possible with LEDs and a nicer display. My 01v usually played second string to any of several analog mixers, but when it was the right tool for the job, I'd use it.
Yeah, no doubt, controlling the 31-band EQ is awkward on anything less than the 32-channel version of the SL. On the smaller formats, it's much better to use UC or the iPad for the graphic EQs. But to be honest with you, in all these years, I think I've needed to resort to the graphic EQ twice. With a 4-band fully parametric on every input, subgroup, aux out, and the mains, I've never had a tone problem I couldn't do better with the parametrics.
At first, after switching to the original SL24.4.2, I would still take an 8U rack with hardware Klark EQs, a little LexiconMX200, and a dbx compressor - just incase…. Eventually, I got tired of carrying around a rack full of stuff I never needed. The onboard FX did just fine, the Klarks were almost always completely flat, and the dbx 160x was just getting used as an end-of-the-line watchdog limiter. Then again, I'm not working with musicians with sh#tty tone, inconsistent volumes, blistering loud monitors, or under-powered FOH. I recognize that thanks to what I do for a living, I'm in a rare-good position that allows me to afford really good gear that can be scaled to whatever the gig requires. And I understand that's a luxury not a lot of working musicians would have, but bringing the right tools (from the instruments & mics, to the amps & speakers) eliminates the need for radical EQ-ing. The rest of it comes from working mostly with veteran (geezer) musicians.
Several years ago we were first on the bill at an outdoor festival playing through a much larger sound company's system. Grade-A outdoor flying line array rig, (A-H, QSC, Martin) easily capable of the crowds between 1000-3000 at this particular outdoor venue. When we got there my drummer buddy asked the stage manager if he could just use his own mics. They were agreeable, so he used his. Nothing too exotic, for his simple 4-pc drum kit. An AKG D112 on the kick, AKG C418 micro on the snare, an old AKG
D224e on the hi-hat, Senn e604s on both toms, and an e845 vocal mic - which usually picks up enough of the cymbals indoors. (The sound company may have had an overhead up outdoors, I can't say for sure.) During the time between our sound-check and show time I'm hanging out in my natural habitat, (checking out the gear at the mix position). The owner of the sound company, who's the FOH engineer said, "Dave, you gotta come see this!" He points to the EQs on the drum channels. "Look at that! Not a hint of EQ on ANY of them!" I said, "Yeah, I'm not surprised. His drums
always sound great. Makes it pretty easy doesn't it?"
I work with that drummer 90% of the time, he is; A) a veteran player, B) a master at tuning
any drum to suit the job, C) the owner of good mics that complement the drum tone he likes, D) consistent with mic placement, E) the first to suggest tweaking the tuning and damping on his end - before we dig into the EQ, and F) the owner of his own drum shop. And as a guy who owns a drum shop, he's liable to bring a different kit on any given night. In about 12 years, he hasn't brought a dud yet. He can bring a kit with an 8" rack, 12" floor, and 18" kick that sound as big as a more standard 12", 16", 24" kit.
The other drummer I've been recording with the past couple years is also all of the above, except for (F) owner of a drum shop - but he's got multiple kits each perfectly suited for different specific situations.
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