How To Set Gain On Mixer

The Beginner'southward Guide To Gain Structure

^{Annotation: this post is contributed by professional audio engineer Terry Bledsoe, author of The Beginner's Guide To Live Sound Mixing: Or How Non To Get Fired On Your First Gig}

Okay, I know you want to go going and playing with some gear, just let's get a few basics out of the manner. First of all, this is a elementary sound wave:

Hertz measures the number of these that happen in ane second. The number of Hertz that happen is the Frequency. The more the Hertz, the shorter the waves and are college pitched frequencies, the lower the number are the low frequencies, that crave more power to produce.

The amplitude is how strong the signal is. This is measured in decibels or dB. Likewise much amplitude and we have distortion, too little and we get dissonance. When someone speaks into a microphone, the audio-visual point is transformed into an electrical signal that we tin now manipulate. How nosotros adjust the aamplitude or forcefulness of betoken into a sound mixing console is with the Proceeds knob.

Note that dissimilar manufacturers call this different things, simply they all achieve the same office. For instance, Yamaha calls theirs the Head Amp on digital consoles. I will be referencing both analogue and digital consoles, but the principals apply to all.

Here is your Proceeds Knob…

Getting Started with Gain

This is the input to your panel and if you lot don't become this right, everything else y'all exercise after will nonetheless sound horrible. Ideally the indicate coming into your panel is hitting merely beneath the red at information technology highest point, similar when the singer screams. The carmine on your meter should just barely blink when this happens.

To check this on lower-end consoles, use the PFL button.

PFL is curt for, "Pre-Fader Level." Push button this on your channel and your meters volition follow. The best fashion to test this is to literally yell into the microphone. A skilful and hearty, "Hey!" ordinarily does the chore. If y'all merely tickle the red lite and then you should be good. Now obviously everyone speaks and/or sings at unlike volumes and the gain knob is where you recoup or reduce input signal. Unlike consoles take their sweetness spot, but I generally similar to see my signal averaging effectually 0 and peaking effectually +4 to +6 on my input. This should keep you out of trouble. Distortion is cool if you are Jimi Hendrix playing Purple Haze… not then much for someone speaking at a lunch or a church.

How Proceeds Works

We now accept betoken to the Gain knob, just what is it actually doing? The proper name is actually the Preamp, as in information technology amplifies the electrical bespeak enough to do something with information technology. The preamp quality is ordinarily the difference in toll of consoles; (I have a running joke when I am showing someone around a console, allow's say a Midas for case. I spread my arms across the console and say, "Yous pay $200 dollars for canvass metal and $20,000 for that knob!" pointing at the preamp!) Now recollect of your gain, (and all signal flow for that matter) as a set of h2o pipes. You start with a main large pipe and this gets distributed to other smaller pipes. If there is as well much pressure in the piping, it breaks, (distortion). If there is too little pressure and so air is nowadays and your sink is just a trickle. In sound this is chosen a noise floor. All you are doing is making air or electrical current louder, non the audio signal. Hence trying to boilerplate the input signal around 0db with your gain.

At present everything I have just told you lot is washed with ALL FADERS Downward!

First of all, y'all don't desire to scare anyone else in the room when yous fix your gains and secondly, y'all can really practice some impairment to the gear if y'all don't get it right. The safest way is to have all faders and gain knobs all the way down and slowly increase the gain until you are happy. Then it is safe to SLOWLY bring faders up to actually hear what y'all have just monitored with your meters.

Side by side up after the preamp is the dynamics section, (compressors and gates) on your better analogue, (and nigh all) digital consoles.

You always want to compress or gate your bespeak immediately later the proceeds, as it will affect your signal after on down the road. Cheaper consoles volition not even have this option.

The next two features are interchangeable depending on the console you lot are on, the Aux sends and EQ sections.

Some consoles road the signal to the EQ first then the Auxes, some go to Aux beginning so, EQ, and finally, larger consoles, (and software) give y'all the choice. In sure applications you desire the aux transport to be pre-EQ, some postal service. Don't be scared, this section is regarding gain structure, future articles will deal with point routing and their applications.

Faders & Groups

After you have washed all the funky stuff to your signal on your channel, this is the book command. This controls no other volumes, (or Amplitudes) other than it's designated channel. For instance, say Channel 1 on your mixer is the Kick Pulsate and Channel ii is the Snare. Your first fader merely controls the Kicking Drum volume and the 2d fader only controls the Snare volume, etc. This is how you adjust individual volumes while you are mixing.

These faders transport your channels' betoken to either Groups or to your stereo mix. Most consoles give yous options in this decision. Why would you desire to transport to Groups before I go to the main mix? I'm glad you lot asked!

Think of Groups as a primary volume for a select group of channels before yous go to the Main. For example, say you lot want all the drums on Group 1. One time you lot become the kick, snare, etc. at all the right levels, you lot tin can ship these to Grouping 1 and now y'all accept a master book for the whole drum kit alone. If the drummer is laying dorsum on a carol y'all can heave the whole kit at once on the Group fader and not mess with the overnice mix y'all had at sound check. The grouping now sends the betoken to the Master volume. If your console has groups at that place will exist assign buttons on each aqueduct to tell it to go to that grouping. Here is a pic of a minor mixer with only ii groups. When you press this button, Ta Da, you have sent to the group fader. The signal volition now have a book control of any you transport to this earlier the Main fader.

VCAs

VCAs are basically the same thing as Groups except for one major difference in that they eliminate a gain stage. What voodoo is this? VCA stands for Voltage Control Amplifier, which harkens back to the olden days of analogue consoles. Digital consoles exercise the same thing except information technology is software-based now, but the terminology is so ingrained in the audio community that they stuck with it. (Some manufacturers refer to these as DCAs or Digital Control Amplifier. For the purposes of this post nosotros will stick with the VCA terminology.)

When you assign channels to a VCA, (for the same reasons as you assign to groups) the VCA fader really controls the channel faders. The channel indicate goes directly to the Main, only the VCA controls the individual channel faders. That is all.

I am partial to VCAs instead of groups as that is i less gain stage I have to worry about. Each channel will have a VCA select to tell it which one is boss, provided your console has this characteristic. Notice the names above each of the VCA channels in the previous motion picture… you tin can at present mix the entire band off of these faders after y'all get the basic mix solid.

Master Volume

Last but non least is the Principal Volume. This may be called Main or simply labeled every bit STEREO or ST. This is appropriately named, as in it is the terminal section before the electrical betoken is sent to the amplifiers. This is the chief volume of your whole system, whether you accept a simple stereo set up in the back k, or are sending to multiple places in Madison Square Garden. As Stan Lee ever said, "Nuff said."

Speaking of sending to multiple places, this is where the Matrix section of a console comes in. This is after the Master in your Gain Phase. When yous send your Chief Volume to different Matrixes, yous tin can conform the levels of the individual speaker sets to the desired levels and your Master still controls the overall book of the system.

The following photos prove a Matrix layout of a church building that I mix. The room is odd shaped and I take a Chief Left, Center, Main Right for my main Speakers. In addition, I have some Outfills, (to fill in some of the gaps on the extreme edges of the audience), a VIP surface area, Antechamber, a Streaming send and finally a Studio transport, (for recording and if we have whatsoever press). I need the same Master Mix going to everywhere, but as you can run into, I need dissimilar levels going to dissimilar places. Behold the magic of Matrices!

Matrices are the force per unit area valves for the entire system!

The Concluding Proceeds Stage

After the Primary Fader/Matrixes your last Proceeds Stage is to your processing and amplifiers. This is the concluding link in the chain, but all the same principles use.

You lot become the idea by at present, as well much gain = distortion, too little proceeds = racket.

At that place are entire white papers and the similar on processing for speakers, and feel free to look them up, but for our purposes processing is the concluding fine castor on what signal is sent to the amplifiers. This is the final gain for lows, mids, highs and phase in your speaker. These vary from elementary crossovers to full-blown crazy processing! I prefer to run all my amps wide open and take care of the balance at my processing. This way I know I accept at least i abiding in my concluding signal that the audience is going to hear.

Conclusion

Understanding how to properly set your gain construction will pay off with faster soundchecks, better sounding mixes, and optimized sound bespeak levels throughout your sound system.

Spend some time experimenting with your audio levels and gain structure to create a workflow that is effective and predictable for you and your squad.

Resources

Looking for an easy place to start when it comes to setting gain on your mixing console? Download and follow this uncomplicated guide to set the perfect levels for your inputs every time you mix.

This mail service is an excerpt from Terry'south volume The Beginner'southward Guide to Live Sound Mixing. You tin can check out the book on Amazon, available for Kindle and in paperback.

^{Terry Bledsoe is a Audio Engineer and Production Manager with over 30 years of experience. He has given seminars on live audio in many of the superlative hotels in Las Vegas and throughout the The states. With disciplines ranging from alive sound, recording, film and television, he is at present authoring how-to books on the practise and principals of sound.}

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