Help a High School setup their outputs – need to borrow some brain cells!

[MDStechParticipant]

I’m the Technology Director for a middle/high school – which means my jobs gets me into everything from networking to servers to linux to video editing to……yup, ordering/setting up/documenting/training our new GLD-112 [with an AR2412 and TWO AR84s].

Oh, I do have a bg in FOH/audio/studio/keyboards.
….and I need to borrow some brain cells to figure out the outputs. I’m running out of time, and there are iPads to get fixed.

——

The setup: [No, t’ain’t ideal, but can’t be fixed right now]
Mono system. Current board sends one Main out, which gets split [via an old Peavey digital matrix gizmo] to

1. Main Mono
2. Subwoofer
3. Backfill speakers [delayed via the Peavey box] – i.e. they are filling in the back of the auditorium
4. Dressing rooms

Here’s what I’m thinking:

• Use LR+Mono mode
• Connect several XLR outputs to the Mono feed – that would get sent to Main, Subwoofer, Dressing rooms amps.
• BUT I still need to get a delayed Mono feed to the backfill speakers.

Granted, I could run another Mono feed into the Peavey gizmo and delay it there, but SURELY there’s a way for me to get a delayed Main send out of the GLD system itself.

Suggestions? Thoughts?

If you’re curious:
Yes, there’s a monitor setup. That part was easy.
The mains and backfills are wired Mono, so stereo isn’t an option without significant $$, and I already blew the budget buying the GLD setup, which is replacing a 13 year old Mackie analog board.
Yes, insanity is a constant state, but I’m certainly not bored!

[Chris93Participant]

I’d be inclined to use the Peavey DSP you already have as it would save on mix outputs and would allow you to treat the mixing console as a separate logical block from your PA system. It would let you quickly set up a new blank show file for a special event for example, and just have to patch one output for your pre-configured PA rather than having to copy across all your output settings. If the Peavey can take L+R in and sum it to mono itself, I’d set up the desk for L+R.

Doing it in the GLD, I’d set up L+R, routed to 4 mono matricies, one for each output zone. This will give you one main mix to send channels to and control overall level with, with independent downstream control of each output zone. It’s essentially the same as what the Peavey would be doing, but you’d have easier faster access to change settings.

Sending L+R to a mono matrix will sum them to mono, so you don’t need to use the built in Msum. Using the Msum would use up two of your mix outs as these are assigned in “pairs” even when there’s only one of something.

To set up delays, select an input or output, go to the processing screen and press the “delay” tab. There doesn’t seem to be any way to type in exact delay settings so it may be difficult to get it set correctly. You might want to try pulling up the tab at the bottom of the delay window and changing the units to distance rather than time.

Chris

[MDStechParticipant]

Oooooh, THANKS! Hadn’t thought about using a Matrix.

Check me on this, please – the matrix setup is similar to setting up sends on an aux?
As in, hit the MIX button on the fader assigned to the matrix, and modify the LR fader [in my case] to taste.

I haven’t found much online info about the matrices. [although I understand them conceptually – just not specifically here].

The Peavey unit is about a decade old, so I think I’l try to pull it out of the path while I’m messing with the system. Leaving it in is Plan B. Plan 9 from Outer Space involves a trip to Dunkin, down the street….

Thanks so much for letting me borrow your brain. You just saved me from a whole lo of agony!

[Chris93Participant]

Yes, a matrix is a mix of mixes and you set them up the same way as auxes (note that it is possible for these sends to be set pre-fader, you’ll want post if you want your LR master fader to behave as normal). Some desks will allow you to send inputs directly to matricies which confuses the issue a bit, but you can’t do this on the GLD.

It’s up to you if you want to do your level offsets by modifying the send level of the LR to each matrix, or send to them all at unity and do it on the matrix masters. If you want to keep your matrix master faders on the surface, doing it in the send levels would mean that you’d have to deliberately go into a matrix mix to make a change and bumping a matrix master could be easily fixed by just resetting it to zero. The delays would still be done on the matrix masters, you can’t apply delays at routing cross-points, only on input channels and mix outputs.

The other option is to send the LR mix at unity to all the matrices and do your level changes on the master faders. This is technically better gain structure (though it’s unlikely you’d notice much difference) and it keeps both attributes of level and delay in one place. I wouldn’t likely be keeping the matrix faders on the surface anyway after they’d been set up in an installed system so there’s no risk of knocking them out of place. Even then, you could easily set up a scene filtered to put them back that could be recalled any time without touching other settings.

Chris

[MDStechParticipant]

Chris93, thanks so much!
You saved me a TON of time, and because of your help I have a good finctional setup.
Time for some documentation, and start training some young’uns to work it!

[Chris93Participant]

How did you find setting up the delays? Were you able to get them adjusted to the value you wanted without scrolling past? I think it would be good if there were “+” and “-” buttons so you could increment it by individual steps. Maybe it works well enough with the physical encoder, it’s been a while since I’ve used it, but the editor is a bit touchy.

Chris

[MDStechParticipant]

Haven’t been using the editor. The delay was easy enough to set with the knob next to the touchscreen.

I’ve just set the delay the same setting as the Peavey unit setting – might need to tweak it a bit, but that will wait until I switch over.

Right now I have a couple of AUX feeds [pre-fader] from the old Mackie mixer being sent to the GLD, and an old Crate Amp that is subbing as the “mains – all for training purposes.

Am waiting until the right moment to switch over – between training teenagers and all the events in teh room – it’s gonna be trickery!

[Author]

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