Store PAFL and Layer in a Scene?

[Don]

Hello all,

My apologies in advance if this is an old topic that I was not able to find in search (I did try!).

When storing scenes, is there a way to set what channel(s) have PAFL selected? Also, can a scene specify which Layer to enable?

The reason is that I’m setting up an SQ-5 for volunteers and I’d like to set a “starting point” Home scene for them. It looks like every time the mixer is booted it selects Layer A, and I’d like to make this “home” scene select one of the custom Layers we create for them.

Also, we use an AUX mix output for a livestream, and this is what we use the headphones to monitor. So we need to set PAFL to monitor the AUX1 mix that we send to OBS. However, the scenes do not seem to capture the PAFL setting. I’ve checked all the permissions and I am pretty sure I’m not missing anything.

So tl;dr, Is there a way to make the PAFL and Layer selection automatic with either boot-up or with a scene? These are not huge issues, of course!, but we sometimes get volunteers that panic, so having a Home Scene that sets everything to our “default” would be helpful.

Also, where can I get one of those dope Ampersand tees that Keith wears?! 😉

Thank you all in advance for your help,
cheers from Pittsburgh, PA, USA
-Don

[KeithJ A&H]

@Don

This isn’t possible directly but there are workarounds for both layer and PAFL using scenes, which could then be set as user scenes to be recalled on login or assigned to SoftKeys.

Layer selection and PAFL are part of the surface control rather than being within the scope of a scene or show.
Whenever the mixer is booted up (or if the config is changed and the core restarts), the the layer selection and PAFL are cleared.

However,

Because the default layer is always A, and you can change the strip layout per scene, you just need to set up layer A as you want it then store this to the user scene.
Note that you can block access to all layers other than A if needed – giving a fixed layout with just the channel strips being used to avoid confusion.
I know many people use the blank layers at the end for custom layouts and leave the rest as default, but you could shift layer A to B, B to C etc… then A becomes the custom layer and you still have all channels accessible on the others.

With the PAFL, there is an external input, so if you have a couple of i/o sockets free, you can create a loopback.
e.g. physically connect outputs A&B to ST1 L and R
Then you can switch off the LR feed to PAFL, use ST1 for the PAFL Ext In, and patch anything you like to outputs A&B.
Because patching can be switched on a scene by scene basis, you can then choose what you’re patching to PAFL for each scene by changing the output patch to A&B.
There is a major downside, which is that you will always hear the Ext In in the headphones, even when PAFL’ing individual channels, but this may be acceptable if the operator only needs to hear the streaming mix and isn’t getting into individual channel processing.

On the t-shirt front – we do get quite a few requests, so should probably start selling them!
Many of our distributors create merch though, so you could enquire with AM&S in the states (https://www.allen-heath.com/distributor-location/usa/) 🙂

Cheers!
Keith.

[Don]

Hi Keith,

Thank you so much for your response! These are very clever workarounds and I’ll give them a try. Coincidentally, I had thought of using Layer A as our default user layer (great minds, and all that 😉 ), but your suggestion of blocking access to the other layers for general users is an excellent idea to prevent a panicked mixup.

Your external PAFL loopback idea is brilliant; I’ll definitely give that a go. I don’t anticipate any need for general volunteer users to PAFL any other channels apart from the livestream AUX mix, so this might be the perfect solution.

Thanks again so much for your help, and I’ll be first in line for an ampersand tee if A&H opens a merch store 🙂

Cheers,
-don

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