the following notes were added by Randy Solem on 4/15/2011
The Blue Select buttons, found all over the board, do nothing to affect the sound when pressed. This button only 'selects' that channel or bus for accessing the Fat Channel parameters for that channel. Only one blue Select button can be pressed at one time.
The Fat Channel refers to the area of the board that is shared by all channels.
Monitor sends are controlled by selecting the particular monitors 'Mix' button and adjusting each channels send level in the Fat Channel area. Adding the solo button allows that monitor to be monitored with the head phones if the solo button is also pressed in the headphone area.
Channel assignments - Each of the 24 channels needs to be assigned to at least one output. The 4 drum channes should be assigned to the sub1, all instruments should be assigned to the Sub 2, all voices to Sub 3 and Joel or a lead should be assigned to the main mix. This is only to ease live mixing by making overall changes to a group of channels at once. Channel assignments are made (or checked) by pressing the channels blue Select button and then pressing the appropriate Sub number or Main buss located near the middle of the board.
Meters - Pressing the button in the Meter area called 'input' gives a nice meter bounce of all channels input levels.
Aux 10 is used as a send to the Windows computer for recording. Solo this channel to your headphones during the service to ensure proper mix.
GEQ - This overall Graphic EQ is not currently being used. Leave this button off. EQ is managed with an external device located near the big power amps. Each channel still has it's own individual EQ accessed in it's Fat Channel.
Channel effect presets - Each channel has a powerful set of effects that can be applied individually including a compressor, limiter, gate and EQ. This is a powerful tool that can 'clean-up' the sound tremendously by creating tight frequency and volume spaces for each instruments sound. The board ships with factory presets defined for a variety of inputs. After you have basically setup the board for a set, take time to load a factory preset for each input. If the channels stay consistent week to week this won't be necessary each time.
Here's how it's done.
Note: there is no way to determine what preset has already been assigned to a channel. When in doubt just load and recall it again.
Scene recall - Many settings on the board can be saved as a named recallable preset using the scene button near the LCD and following the instructions on the screen. When we have a perminent computer installed this option will be more intuitive as channels can then be named and scenes can be dragged and dropped with ease. But, keep in mind the following settings are NEVER recalled with a scene. Trim (gain) knobs and the AUX1 - 10 sends. We should really try to keep these knobs in a perminent position if possible. Recalling a scene only to find the trims or monitor levels have been changed would be a problem. We may need to write those settings down on one of the preprinted forms that came with the mixer. I suggest the AUX 1-4 sends should be set at U (unity) for consistancy. The trims get changed from time to time so we'll have to keep an eye on those.
Fader Recall - Another issue with scene recall is with the faders. They are not necessarily recalled with a scene recall either. But, the board has a method for determining where the faders belong by pressing the 'fader locate' button near the right side of the board. This button uses each channels LED strip to help you manually help you 'find' the faders original position by sliding it up and down and centering the LED meter. Motorized faders do this automatically for you but are relatively much more expensive. |
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