Belgian manufacturer Apex began with analogue EQs, 10 years ago, went digital in both signal processing and speaker management, but has now returned to high-end analogue with the dBC-8 and dBG-8 - an 8-channel compressor and 8-channel noise gate respectively. "There's a developing sector that wants to save rack space without going digital," says product specialist Filip De Vos. "These address the same need that PA companies have for more and more compact kit, each with eight channels in one unit. They also avoid too many control knobs and switches that people don't have the time to set. There is definitely still a middle range of users who want the analogue sound quality, the ease of use and the cost-effective price."The more digital we go, the fewer racks will be needed. Some will remain for the esoteric units, and there are those who don't have the budget to go high-quality digital, or the experience. It hasn't been very difficult to design the eight channels into one unit; the main problem on one single circuit is to avoid cross-talk. But we did it. In fact, we really don't know why nobody else has done it . . .
