Digital Mixers
Your basic and most fundamental difference between a digital audio mixer and an analog audio mixer is in the added functionality that a digital mixer offers you at the interface. Leaving aside all the arguments as to sound quality and so forth, the cool features of a digital mixer include the fact that a digital mixer is usually all you need to run a successful performance. By this I mean that a digital audio mixer will generally have the following features built right in to the mixer:
- Compression, Limiting, and Gating
- Parametric and graphic equalization
- Crossover functions
- High pass and low pass filters
- 48 volt phantom power (sometimes you turn this on and off on each individual channel)
- Remote control functions (from an iPad or laptop)
- Memory features (you can do a sound check for two bands and recall settings later)
- USB outputs
- Feedback detection
So, you can see that you can throw out a whole bunch of outboard processing gear if you just have a digital mixer. Some even have touch screens to make the interface even more easy.