help please?

[Euroset]

Thank you very much for your long and detailed response. I have to say, I understood everything I needed from it.

You're right, and I get that watching the screen is simpler than dealing with a bunch of knobs.

But basically, by that logic, fishing isn’t worth it either, because you can just buy the fish, already cooked, in a restaurant.

So let's not forget the illusion either – it just feels good to "twist the knobs."

What you wrote is very useful—not just for me, but also for those who might ask the same or similar questions later.

Basically, you questioned the difficulties of using a physical mixing console, and I’d also question why we even need to write music ourselves when AI is already capable of doing it. These aren’t the '70s, '80s, or '90s anymore, when all this was a big deal. Now, with just a laptop, anyone can achieve anything.

So much knobs and LEDS:

Just so I can impress the ladies...
Just so it can impress me.

[Y-my-R]

I'm not questioning large format ANALOG mixing consoles. On those, everything needs to be where it's at... and "unfortunately" that can use up a lot of space and make it necessary to roll across the room with your chair all the time.

As far as control surfaces go, there's no practical reason for controls to be further away than your arm is long. A control surface is supposed to speed up the creative process, not slow it down.
So, if you have to roll back and forth in your chair to reach controls on the surface, while it would be easier/quicker to just push the "bank" button to reach the same control on a controller with fewer faders, then I DO question how it could possibly make sense to be unnecessarily inconvenienced by a control surface.

...and if the D8B had scribble strips for each channel, that help figure out where what is, then I'd even have considered keeping my dual D8B setup... because it was WAY cool looking.

But I've "been there" and tried to tie that double-D8B control surface into my workflow, and found myself getting annoyed and inconvenienced by it, constantly.

That's why I went back to using a single D8B. I still use that giant Dual-D8B Argosy desk, but now just have more rack gear in there, instead of a second D8B. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more practical!!!