Audio Mixer in Editing bay?
 

Sorry this might be a stupid question,
Why do some people have an audio mixer in there editing bay?

Thanks,
Matt

Mostly mine is there as a monitor mixer. (Mackie 1202 VLZpro)

With two editing PCs and a Mac, it's convenient for listening.

Other sources:
An HD Radio tuner, I'm listening to music right now as I type.
A DVD player, I use this primarily to grade student assignments.
An HDV tape deck, useful for monitoring...
At the moment, my Zoom H4n is sitting on top of it, reviewing some lengthy music recordings not yet transferred for editing. That's unusual for me.
Occasionally, a mic gets hooked up to it so I can lay down some scratch narrative tracks.

In this current age of digital transfers, I guess it's all monitoring convenience, except when the mic gets used...

Not a bad question. A lot has changed over the last 10 years which negates the need for a mixer. Oddly, I have been an audio engineer for over 20 years and my edit bay has no mixer. Or at least traditional mixer. I use a MOTU traveller running Pro Tools 9. It has 8 inputs which means I have plenty of inputs for my old VCRs, cassette deck, mics, keyboards etc.
I think the traditional mixer in most edit bays is for a VO mic and maybe video decks of some sort. That
provides a manual level control and potentially a lot more inputs than a simple digital interface.
Hope the mystery has been revealed! Ha ha!