Confused about Mix Send Settings

[Gordon]

Two questions about this screen, (picture attached, QU-24).

1. I am not sure I completely understand why the CHANNEL ASSIGN switch is there. If I set it to “ALL OFF”, aren’t I essentially rendering the entire Mix Bus useless? In what case would I ever want to do that?

2. If I set the PRE-FADE switch to ALL POST, does that override everything below it in the CHANNEL SOURCE settings box?

Maybe dumb questions, but for some reason I am having a brain fart tonight.

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[airickess]

1. It’s a very quick way to clear all channels from that mix buss. Very handy if you are using that mix buss for only one specific mix and only need a few channels assigned to that mix buss.

2. No. You are simply setting all the channels assigned to that mix to post-fader, so when you bring down any fader on the LR layer it will bring down the level of that channel on that mix buss as well. The Channel Source is simply used to determine where, in the channel signal chain, the source is tapped for the mix. You could set everything for that mix buss to Pre-EQ for a monitor mix, so that will make sure that any EQ changes on the channel strip will not be reflected in that mix.

[JohnK]

I haven’t used this screen yet, but I would assume these are mass setting controls provided as a convenience feature that sets all channel sends to this mix in one click, so you don’t have to painfully navigate through each input channel send screen to make sure it’s set correctly to this mix.

[dpdan]

both responses are correct

[Gordon]

2. No. You are simply setting all the channels assigned to that mix to post-fader, so when you bring down any fader on the LR layer it will bring down the level of that channel on that mix buss as well. The Channel Source is simply used to determine where, in the channel signal chain, the source is tapped for the mix. You could set everything for that mix buss to Pre-EQ for a monitor mix, so that will make sure that any EQ changes on the channel strip will not be reflected in that mix.

Help me if I am approaching this all wrong but, I just can’t seem to get that vision of analog signal path out of my head. In a traditional input channel, the last thing that the signal passes through is the Fader, (barring any routing switches). So if you set the aux source to be taken Post-Fader, it is automatically Post-everything-else in the channel. You can’t take the signal from two different places simultaneously. Thus, I am having trouble understanding how the Mix Source can be both Pre-EQ and Post-Fader.

Should I envision that the Fader is being moved to the Mix Source point?

[GCumbee]

It’s digital. Forget audio signal path thoughts. Lots of voodoo and black magic going on.

[airickess]

GCumbee has a point – digital consoles can do things that analog just couldn’t do. But instead of forgetting audio signal paths you should expand your thought process about them.
You can take a signal from two different places in the channel strip with the Qu consoles. So, if you have the global Mix Send Settings set to All Post-Fader and Channel Source set to Pre-EQ, that means that all your mix busses (except L/R) will NOT be affected by EQ changes on the channel strip but WILL be affected by changes in fader position on the L/R layer. An example where you might want to do this – if you are sending a record feed via a Mix you might desire the record feed to follow your fader adjustments while leaving the EQ flat for the record feed (leaving the EQ consistent for the record but allowing you to make EQ adjustments to the FOH mix per channel). I can also see this particular set up being used for backstage program feeds.

[Andreas]

And to bring the analog picture back, imagine each fader actually is a gang of 16 (for example), with a private fader for each mix, controlled from the single physical fader knob. The pre/post switch simply bypasses the mix’s individual fader.

[GCumbee]

The problem with a post fade for recording or TV is the later requires a different mix than the LR so we don’t want that changing. I do TV shows and we use different consoles for that reason. TV is isolated away from the live sound. Also if doing it on the main board you either live with the post EQ based on FOH needs or take it Pre EQ which isn’t always desirable. Gets complicated.

[Author]

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