Anybody know what the difference in a live board verses a recording console is?
Like for instance Mackie boards are marketed as that they are live and for recording use. And then the Midas series boards are called live boards?
Is it just that one company designs something and then after proving themselves in the market place that it becomes one or the other?
Or is there some real logic to describing the details?
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I think it's also true that most recording consoles are of the '
I think it's also true that most recording consoles are of the 'inline' type. That is, each channel serves as either input or return channel merely by pressing a button. This means that you can be using some channels to track to recorder whilst listening to existing tracks coming back from the recorder. On a 'live' board, this feature isn't required.
The inline thing is one point, though a lot of live boards also
The inline thing is one point, though a lot of live boards also have dual, switchable inputs). The biggest thing that live boards have over recording boards is Aux sends. A good live board has at least 8-10 aux sends, all switchable pre/post. A good monitor board has at least 12. A lot of the other stuff is the same as recording, but it gets renamed from "Multitrack bus" to "LCR bus" and such. I've also noticed that a lot more live boards use VCA's than recording boards.
I think another issue is relative portability. A midas has a lot of great features that you could find in an SSL or something, but an SSL isn't made to be packed up and trucked around.
I think Mackies biggest fubar in the 1604 was not making all 4 aux sends pre/post switchable.
Part of it is marketing, and the other part of it is the feature
Part of it is marketing, and the other part of it is the feature set and/or quality. Many of the Mackie boards are designed as recording/live boards for those of us with a budget. When you're on a budget, you usually can't buy both a recording and a live board. And a lot of us guys would be using it for both. Their onyx series is a good example of a dual-purpose board...it has features designed specifically for recording and specifically for live sound.
With higher-end consoles, you can get a good overview by comparing Midas consoles and the Soundcraft ghost. The Midas board has friggin great sound with very few routing options other than those necessary for live sound use. The Soundcraft Ghost also has good sound, but is designed to provide more routing options for recording processes such as mixdown. There is a little bit of crossing the line sometimes, as many guys use the Midas as preamps for recording work and I've heard of guys using a Soundcraft Ghost for live work.