Dim Listen Bus?

[tourtelot]

Okay, there may be no easy way to do this but . . .

Here’s the situation. Recording on location. Little “control room”. Producer sitting behind me at his own table. 5. monitors surrounding me. He’s on phones.

The producer insists on having his talkback/slate mic patched to the main L/R which is what I listen to in my monitors.

Of course, his mic is right in direct line of fire with the front monitors, so there is a tendency for feedback. Since I never know when he is going to toggle the slate mic, I am forced to listen to the monitors somewhat below the level that I would like to listen. The producer has expressed his annoyance for feedback clearly (who wouldn’t?).

I’d love a way to duck my listen feed keyed by the slate mic but I cant figure out a good way to do that.

Any insights on that out in A&H world?

Thanks.

D.

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[ioTon]

Hi tourtelot,

You’re mixing Surround with SQ? Via Aux-mix-send? Interesting!!

You can use the footswitch connection of the SQ. There you can have 2 User defined Keys (ring + Tip) -> built a switch to control both of them in parallel (together). So with one you can unmute the slate mic inside the desk, and at the same time with the second mute eg. a DCA with all your Speaker Sends, or a MuteGroup.

Another way can be via Midi (Bomebox)…

Or you can use the mixer remote ‘mixing-station’ there you can create user layouts. Perhaps it’s possible to build a 2 Button Layout to unmute / mute the mic and in parallel your Speaker Sends.

I think DIM would be very tricky…

Or you can do a internal digital loop via the Dante card to get your Speaker outputs back into a input channel, and use the ducker of the inputs…

greetings,
dd

[tourtelot]

Would it be possible to set up a matrix output, all input channels except the slate mic sent to a fader to control the monitor level? Would I be able to mix only one set of faders that would adjust the mix, the same mix, to both the matrix out and the Main L/R?

Flaws with this, or something like this? The Main L/R level never gets changed typically, although until I find a level for the main mix that isn’t to hot, I may adjust Group 1 output.

D.

[tourtelot]

I guess one big flaw. No PAFL. Maybe have the main 2-mix to the recorders come from a Matrix and use the Main L/R as a monitor mix via Listen? The 2-mix is reference only as all mics are multi-tracked.

D.

[Yann]

If the LR isn’t going anywhere else apart from your ears, just put a ducker on it sidechained to that guy’s channel

[tourtelot]

Main L/R is sent to recorders to record a scratch 2-mix.

D.

[ioTon]

Can you give us a diagram of your setup?
Where are you Surroundspeaker get the feed?
Aux-busses? Matrix-busses? Groups?

Why is the producer mic routed to this feed?

greetings,
dd

[SteffenR]

send the master to a matrix pre fader pre ducker… for the recording

[ioTon]

That would be very nice!
But A&H is not willing to provide a unprocessed LR or Aux bus Signal for the matrix…

Would be very nice to have, already discussed here!

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[tourtelot]

Session is over and it went well (except for my low monitor levels).

The producer uses the scratch 2-mix is a pre-editing tool and wants his slates and comments as part of the information on those tracks.

So let’s take the 5.0 out of it and call the set up a simple L/R monitor mix with a scratch 2-mix on the main L/R. This is sent, via Dante to the first two tracks on both recorders. I am monitoring the Main L/R on speakers using the SQ6 setup in “monitor” mode so that I can adjust monitor levels using the Master fader and use the PAFL function to solo mics. As said above, the producer wants his slate mic to be patched to the Main L/R so that his comments will be printed on the Main L/R recorded tracks for reference later.

He was sitting a a table directly behind me, also at his insistence, and monitoring Main L/R on phones. His T/B mic, even while a cardioid, is pointing right down the throat of my speakers. I need to monitor at such a low level so to not allow feedback to occur.

As said above, no allowance on the SQ to use the T/B mic to duck the Listen bus (and that would fix it).

Maybe an outboard box that I can patch the monitor speakers through with a momentary T/B mic switch and some sort of dimming function?

I thought about a separate feed that would allow the T/B to be patched to the recorders but not to the Listen bus, but I couldn’t figure it out without needing to keep track of two whole mixes. Possibly just not seeing the forest for the trees and maybe there is a stupidly easy solution I just don’t imagine. Please ask more questions.

D.

[tourtelot]

I think I have it sorted.

I assign the mics to two GROUPS. SQ6 in Monitor mode. One GROUP feeds L/R and that feeds the Listen Bus and then I assign the Listen bus to the L/R monitors. Main fader controls monitor level without effecting the levels to the recorders.

The second group feeds Matrix 1. I add the T/B aux to Matrix 1, and then route Matrix 1 to the first two channels of the two recorders. All feeds set to unity gain. The T/B mic is not assigned to the group that feeds the monitor speakers but does show up on the recorders’ L/R scratch 2-mix. As well, the T/B Aux is sent to an output on the DT168 to feed the SA speaker.

Trying now to eliminate any traps that would effect the record feed. And I can’t see any issues at this time. I’ll puzzle on it for a few more days before I implement it as a working plan.

This is the second time I have explored using the Matrix function. The first, on the job to add a level control to a playback from a recorder to set pitch for a solo singer without feeding back the SA speaker and now this. I like getting the hang of another valuable tool that is in the awesome SQ panel’s repertoire.

Thanks to all who helped get my mind “on track”. As always, your advice is valuable.

D.

D.

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