Alesis 12, 16, 12 FireWire, 16 FireWire manual PAN or BAL, A Tour of the MultiMix FireWire

2 A Tour of the MultiMix FireWire

this switch lets you hear the signal before it is affected by the fader. This switch is post-EQ.

PAN or BAL

This control—labeled PAN on the mono channels and BAL on the stereo channels—lets you assign the channel to a particular spot within the stereo spectrum. If you turn this knob to the left, you can hear the signal move to the left, and if you turn it to the right…you get the picture. The pan controls do this by adjusting the amount of the signal being sent to the left main mix bus versus the right main mix bus. The balance controls do it by controlling the relative balance of the left and right channel signals being sent to the left and right main mix buses.

Aux

Here you’ll find knobs that control the levels of aux sends A and B. AUX A is either pre-fader or post-fader, depending on the position of the PRE / POST switch. When the switch is in the raised position, the aux send is pre-fader. When the switch is depressed, the aux send is post-fader.

What does all this mean? In POST mode the aux send is affected by the fader, EQ and HPF settings. In PRE mode the aux send is affected only by the EQ and HPF settings. POST mode is generally used for sending the signal to an external effects device (so that the fader controls the signal level), and PRE mode is usually used for cue sends (for example, sending a signal to headphones while recording, for which you may not want the fader to alter the channel’s level).

AUX B is always post-fader, as indicated by the word “POST” to the right of this knob. Like AUX A, AUX B can be used for routing signals to external devices. And when you are using the onboard effects processor, AUX B is used to control the level of the channel’s signal being routed to the processor.

EQ

The MultiMix gives you three bands of EQ per channel. Using these knobs, you can tailor the channel’s signal by boosting some frequencies and cutting others. The LO and HI controls are shelving controls with fixed frequencies of 80 Hz and 12 kHz respectively. The MID control has a peaking response fixed at 2.5 kHz.

“Shelving” means that the mixer boosts or cuts all frequencies past the specified frequency. “Peaking” means that frequencies above and below the specified frequency fall off, forming a peak in a graphical representation.

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