But if your music is sounding good, don’t worry if you’re in the yellow a lot or if some parts of the track hardly read at all. You’ll quickly get a feel for what works for you, when you can get away with really smacking the tape or the electronics.
BUSESMore often than not, the goal in a mixing console is to mix two or more inputs into one output. Like a coach who has two or more players to get to the same ballgame, console designers use a bus. Even Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary agrees, defining the word bus in electronics as “a conductor serving as a common connector for three or more circuits.”
The Mackie
Sends are buses fed to outputs, and returns are inputs. So why don’t we call them outputs and inputs?
Well, actually, the terms send and return can mean many things, but the way they are generally used in mixing console parlance is to refer to send buses, which tap off a little of a signal to send to some effects device (like a reverberation unit), and return inputs, which function to return that reverb back into the mix. The original, unprocessed signal is called the “dry” signal. The reverb unit’s output signal is called the “wet” signal.
Sends are also used to tap some of the signal from a collection of channels for a headphone cue mix or monitor mix. For that matter, sends can be used as additional mix buses, if needed.
In the same way, if you don’t need returns for reverb or effects, they can be used as additional line level inputs to your mix.
SOLO
Solo is a standard console function that allows you to listen to one or more sources all by themselves (soloed).
You can check EQ, possible distortion or buzz, or just listen to see if a particular mic is open or not. When soloing more than one source, you can listen to the blend of just part of your mix: only a flute sample on channel one, for example, or just the percussion module on channel eight.
The solo circuits are designed not to interrupt the recording process. The solo bus signal is sent directly to the Control Room and Headphone outputs without affecting any of the other inputs, outputs or recording buses. Solo circuits on the
EQ
Everybody knows what EQ is, but just in case you’d like a refresher, we’ll put in a few paragraphs here.
Equalization (EQ) refers to purposely changing the frequency response of a circuit, sometimes to correct for previous unequal response (hence the term, equalization), and more often to add or subtract level at certain frequencies for a pleasing effect.
Bass and treble controls on your stereo are EQ; so are the units called parametrics and graphics and notch filters.
A lot of how we refer to equalization has to do with what a graph of the frequency response would look like. A flat response (no EQ) is a straight line; a peak looks like a hill, a dip is a val- ley, a notch is a really skinny valley, and a shelf looks like a plateau (or a shelf). The slope is the grade of the hill on the graph.
Graphic equalizers have enough frequency slider controls to form a visual representation of the EQ curve right on the front panel.
Parametric EQs let you vary several EQ parameters at once. A filter is simply a form of equalizer which allows certain frequencies through unmolested and other frequencies are attenuated or removed.
The equalizer on the
The LO and HI sections of the EQ are shelving equalizers. As you can
see, shelving EQs lift or lower the entire range of frequencies above or below a certain point.
The LO EQ on the
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