Digital mixer opinions?

[Bruce Weldy]

Here's a trick I use when running sound for rock bands.....

I send all the drums to the mains as usual, but I also select a sub group and send them there too. I then compress the hell out of the sub group - 8 to 1. The sub group is directed to the main output.

When there is a drum fill or an intro like Highway to Hell, I slam the sub fader up - the drums don't just get louder, they get fatter. It's not the same at all as just putting the drums on a sub group and turning them up. I can bring it up quickly then take it right back out. It really adds dynamics and is easy to do.

The fader stays all the way down until I need it - then hammer it - and back out.

Try it.

This works for lots of things. It's particularly popular for vocals... again the sound is "fattened up" but amplitude doesn't rise too much. The only thing you have to be careful of is feedback, as you're raising gain without increasing volume.

Interesting point. I don't put any of it into the monitors, so no problem there. Haven't ever had it feedback on the mains. I also send all the vocals to a sub (along with the mains) and do the same thing. Not as much compression - but it's my little extra boost when I can't get the vocals over the mix. Don't usually have to use it, but it's handy when needed on those really loud songs.

Oh, and this is really easy to do on the digital mixers......giant pain in the butt trying this on and old analog board.....and a rack full of outboard gear.

[BrentEvans]

There's something else, too. Some digital boards have varying latency on different signal paths, so a signal routed through compression or a subgroup (or both) might have more latency than one routed straight through. There could be some weird comb filter effects if your console does this. AFAIK, the Yamaha boards do it this way, and even the large format Allen & Heath and Avid consoles have the problem. Don't know about any of the newer crop of entry level consoles. IN any case it's usually solvable by just keeping the routing the same on all signal paths. IOW, if it goes through one subgroup with a compressor, it also needs to go through another subgroup with the compressor engaged, even if it's set to never affect the signal.

Analog wouldn't have that problem, BTW.