[Joe HinkensParticipant]

I also replaced the 2032 battery which was completely flat and still no joy. Faders continue to jitter or chatter and the channel strip values continue to fluctuate erratically by 0.1db or 0.2db.

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

I have this exact same issue as the OP and have conducted the following:
Updated Firmware to 1.61
Recalibrated faders
Spray electrical contact cleaner in the faders
Conducted a hard factory reset

Any ideas or recommendations?

I should note that this mixer is extremely clean and was used on a limited basis since new, but hasn’t been turned on for a couple of years.

Thanks,
Joe

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Good to hear that sorted it. 🙂

Now you just need to be aware that what you’re hearing in your ears is not necessarily an accurate representation of how dynamic you are into your mics. 🙂 I wouldn’t assume that it will be a problem, but it’s something to be aware of.

If this turns out to be an issue you might actually be better to put the routing back the way you had it, then remove the make up gain from the compressors and replace that make up gain with a fader boost. That’ll give you the level you’re expecting without you hearing dynamics processing in your ears.

Chris

Chris,
I hadn’t given any thought to the possibilities you mentioned but most of it makes sense. I’m curious why we wouldn’t want to hear dynamics in our in-ears? I’m also a bit confused on the make-up gain on the compressors. If simply raising the fader level is the equivalent of using the make-up gain in the compressor, why would the make up gain adjustment be there in the first place? Compressors have always been a bit of a mystery to me. I like the results of compression, but I’ve never been overly confident in whether I was setting things optimally. Generally, I’ve used compressors primarily on the vocals and I’ve made a habit of setting the gain reduction at no more than about -6dB and then simply set the make-up gain at +6dB give or take. I’ve usually kept the ratio at 3:1 or sometimes up to 5:1.

Apologies for these questions on fundamentals but I’m a self-taught rookie a lot to learn and I find your posts extremely valuable and well written.

Thanks,
Joe

P.S. I just remembered that I also put just a touch of compression on the Main mix as well. It just seems to make things a little more punchy, especially on the drums. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong. 🙂 Thanks.

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Joe,
I wasn’t really suggesting that you “do” anything. I was just trying to help answer your question about why they might sound different. I think that your usage as others have mentioned above is a bit atypical. But if you and the others performers can hear what you need to hear in order to perform well this way (and no one is overly sensitive to any changes you have to make during the show to keep the FOH mix sounding good…), then I think it likely represents a creative solution that suits your needs. I mentioned the FX send and return levels first because I thought that it would be the most likely to have been overlooked or misunderstood. There are of course other things that could make them sound different. All EQ and dynamics processing (and graphic EQs) would also need to be set identically between the Main and each AUX in order for them to sound identical. Hope that helps…
Lee

Lee,
Your suggestions make good sense. I understand that our ‘post fader’ aux setup is a bit unconventional, but as you picked up, it does seem to work well for us. We’ve spent a lot of time carefully listening to recorded playback to really fine tune our mix so that we can show up to a gig and play knowing our FOH mix is dialed in consistently, night after night. If we had a mix engineer working with us, we probably wouldn’t fuss with it so much. With each of us running a stereo aux mix, we’ve come to appreciate a full mix that closely matches the FOH mix. With a slight lift on our own instrument and vocal, it’s a really good mix in our in-ears.

Thinking over your other suggestions, we tend to run a flat EQ on the aux mixes, and with Chris’ suggestion in a previous post, I’ve set the routing of the auxes to ‘post compressor’. I do need to do some investigation on your suggestions on FX send and return settings. I think that will put the finishing touches on things. This is all ‘trial by fire’ for us, so thanks to you and the others for your comments and suggestions. They are very helpful.
Joe

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Chris wrote:

What is the pick off point for your auxes? Select an Aux and go to the “routing” tab under the “processing” button. For your stated purpose you’d want these to be set to “post comp” so what you’re hearing is after all the channel processing. (You’d choose “post delay” because it’s at the end, but this won’t cause a gain change and you might want to use if for something that you wouldn’t want affecting monitors.)

If you had a compressor with make up gain, or an EQ boost, this would explain your issues. Also, any processing you do on subgroups or your Main LR mix will also change FOH without being heard in your mixes.

Chris

That was it Chris. After following your suggestion I found that the pick off point for each of the five auxes was ‘post EQ’. There was a substantial amount of make up gain on the compressor so once I changed the pick off point to ‘post comp’ the aux mixes came to life. I never realized that routing tab existed. Thanks for your help.
Joe

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Hi Lee,
We are running each of the four vocals through FX. But I set the returns in the aux mixes at a lower position than FOH so the FX fader positions would equal the positions of the other faders in the aux mix, which is basically a straight line. The logic is I didn’t want the FX to be louder than the dry signal. Maybe that’s where the problem lies? Should I restore the FX sends and returns to the position that matches FOH? I’ll be in front of the GLD in a couple hours so I can try it.
Thanks,
Joe

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Stix wrote:

You said you renamed it, and copied it to the USB but did you save it first? If not then when you load that back it will only recall the show as it was stored which may have been some time ago. Note that saving a “scene” is not actually stored anywhere permanent until the show that contains it is saved!

Stix,
I think you nailed it. I’m feeling pretty lame right about now. As you can see from my original post (spelling errors, grammar errors) it was late and I was tired. I’m pretty sure I failed to ‘Overwrite’ the Show. After reviewing my steps, I think I made the erroneous assumption that saving scenes automatically saved it to a show. I’ve been diligent at saving scenes but not so much with shows. I won’t let that happen again. 🙁 This is another one I’ll chalk up to user error.

After looking over the ‘Show Manager’ page I noticed the save button is titled ‘Overwrite’, yet on the ‘Scenes Manager’ page, the save button is titled ‘Store’. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it might make sense to have them both labeled the same for the sake of consistency.
My mistake is purely my mistake and completely user error, but perhaps relabeling the buttons would help prevent another rookie like me from experiencing the same thing.

Thanks to everyone for the quick reply.
Joe

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

I hadn’t thought of trying the mono setting. I’ll give that a try. Thanks!

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for that explanation. I think your ‘analogue scene recall’ will be the way to go. Last night when I posted my message, we didn’t have much time to fuss with it because we were off to a gig. So we’ll rebuild it this weekend sometime.

It’s too bad the drag & drop thing doesn’t include the actual signal routing, but it’s not that big of a deal.

Also, the patchbay numbering can be a little confusing. For instance, on some screens, the first socket on the AR84 is listed as ‘socket #1’, yet in reality socket #1 becomes #25 or #33 depending on whether the AR84 is connected to the surface or daisy chained to the AR24. I’m sure once I get my head around it, it will become easier.

Thanks,
Joe

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

I attended NAMM on Friday and visited the A&H booth. It was really nicely done. I was surprised to see the price cuts on the GLD and I think the QU series was discounted as well. But my thoughts were what a great value for those in the market now. I bought my GLD80 and AR2412 a couple years ago and I couldn’t be happier. I hear the same from the folks I’ve met who purchased the QU series. Compared to everything else on the market when I purchased mine, I thought the GLD was a great value and still do. After using it for a couple years, I’ve learned to appreciate it even more. I’ve added the AB168’s and the versatility continues to blossom. I see folks paying the same price (or close to it) for products without anything even close to the features and functionality built into the GLD. Many of the users out there have more experience with a variety of other products than I do, and therefor their opinion could trump mine. But I’m so pleased with the A&H user interface, robust features and functionality, dependability, and solid value, I’ll probably be hanging out under the A&H banner for a long time.

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Agreed. Nice now. 🙂

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Yea, my buddy has a QU16 and really likes it. But the collection of mixers I acquired prior to the GLD80 has dinged my wallet to the point of needing to do a little house cleaning. 😉

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

You’re right again G. It did default to 33-40. Easy enough to change. The darn thing is a lot smarter than I am! 😉

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Thanks G,
Yes, I just plugged the AR84 directly to the DSnake port on the mixer. I’ve been digging into it and it seems to be pretty straight forward. I just did a scene reset and set the I/O inputs to 1-8 on the AR84, and paired them up the same way on the GLD80.
Now I’m building aux mixes, a couple DCA’s and EFX. From there I think I’ll be good to go. This board is so cleverly designed it never ceases to amaze me.
Thanks,
Joe

[Joe HinkensParticipant]

Agreed. Really nice job.

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