A DCA acts like a remote control for the channels that are assigned to it. No audio passes through a DCA, so when you mute the DCA, it’s basically just muting the drum channels on your behalf. When you move the DCA fader, it likewise is virtually adjusting the the faders of its constituent channels proportionally.
According the block diagram on page 85 of the Firmware Reference Guide, auxes can be pre- or post-fader, but always follow the channel/DCA mutes.
So: assign your drums to a group instead of a DCA. Unroute your drums from the main mix, and instead put the drums in a drum group and route that drum group to the main mix. Then you can mute the drum group without muting the drums themselves. You can also apply some processing to the drum group, like applying some bus compression to glue them together and ensure nothing sticks out too much from the kit.
I don’t sell audio equipment or work for A&H and I have no commercial interest in saying this: Perhaps consider replacing your Avioms with a system like the Allen & Heath ME-U & ME-1s. You can assign up to 40 channels directly to the mixers, and place your drums in a group on the personal mixers. Then each musician can control each drum individually, and/or the drum group as a whole. (Bass player needs kick to lock-in on the groove. Singers need more snare and hi-hat for rhythm.)
When using the full system, each channel on the ME-1s will inherit the names of channels automatically from the dLive. We use post-EQ direct outs from the dLive to our mixers and it works very well for the musicians. We moved from a 16-channel Aviom system and it’s just no contest. If you can’t afford it in one go, the ME-1 personal mixers will work with an Aviom A-net system (albeit limited to the Aviom’s 16 channels), so you can start retrofitting your Avioms with ME-1s, and buy the ME-U brain later to get the full 40 channels digitally from the mixrack and skip the digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion of the An-16.
Michael 7 years, 9 months ago.
