POST fader mix on the DCA PFL?

Forums Forums GLD Forums GLD general discussions POST fader mix on the DCA PFL?

This topic contains 6 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by Profile photo of Chris93 Chris93 8 years, 8 months ago.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #49520
    Profile photo of beartech
    beartech
    Participant

    I transferred to a GLD-112 from a 40 channel analog (GL3000)console. When the console was installed we set up Vocals, Instruments, Drums etc on DCA’s. This worked well but I quickly realized that I lost one of my favorite features form my analog board. On the analog board, you could PFL the Sub group for vocals and hear the vocals in a POST fader mix. (Allowing me to work on the vocal mix alone) When I PFL the DCA I get a PRE fader level not a post fader level for that DCA. Is there any way to get POST fader mix on the DCA PFL?

    #49521
    Profile photo of gmckinnell
    gmckinnell
    Participant

    The DCAs don’t actually have audio routed through them (just think of the them as remote controls for the faders of whatever’s assigned to them). I think you can use groups or matrices to get a post fader mix.

    #49525
    Profile photo of Chris93
    Chris93
    Participant

    You can do exactly the same thing with the groups on the GLD as you can with the groups on the GL3000 or any other console. DCA’s are not subgroups and work differently.

    Chris

    #49530
    Profile photo of beartech
    beartech
    Participant

    Good input Chris. I did create groups to mimic the analog behavior, but this created a new problem. With groups, all the inputs are routed to individual group, but the FX for each input are routed directly to the FX rack and back out to the mains. So if I mute a group, I still have the FX sound going to the mains. Do I have to route the whole group to the FX? What if there is something in that group that I don’t want reverb on? Or if I want reverb on inputs that in different groups?

    David

    #49535
    Profile photo of Chris93
    Chris93
    Participant

    It’s helpful to remember that digital consoles work basically the same way as analog consoles. How did you have your FX set up with the Gl3000? You can do that here too if you want.

    The FX send sends signal from the input channel to an FX engine, which then returns back to the FX return for that engine. This FX return is basically the same as another input channel. (In fact, I set up the GLD with the FX returns in the left bank for this reason.)

    The question of which groups to assign the FX returns to is not a new problem with digital. If you were using one reverb mainly for vocals, another mainly for instruments and one for drums then you could assign the returns to those respective subgroups.

    What I typically do is to leave the group faders at unity and do actual level changes with the DCAs. Moving the DCA by a certain amount has exactly the same effect as if you’d moved all the channels assigned to it by that amount, meaning that post fade sends work as normal and your FX balance is maintained. I use the groups if I want to do any processing on the signal such as EQ or compression, but generally use DCA’s for level changes.

    If you do a search on ChurchTechArts there is a series of articles about subgroups and DCAs.

    Chris

    #49536
    Profile photo of beartech
    beartech
    Participant

    Thanks again Chris. It seems that I will need to use DCA’s and Groups to reach my goal. This is disappointing and may be confusing to less experienced tech’s. I wish there was a better option. Its a shame I cant route inputs to the FX and dump the output to a group. It seems that all the outputs on the FX modules are fixed to return to the same source that came from. (no way to cross patch). Alternately it seems I should be able to select using the mix key, where the FX out goes (mains or not, Aux or not, etc) This may be a place to request an improvement in the firmware.

    David

    #49538
    Profile photo of Chris93
    Chris93
    Participant

    Hi David, it sounds like you’re totally misunderstanding how the FX works, are you familiar with using outboard FX units with your previous console? The output of the FX rack engines come back via the FX return channels. In the template LR show file these are the green faders in the right bank on layer C. By default they are assigned to the LR and turned up to 0.

    These are inputs to the mix just like the mics on stage, it may be confusing you to have them in the “master section” side of the board, but they are inputs and as such they can be un-assigned from LR and assigned to groups and DCA’s in whatever manner you desire. I’ve used the strip assign page to move them over to the left for this reason.

    Chris

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.