Console Project, Part One

Oh the elusive console. What so many of us wouldn't give to have some 64 channel API console chilling in a spare bedroom at home. Unfortunately, this is super impractical for any number of reasons.
Firstly, I'm a college student still in student-aimed housing. So no space for a behemoth.
Second, money. ...and the justification to SPEND that money, even if I had it.
I suppose a good third problem would be power consumption but eh, technicalities.

So what then is my goal? What is this so-called Console Project?
This, my friends, is the beginning of what will probably be the greatest electrical project I ever commit to in my life. I want to build a purpose-built hybrid console, specifically for mixing tracks. Oh and I'd like it to be 64 channels. Go big or go home...right?

Let's give a little backstory. About a decade ago, I was trained on some fully analog Mackie 24 channel whose model number I couldn't hope to remember. My initiation, per the sound guy, was to listen to the extremely nasally female backup vocalist soloed in headphones and attempt to figure out EQ well enough to make it tolerable. Spoiler: I had no clue what EQ was or did at the time. Not fun.

But that aside, the point is, I learned on faders...and lots of them. I've since spent a lot of time on both the LS9 and the M32 and I learned to love both of them, despite my love for analog. So one can imagine then, that when I finally broke down and bought my license for Logic Pro (gasp! A Logic user? Pro Tools is FAR superior...yup, I use Logic and love it, deal with it.) and got access to the full-fledged 'in-box' mixer that was NOT included with GarageBand, I very quickly felt limited. I wanted faders. And I didn't want the measly eight offered by most control surfaces that you have to bank through. I hate that and the banking is my biggest gripe against the M32. No. I want MINIMUM 32 faders in front of me. AND, for what I think are obvious reasons, they need to be motorized so they can control Logic and Logic can control them.

That's where the concept began and, unable to find exactly what I wanted on the market and being a circuit designer with some competent software friends, I decided I'd build my own.

I won't get into hyper-specifics here but I'll give an overview of the different chunks of the console in the order I intend to make them.

1. Fader Deck

Each fader will have its own circuit card and will be able to control both Logic and analog audio being piped through it. Again, no hyper-specifics but think 'dual-gang' and you'll probably figure it out. Each card will also include a pan knob and potentially some LEDs and control buttons or something but that's about it. They'll be multiplexed and piped over MIDI.

2. Scribble Strip

Pretty simple actually but I'm terrified of the programming involved. Kinda like the M32 actually in that each channel gets a little LCD that displays the channel name. Ideally this would also be synced with Logic but I guess it doesn't HAVE to be. 

3. Channel Strip

Considering how far down the road this is, it's not currently a huge thought of mine but basically, each channel would ideally have an analog channel strip. I could design these myself I suppose but it's pretty tempting to make them compatible with 500 series hardware and slowly purchase those over time. Then I can get super high quality and each channel can be purpose-configured. 

Functionality

So here's a quick summary of how this would work. And this is all assuming the tracks have already been recorded and are sitting in their own tracks in a Logic session. With just the fader deck active I would be able to mix completely in-the-box and have a pretty great experience doing so. And honestly, that's probably how it'll be until I can afford to start putting in channel strips. 

Once I CAN, however, that's when the fun begins. I can then pipe each channel out of Logic (pre-fade) through a series of something like the Focusrite Red 16 and patch them into each channel of the console. Because I will have already built in the functionality, the fader cards will be able to control the analog audio too. I can send it through any matrix of bussing I like and then print it back into Logic after sending it through a proper mix bus compressor. 

That's the goal, far-fetched as it may be. Welcome to the journey! I'll keep ya updated.