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Comment by TylerE | Hacker News Reader

Modern CPUs are great if your watt (and thus thermal) profile is unlimited.

Not so great when they aren't.

Most processing of audio isn't CPU performance limited... For most realtime audio mixing, it doesn't matter if you use 1 watt or 10 watts for your CPU - the big speakers will easily be drawing far more, and the performers time will be costing far more than the electric bill anyway.

> Most processing of audio isn't CPU performance limited

Processing, mostly true (though there are still some reverbs that can chew an awful lot of cycles).

Synthesis, however, is a different story. That is definitely CPU performance limited once you get into substantial numbers of voices/tracks/synths.

It's CPU limited in the sense that it's extraordinarily latency/jitter sensitive.

Modern consoles are plugged into the wall and are large enough for active cooling. For a 1U rack unit they can be cooled with small server fans; noise is not an issue as the amp fans are just as loud and the music will drown them all out anyways.

Does this form a problem for digital mixing consoles? As far as I know, these already have fairly beefy fans for heat exhaust, so I don't know if they couldn't just add more airflow?

Not especially. I'm more thinking of things that have a potential of being near a live mic, where a cooling fan is a no go, at least without a defeat switch.

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