MCA's for main mix

[Lishinsky]

Is there a reason not to have the MCA’s available for the main mix??
I think the benefits are obvious!! No?

[SteffenR]

what you mean?

[ddff_lv]

MCA for main mix is called DCA, and it is there.

[Lishinsky]

I Know what a DCA is!! it does not move faders. MCA does!!
lets say you have a group of channels with a good relative balance between them, and you would like to readjust there fader position respectively!!
of course you can achieve the same gain change by moving the DCA but what I’m looking for is to actually move the faders so they can all fall within the comfort zone ( around the unity point 0 ) where the fader has the most resolution. if i have to move all faders individually i will have to reconstruct the balance of that group.

[Ethix]

Do MCAs move faders? Not on the desks I have used.

[Brad]

Ethic, looking at the 1.8 firmware, they do now! i haven’t tried on the physical desk, but in director, moving the MCA (DCA) will move he associated faders in the mix send.

Lishinsky, having said that, for the main mix wouldn’t you set the individual faders in the comfort zone, then turn the DCA up/down as required? If the DCA was to move faders like the MCA does, wouldn’t this move the faders out of your comfort zone, thus achieving the opposite effect?

[mixJM]

This could be called “DCA trim mode”.
Also it would be a nice feature to have on FX sends too.

[GCumbee]

This was a feature on Digidesign Pro Control going back to the late 90’s. It was a grouping method but you could move any fader in the group and all that groups faders would move respectively. Of course the highest fader would take everything down. The lowest wouldn’t. I was very surprised when I started working with DCAs on digital consoles and saw that it didn’t exist. It becomes strictly a listening thing. I for one would like to see this implemented but not holding my breath. Maybe their thinking is like recording consoles going back to the 70’s with VCAs. They didn’t move the group either.

[Lishinsky]

Brad, im not asking to replace the function of the DCA’s to what the MCA does. at the moment the option for MCA is excluded from the main mix. i think this option should be available for the main mix as well.
i just mentioned an example where the average fader position of a given group drifted outside of the comfort zone during a show.

[ddff_lv]

Right, I see now.
I guess Digico has an option to chose DCA behaviours and moving faders of DCA members is one of them. I wouldn’t use it, but as an option- why not.

[jf]

To the developers of the 1.8, it would have been smarter to put an option to validate or not the movement of the faders with the MCA. Sorry to tell you, but your choice is not comfortable at all, since there is more real visibility of the Mix when the faders are down! . Thank you for correcting this as soon as possible ..

regards

[Brad]

OK, that makes sense. in this situation would there need to be some type of gain compensation taking place? i.e. if you bring the mains MCA up to bring faders back into the sweet zone, would you also want the DCA to drop by an equivalent dB to keep the overall volume the same?

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