Hi Paul,

Well simply said, the DCA is a remote control, the group is a sidepath with real audio control…..

To understand that, you have to understand the matrxing of a vca/dca and a group, and the reasons why to choose for one of the two.
First the VCA/DCA : this is a CONTROL fader wich can control relative a group of faders, in VOLUME and in MUTE, there is NO audio coming through this fader, it’s just remote controlling faders, stereo or mono, who are members of that VCA master. This is mostly used to ( indeed as you do ) adjust the complete drumkit volume or mute, or all backing vocals or all instruments… every engineer has his own reasons to make it easy for him and not adjusting 12 faders , but just one vca fader to give the whole drumsection a bit more. The VCA/DCA is used in most modern analoge mixers and offcorse in all digital mixers… it makes life easy, and audio is not disturbed, routed, again remember the C in DCA is for CONTROL , remote control….

The Group is just an audio master, like your aux master, or stereo master, it’s a mono or stereo BUS where you can send your signals through. A group of signals of wich the AUDIO path is now really behind the channel faders going directly to the groupmaster, audio is controlled also by this fader, and offcors its mute button.

So they are doing allmost the same, the DCA remote controlled and the group direct with audio running through. What’s the difference?

Well if you just want to mute , groupvolume adjustment etc.. the DCA is the perfect choice.

BUT if you want to EDIT this group of channels, with EQ, compression, or just send it to a special destination for recording, zone’s etc. , you do not need only to have control over that group, you want the AUDIO, and that’s when you use the Group.
examples : a compressor on your complete drumkit , an EQ on your complete screaming Choir.

Basicly : DCA = remote , Group = sum of audio

So in your situation, Yes DCA is o.k. for muting and controlling the groups you made. BUT if you want a compressor on the complete drumsection or wanna do something with the complete audio of a group, use a group.

its the little things in life…. i would like to see the capability of routing the tap button for the tap delay effects to the user assignable soft keys that way i don’t have to take up valuable screen space to tap and also prolong the touch screen when you’re really into the music and think that the tap button is part of the drum set.

No, at the moment there is no audio available at the laptop. Audio over wireless network is something for the future no doubt [8D]

You could map the PAFL output to a socket on the mixrack to feed a small monitor speaker (switch this off when you leave stage) or even a wireless in-ear for checking the signals while moving around on stage. If you are working with one iLive doing monitors from FOH then this would of course use the same PAFL system as FOH.
Regards,
Carey

my suggestions:
– all channel gain reductions as meters in one screen (only overview)
– scene and effect -store synchron in editor-software AND desk!
– channel link functions
– much faster “DCA Mute” flash in channel displays – now it is very slow!
– gate with expander-function
– clean hum and noise in headphone (iLive80)
– faster scene memory
– editor-software(PEQ-window): switch the position from frequency and bandwidth – like the iLive surface
– fast switches for different rotary-functions
– POST-fader position for output-limiter
– RTA level adjust
– AUX-send pickup-position: bigger buttons on the touchscreen – or my fingers are to fat? []
– “multicore” in one cable
– easier “0”-position for single EQ gains (PEQ and GEQ)
effects:
– gated reverbs
– frequency shifter
– distortions

(sorry for my bad english)

Auto-tune plugin[]

Scott I think you fill find the DCA logo in the LCD screen on the channel strip flashes when the DCA is in mute, though I am with you if the Mute light flashed I guess that would be handy.
Ian B.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr B

Scott I think you fill find the DCA logo in the LCD screen on the channel strip flashes when the DCA is in mute, though I am with you if the Mute light flashed I guess that would be handy.
Ian B.

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this flash frequency ist too slow!
i don´t use the DCA-Mute.

I vote for flashing mute buttons (:
Easy centering of EQ faders were mentioned few times.
I also would appreciate easer way of patching inputs and outputs and, what’s more important – ability to work at negative temperatures; Polish sound engineers should have possibility to work on this system.
Best regards to all!

THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME