Draft Manual for the Use of the Studer Vista 5 Digital Audio Mixing System

Although digital technology in sound production has existed for at least thirty years, major developments in this field have begun to occur in the last ten years. Digital audio workstations have become widespread – this is hardware with input and output digital-to-analogue audio converters that operates with software on a personal computer. He then compared the technical specifications of individual systems, which showed similar results to his (biased) opinion. The most suitable candidate was selected by a professional committee, of which he himself was a member.

Problem

Although digital technology in sound production has existed for at least thirty years, major developments in this field have begun to occur in the last ten years.

Solution and Method

Digital audio workstations have become widespread – this is hardware with input and output digital-to-analogue audio converters that operates with software on a personal computer. These devices have made music recording considerably more accessible, as one can set up a decent studio for a moderate price. Digital audio systems have developed from these devices and analogue mixing desks, combining practically all the tools that a sound engineer needs in their work in one device. ** The public institution where he is employed decided to purchase such a system.**

Because they are a public institution, they had to publish a public tender due to the price level. The comparison of submitted candidates is described in the first half of this diploma thesis. First, he described the practical test of individual systems, which is a matter of his personal conviction and cannot be unbiased.

Results

He then compared the technical specifications of individual systems, which showed similar results to his (biased) opinion. The most suitable candidate was selected by a professional committee, of which he himself was a member. Due to the complexity of the system, as well as the transition from analogue to digital system in their organisation, he decided to produce a draft manual for the selected Studer Vista 5 digital audio system.

The original operating instructions have 646 pages and cover use at the system administration level as well as detailed descriptions of absolutely all functions, half of which are performed during the initial system configuration or when adding/removing console components. This occurs only a few times in the console's lifetime, so he did not describe these functions in the manual. He also described other functions used as system administrator superficially, focusing more on functions used when the system is already configured for the current project.

Therefore, he recommends that the reader work through the entire manual, not just individual chapters, as it describes not only functions but the philosophy of working with the console. In this way, the author managed to concentrate the scope of the manual to 15 pages. The author's sources included various factory operating instructions for digital audio systems, specialist literature in the field of audio and digital audio production, and online sources in related fields.

Image sources are taken from factory operating instructions and websites without copyright protection and are used in the same context as the originals.