Cl3500 Global Safe Channel Strip Assign

[John]

tl;dr: the C3500 firmware reference guide (https://www.allen-heath.com/content/uploads/2023/05/dLive-Firmware-Reference-Guide-V1.9_2.pdf; page 78) says about the Channel Strip Layout function: “The layout is stored within Scenes and can be made Safe from Scene recall.”
Despite this claim, I can’t for the life of me find a global safe option for the surface layout. I’ve managed to do it on accident with some fader banks, but haven’t been able to replicate it for others.

I’m mixing a theatre production for a local high school on their C3500. I’ve already written a bunch of scenes so that I can scene through the show and the mics that I want for each scene will pop up for me on the right bank (Bank 2) of twelve faders.

Issue is, I’ve now realized that I should have some fader banks in the left bank (Bank 1) of twelve faders which don’t change throughout the show. I want to be able to page to Bank 1, layer D, for example, and see the band’s channels no matter what scene I’m in.
I want to set all the layers up with:
> inputs for the band on Bank 1, layer D
> FX sends and returns on Bank 1, layer E
> Aux sends and outputs on Bank 1, Layer F

Is there a way to do this by making the fader layouts globally safe? I managed to somehow do just that for the band’s channels on layer D, but I haven’t been able to replicate it for the other two layers. Is that because they aren’t inputs? Is there no way to select a bank of faders and tell it to remain the same regardless of scene changes? I would really love to avoid manually updating each scene, especially given that the user manual explicitly says there is a way to do this.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[msteel]

Strip assignments can be made globally safe. Look in “Other” in the Global Safes and/or Scene filter pages. However, the safes are not granular enough to allow you to safe an individual layer – you can just safe a bank. This same granularity is present in the scene update page too. It sounds like you have already set up layer A in a lot of scenes and want to edit other layers. At this point I can’t think of a nice way to do that and keep your work on layer A. The only way that comes to mind is to edit each scene individually. That sounds decidedly un-fun. Maybe someone else will think of an easier way and chime in.

If you already have (or can afford to spend) a fader strip on top for a band DCA, then you might use the DCA spill feature instead of changing banks.

But in case you have to do a lot of tedious rework anyway to accomplish what you want, I will tell you how I set up the console for theatre. I generally do not change the strip layout from scene to scene. Instead I put DCAs on the top layer where I usually work and where I want assignments to be able to change. Then I change the DCA assignments (and names) on a scene by scene basis. This is partly a holdover from mixers with a fixed layout. But it has several advantages. I can scope DCA assignments individually, making it possible to change the “layout” in multiple scenes at once using the scene update feature. Additionally, it allows me to set a normal level using the channel fader and then all the DCAs end up about 0dB under normal circumstances. Because the channel faders generally stay up, I designate a DCA that is always muted and assign mics there when they are not in a scene.

[dcongdon]

Like msteel said, the Global/Scene safe for scribble strips is under the “OTHER” tab. It offer left or right bank safes, but not specific layers.

If you want to fix your strip assignments for a batch of scenes (or all scenes), I suggest using the Scene Update tool. Select all the scenes you wish to change, select Auto-tracking and Absolute, then rearrange your layers to taste, then go back and click Apply. This will update all of the selected scenes with your new scribble strip layout.

[John]

Auto tracking in the Scene Update tool got me there. Great tip dcongdon!

Thanks both of you for the help. Msteel, I like your advice on the DCAs; I will probably build my next show in DCAs rather than custom fader layouts. (That’s how I do it on yamaha boards, anyways, but I thought I’d try the layout function with this board.)

Thanks and Cheers!

[Author]

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