So many great and thought provoking ideas here! The main reflection I get from this discussion is the huge breadth of possibility possible in the simple act of changing volume. It helps me appreciate the idea that the simplest ‘distortion’ of a signal is a change in volume, and thus should be highly respected.
What’s clear to me is that the artists shown (and not shown) almost certainly have different needs in a mixer. For me though, I also see that almost all of these performances could be accomplished in a multitude of manners. Each performer gravitates toward a particular tool, or set of tools, to accomplish their desired outcome in a process that feels natural to them. Or in many cases, the tools they had at their disposal at the time of creative impetus.
I wonder what an acousmatic performer’s tool of choice would look like were there not ready availability of large scale mixing consoles. What would a battle DJ mixer look like? What kind of routing would exist on a dedicated no-input mixer?
