But as always, there's a tradeoff. As Craig Anderton noted in his exceptional Sonar 3: Mixing & Mastering book a few years back, one of the reasons why mixes recorded 30 years ago often sound more natural than today's computerized affairs was the presence of that producer or engineer physically manning the mixer's faders, and playing them to control their dynamics, much like a skilled musician intuitively manipulates the dynamics of his singing or instrument. For the most part, it's an imperceptible thing, but its presence in the best mixes can often be noticed: the subtle feel of a hands-on mix, versus simply cueing up the tracks and doing little more with them other than fade-ins and fade-outs.

Give Me A Little Of That Human Touch

While those results are still very much possible to achieve on a computer and a mixing board connected to it via a FireWire or USB interface, a full-blown mixing board is often overkill for the musician working alone in a personal studio, when most parts are recorded a track at a time. Particularly since, historically, the biggest multitrack instrument was the drum kit, which in most project studios is supplied via a hardware or software drum machine and/or loops, and there are so many mono or stereo recording interfaces that take up much less physical space.

Frontier Design Group's new AlphaTrack DAW control surface is designed to bridge this gap. At 8.5" by 6" by 3" and weighing one pound, two ounces, it fits comfortably on most desks (and its styling makes the AlphaTrack look like it could also be pressed into service if Dr. McCoy's tricorder was ever in the shop for repairs). AlphaTrack combines a motorized fader, several tape-recorder style pushbuttons and three rotary knobs.

Frontier Design's Website lists the following drivers as being currently available for AlphaTrack:

AlphaTrack works on Windows XP and Mac OS X (including Intel Macs) with applications such as Pro Tools, SONAR (4+), Reason (3.01+), Cubase (3.02+), Nuendo (3.02+), Digital Performer (5+), Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, and REAPER. Support for more applications will be added regularly.

(If you're reading this guys, I'm hoping you'll add Adobe's Premiere Pro and After Effects video editing programs to your list.)