
VLZ3- | 27. SOLO | |
This lovable switch allows you to check signals in your | ||
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| phones or control room without having to assign them to | |
1604 | the | |
as you like. SOLO does not interrupt any of the other | ||
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| channels, buses or outputs — that’s called nondestruc- | |
| tive solo. | |
| Using the MODE [44] | |
| switch, the | |
| system comes in two flavors: | |
| NORMAL (AFL) (sometimes | |
| called SIP, or | |
| and LEVEL SET (PFL) (sometimes called PFL, or pre- | |
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| loving detail on page 21. | |
| LEVEL SET (PFL) taps the channel signal | |
| before the fader. If you have a channel’s | |
| fader set way below “U” (unity gain), SOLO | |
| won’t know that and will send a unity gain signal to the | |
| control room, headphones, and meter display. That may | |
| result in a startling level boost at these outputs, depend- | |
| ing on the position of the SOLO [46] level knob. |
In a nutshell, soloed channels are sent to the SOURCE
[42]mix, that ultimately feeds your control room, head- phones and meter display. Whenever SOLO is engaged, all source selections (MAIN MIX, — SOLO!
| 28. | |
| An LED that does two completely differ- | |
| ent things! Saves space, recycles the planet, | |
32 | but requires some explanation. First, the | |
| ity,” this LED will flicker in time with the | |
| signal present in that channel. It’s handy | |
| for confirming that a channel is indeed | |
| active, and may also lend a clue as to what | |
| the signal is. For instance, a kick drum will | |
31 | cause the LED to pulse in time with the | |
drum, and a synth pad will cause it glow a | ||
30 | bit more steadily. | |
Now for the “SOLO” part. When a chan- | ||
29 | ||
nel’s SOLO switch is engaged, this LED will | ||
28 | glow steadily, without flickering. It will also | |
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27 | be brighter than it would be as a | |
tor. In conjunction with the RUDE SOLO | ||
| LIGHT [47], you can find a rogue SOLO | |
| switch quickly. |
29. OL (MUTE) LED
Another LED that does two completely different things! First, the “OL” part: “OL” means overload, or clip. You don’t want that to happen. Ever. Clipping can happen to any mixer — it’s the point where the signal’s voltage tries to exceed the supply voltages that power the circuitry. The
Now for the “MUTE” part. Assuming your levels are set correctly, the OL LED will never come on as a result of clipping. That’s pretty boring. So, to liven things up, this LED will glow steadily when that channel’s MUTE [30] switch is engaged.
Here is a quick reference to these LEDs:
Name | Color | Flickering | Glowing |
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green | signal present | channel soloed | |
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OL (MUTE) | red | channel clipping | channel muted |
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30. MUTE
Engaging this switch provides the same results as turning the channel's fader all the way down: Any channel assignment to
Depending on the audio content in a channel, engaging its MUTE switch may cause a slight popping sound. This is not a problem within the mixer, and it can be avoided: Simply engage the LOW CUT [33] switch on each channel (unless its low frequency content is vitally important, such as a kick drum or bass guitar). LOW CUT eliminates subsonic debris, which causes the pop, and its effect is usually transparent.
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