Analog consoles were the original type of mixing board and are still common today. It was with these boards that the typical layout was designed, with large faders for volume control, knobs for gain and EQ-ing as well as buttons for muting or soloing tracks. While digital boards have have many advantages, some of the most expensive and sought-after boards on the market are analog. This is because these consoles, when made with high quality parts, can reproduce and process signals that no digital sample rate can match. This same reasoning is used when studios choose to record onto a two-inch tape reel as opposed to a hard drive.
Since the rise of powerful computer technology, digital mixing boards have become a popular choice among engineers. While the basic function and layout is the same as an analog console, with volume faders, EQ knobs and instrument cable inputs, the digital types have several advantages. For one, because each function is stored in a memory bank, many boards are able to save prior fader settings and to physically move them back into place when that file is loaded. Some digital consoles come with computer screens that allow for visual aid, such as a spectrum analyzer. Because most signals, such as guitar or vocals, start off analog, though, a conversion to digital must be made each time, which often causes unwanted latency.
The latest phase in the evolution of the mixing board is the lack of any board at all. Because of all-in-one computer-recording software such as Pro Tools and Logic, music engineers can do all their mixing on the screen with a virtual board. The benefits of virtual boards obviously include such factors as the amount of space, but they also have the advantage of being easily upgraded. Adding tracks or effects processors to create custom physical mixing boards is not an easy process, but with virtual tracks it's done with the click of a mouse. Like digital boards, all sessions and settings can be saved; yet, also as with digital ones, the conversion of analog signals to digital can cause a noticeable latency.