Introduction
I still feel that the Korg 168RC was the ultimate bargain
of the early digital mixing era. The 'perceived' difficulty of use and lack
of motorized faders unfortunately sounded it's death knell. I suppose many
of the Korg's original owners have long since dumped them into the second
hand market. This might make them even more of a bargain!
People seem to have two major complaints. How 'noisy' it is and how 'difficult'
it is to use. Most of the noise can be traced to pilot error.
Usually the operator does not grasp the relationships of input level and gain
stages. Where a problem can occur is at the convergence of the analog and
digital worlds. Feeding the A/D convertors of
the 168RC for maximum dynamic range and minimum noise takes some practice.
Once in the digital realm, the 168RC proves to be a dead quiet sweet little
board.
The second complaint, the difficulty factor, is a bit more daunting. It's hard to visualize what is going on inside the mixer, especially if you are new to it. Couple this with LCD based navigation one can be presented with a steep learning curve. Ironically if you look at currently available digital mixers under $3000, the design philosophy really has not changed much. The same "view through a port hole" LCD paradigm just seems to be more acceptable today.
In November of 1998 I released the original Classic
studioware panel suite. The purpose was to take some of the anxiety out of
using this mixing console.
v2.001 is the latest release of the main
gorDesign solutions studioware panel. I thought the Classic version
was getting a little stale so I set upon the task of dragging the 168RC into
the new Millenium. I hope you will enjoy using version v2.001 and feel that
it breathes new life into the relationship between you and your own 168RC.
Rich Gorde
gorDesign solutions
January 10/2001