Groups & DCA's ??

[chung2jjParticipant]

Hello Everyone,

Had a quick question about Groups VS DCA’s. Basically I have a T112 with all the auxiliaries used up due to avioms, yet I’m looking for a way to group my inputs by voices, instruments, drums etc. to add a little bit more control on the final output. I slightly pan the instruments so my question is:

1) Will a Stereo group help me maintain my panned inputs? Because it seems a mono group completely defeats the purpose of my panning before it busses to the mono group (hence…. mono).

2)On the iLive, is there a way to get the same functionality (Compressors, gates, limiters, EQ etc) as I do with the groups on the DCA channels? I’m having trouble whats the “purpose” of the DCA channels if all they do is decrease gains (from my understanding) in groups.

Ultimately, my hope is to be able to have stereo groups while maintaining the ability to add light compression on the groups without having to sacrifice the auxiliary AVIOMS. Right now I only have 18 Auxiliaries I can work with. For all I know my answer may be that I’ll just have to sacrifice some auxiliaries to get Stereo groups.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[clarocqueParticipant]

If you wish to process the audio, groups is your answer. DCA (or VCA in analog world) is really just a remote control to the assigned channels – no real audio passes though them.

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

iLive has a configurable DSP with 30 busses and 32 Mix Outputs. If you have 16 mono Auxes for AVIOM, plus LR, you should have some busses available for 2 or more Stereo Groups (depending on number of FX sends in use). Play around with the Mixer Config menu until you find the right balance.

Another suggestion is to look at reducing the number of Auxes used for the Aviom system: typically some of the sends to a personal monitor are single sources (lead vocal etc), you could use a Direct Out for this instead of an Aux, freeing up more busses.

If the budget allows, replacing your Avioms with ME-1s would be the ultimate solution. ME-1 can mix up to 40 sources (plus Aux In and Ambient mic) and submix locally into groups, saving up busses at the desk.

Hope this helps.

[chung2jjParticipant]

Thank you guys so much for the heads up. Definitely becoming clearer!

So Nicola A&H, with a direct out (or any of the ones below), can I still send a post processed signal? I noticed that I have a lot of other options like:

Input – Direct out
Bus Outs
Wedge Mono
Wedge Stereo
IEM Mono
IEM Stereo

Also, if I used these would it eat up an Auxiliary? or are they mutually exclusive from auxiliaries.

Thank you!

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

Yes, Direct Out can be post processing – set this in the Mixer Preferences screen (Global Direct Output Source).
IEM and Wedge outputs are fed from the PAFL bus and designed for the monitor engineer’s benefit – see the iLive or Editor Help for details.
BUS Output is the pre-processing signal of a bus.

[chung2jjParticipant]

How many direct outs are available in the iLive?

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

All Input channels have Direct Outputs. Please have a look at the User Guide and Help file. Playing around with Editor would also answer some of your questions.

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