I got a good question about my previous post on moving channels in D-Show,
on a scenario that I hadn't covered. Blank strips can be a bit tricky,
because they only have pop-up menu items that allow you to
insert/remove blanks--no options to "Move Selected Strip Here".
So here's the scenario. From the left:
Vocal 1 through Vocal 8 (Channels 1-8)
Channels 9-16 are blank strips
Drum 1 through Drum 8 (Channels 17-24)
You want to move Drum 1 to the left-most channel of the blank group
(Channel 9), so you'll have Vocal 1-8, Drum 1, blanks, and Drum 2-8.
Select Drum 1 (Channel 17)
Right-click on Vocal 8 (Channel 8)
Click "Move Selected Strip Here"
Now
you have Vocal 1 through Vocal 7, Drum 1, Vocal 8, blank strips, and
Drum 2 through Drum 8. Not quite what you'd wanted. But now you're in a
situation that you know how to handle, right?
There is
a misleading word in the question above. You're probably thinking,
"okay, I need to move Drum 1 one spot to the right." But you know that
moving channels to the right is tricky. To move a strip one space to
the right means moving it before the channel strip two spaces to the right. But that's blank!
Apparently
we're stuck. We'll just need to delete all those blank strips, move
things around, and re-add them once we're done. We can't move Drum 1
one space to the right with the blanks to the right of Vocal 8.
That
paragraph above is entirely true. But like I said two paragraphs
above, there's a misleading word in the question three paragraphs
above. That word is "right".
Huh?
There
is something you can do that is equivalent to moving Drum 1 one space
to the right: you can move Vocal 8 one spot to the left. "Stuff and
nonsense!" you cry. "Silly semantic games won't get you out of this
one!" Actually, they will. Watch:
Select Vocal 8 (Channel 9)
Right-click on Drum 1 (Channel 8)
Click "Move Selected Strip Here"
And there you have it: Vocal 1 through Vocal 8, Drum 1, Blanks, and Drum 2 through Drum 8.
Remember: moving things left is easy. Moving them right takes thought. Think in terms of moving to the left if you can.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Moving Channels in D-Show
One of the nice things about a digital mixer is that moving a channel around on the board is very easy compared to the analog world. As I mentioned previously, there's just one little gotcha:
Name the first eight channels "Drum x", where "x" is the channel number. You'll have "Drum 1", "Drum 2", and so on.
Now name channels 9-16 "Vocal x", like before. You'll have"Vocal 9" through "Vocal 16".
And just for kicks, name channel 17 "Channel 17".
Now, you've decided that for some reason, you'd like to have the drums to the left of the vocals. You want to keep the vocals at 9-16 (maybe you eventually plan to add something at 1-8, or maybe you've decided that 9-16 are where vocals belong). On the Inputs page, click on the text "1-8" below the channel faders. Channels 1-8 should be selected. Now right-click on the fader strip for channel 17.
In a minute, you're going to click "Move Selected Strips Here". What do you expect to have happen? There are three typical expectations:
Got it? Okay, let's find out.
Click "Move Selected Strips Here". In a flash, the drum channels are moved to...channels 9-16? Vocals are at 1-8, and "Channel 17" is still at 17? What gives?
Drums 1-8 are now A-8 of Diamonds, because they both start with "D". Vocals 1-8 are now A-8 of Clubs (because Clubs don't look like Diamonds). Grab the face cards and use them to be higher channels.
Put your cards in order, face-up (or down, but it'll make reading them from the top of the table harder), with "Drum 1" (the ace of Diamonds) on the bottom, "Drum 2" on top of it, and so on.
Now I'll tell you I want to move "Drum 1" through "Drum 8" (A-8 of Diamonds, on the bottom of the pile) to just before "Channel 17" (the first face card). I'll even slide a sheet of paper under "Channel 17" to mark the place. (If you're following along at home, grab a sheet of paper, and slide it between the 8 of Clubs ("Vocal 8") and the first face card ("Channel 17")).
What do you do? Well, first you find the channels I want to move. Look, they're on the bottom of the pile. Let's pull them out and set them aside. We don't want them to get lost. Now pick up the cards on top of the sheet of paper.
Oh.
The shorter version of the algorithm goes like this:
If you're moving to the right, you'll see the problem above. So, assuming you want to move channels to the right, but you don't want to change channel assignments (for the channels "in between" like the vocal channels in the example--you'd expect higher channels to get pushed right to accommodate the channels you're moving/inserting), here's a recipe to follow:
If you're moving a channel to the right because you don't need it (it's "extra" or "spare" or whatever you call it), you should make sure it's not going to accidentally mess anything up. After moving the channel, right-click on its fader. Select "Reset [channel name] (Ch ##)". Now you're sure it's not patched anywhere. Mute it and pull its fader down, and don't worry about that channel any more.
For most of these activities, make sure you're in Config mode (look at the bottom right of the screen; double-click if it says "SHOW" to change modes). Some options aren't available in Show mode.
Of course, don't change modes if you're doing a show. Some of the things that get locked out in Show mode can interrupt audio. And you probably don't want that, after all your hard work to set things up so nicely!
Something happened that's not quite right, though. Look where AaronTwo ended up: it's at Channel 40. I don't know if this was intentional on the part of the programmers, or if it's a bug--but when you move a channel to a higher channel number, it copies to a spot one lower than where you wanted it. (It's a side-effect of the likely algorithm they used: insert a copy, remove the original, shift everything left to fill.)Let's start with a quick example of the problem for those that didn't do the walkthroughs. Then I'll give a rough overview of the algorithm they use and finish with a recipe for moving channels without frustrating yourself.
The Problem - Example
Start up D-Show. If you're working with something you want to keep, make sure to save it. We're going to play a bit.Name the first eight channels "Drum x", where "x" is the channel number. You'll have "Drum 1", "Drum 2", and so on.
Now name channels 9-16 "Vocal x", like before. You'll have"Vocal 9" through "Vocal 16".
And just for kicks, name channel 17 "Channel 17".
Now, you've decided that for some reason, you'd like to have the drums to the left of the vocals. You want to keep the vocals at 9-16 (maybe you eventually plan to add something at 1-8, or maybe you've decided that 9-16 are where vocals belong). On the Inputs page, click on the text "1-8" below the channel faders. Channels 1-8 should be selected. Now right-click on the fader strip for channel 17.
In a minute, you're going to click "Move Selected Strips Here". What do you expect to have happen? There are three typical expectations:
- The Eeyore expectation: the software will crash, causing my computer to catch fire, and my collection of handmade Cabbage Patch doll clothing will be destroyed, and then I'll be sad.
- The most common expectation: the drum channels will be moved to channel 17-24, and "Channel 17" will now be at channel 25.
- The expectation something odd will happen: perhaps the drum channels get moved to somewhere besides channel 17.
Got it? Okay, let's find out.
Click "Move Selected Strips Here". In a flash, the drum channels are moved to...channels 9-16? Vocals are at 1-8, and "Channel 17" is still at 17? What gives?
The Algorithm
Since you probably don't read pseudocode (and probably wouldn't know the semantics for any data structure I'd choose to explain this), I'll give you a more physical explanation. If you have a deck of cards handy, you can follow along at home.Drums 1-8 are now A-8 of Diamonds, because they both start with "D". Vocals 1-8 are now A-8 of Clubs (because Clubs don't look like Diamonds). Grab the face cards and use them to be higher channels.
Put your cards in order, face-up (or down, but it'll make reading them from the top of the table harder), with "Drum 1" (the ace of Diamonds) on the bottom, "Drum 2" on top of it, and so on.
Now I'll tell you I want to move "Drum 1" through "Drum 8" (A-8 of Diamonds, on the bottom of the pile) to just before "Channel 17" (the first face card). I'll even slide a sheet of paper under "Channel 17" to mark the place. (If you're following along at home, grab a sheet of paper, and slide it between the 8 of Clubs ("Vocal 8") and the first face card ("Channel 17")).
What do you do? Well, first you find the channels I want to move. Look, they're on the bottom of the pile. Let's pull them out and set them aside. We don't want them to get lost. Now pick up the cards on top of the sheet of paper.
You'll have three groups of cards. A-8 of Diamonds (Drums), the cards we're moving, are set aside. The face cards ("Channel 17" and up) are on top of the sheet of paper, and if you're following instructions very carefully, you'll be holding them. Finally, A-8 of Clubs are on the table where the pile was originally.You're ready to put everything back together. Pick up the A-8 of Diamonds (the channels you're moving) and put them on top of the original pile (the Clubs). Now take the rest of the cards off the sheet of paper, and put them on top of the pile. And now look at the order: A-8 of Clubs, A-8 of Diamonds, and face cards. Vocals 1-8, Drums 1-8, "Channel 17" and up.
Oh.
The shorter version of the algorithm goes like this:
- Mark the channel before which you will insert the selected channels
- Pull the selected channels out of the pile
- Put the selected channels back in the pile before the channel/card you marked in Step 1
Recipe for Success
There are two directions you might move a channel or set of channels. You can probably figure it out yourself:- Left (from a higher channel number to a lower channel number)
- Right (from a lower channel to a higher channel number)
If you're moving to the right, you'll see the problem above. So, assuming you want to move channels to the right, but you don't want to change channel assignments (for the channels "in between" like the vocal channels in the example--you'd expect higher channels to get pushed right to accommodate the channels you're moving/inserting), here's a recipe to follow:
- Select the channel(s) you want to move
- Right-click on the selected channel fader(s)
- Click "Insert Blank Strips at Selection"
- Everything shifted to the right, but don't panic, we're not done yet.
- Find the place you'd like to move your channels to (hint: if you identified the channel number before inserting blank strips, the new channel number is (Old Channel Number + Count of Selected Strips) = New Channel Number. That is, if you wanted to insert before channel 17, and had 8 strips selected, you'll look at 17 + 8 = 25)
- Right-click on the fader strip of the channel you want to move your selected channel(s) to
- Click "Move Selected Strips Here"
- You've successfully moved the channels to where you want them. Do a happy dance.
- (If you want to later, you can move other channels in to replace the blank strips, but that depends on what you're doing.)
Bonus Tips
If you're moving a channel to the right because you don't need it (it's "extra" or "spare" or whatever you call it), you should make sure it's not going to accidentally mess anything up. After moving the channel, right-click on its fader. Select "Reset [channel name] (Ch ##)". Now you're sure it's not patched anywhere. Mute it and pull its fader down, and don't worry about that channel any more.
For most of these activities, make sure you're in Config mode (look at the bottom right of the screen; double-click if it says "SHOW" to change modes). Some options aren't available in Show mode.
Of course, don't change modes if you're doing a show. Some of the things that get locked out in Show mode can interrupt audio. And you probably don't want that, after all your hard work to set things up so nicely!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
D-Show Files
This is the fifth in a series of step-by-step walkthroughs of the D-Show software on your very own computer at home:
The VENUE console is basically a computer that controls a bunch of signal processors, with an input device that looks an awful lot like a regular mixer.
With an analog console, it can be difficult to handle overlapping events. You know, like when the Sunday service rehearsal is on Tuesday, the rehearsal for Saturday's concert has to wrap up early to make room for the Wednesday family night event, and there is a wedding Friday night. Suddenly, you're negotiating for blocks of channels and figuring out how not to ruin a fellow sound guy's day.
Digital boards can handle situations like this much better.
For you older guys, remember the days of typing papers (or writing them out by hand!), proofreading, revising, and re-typing? Kids these days may never have experienced that. They'll type up a paper, save it, print it, have it revised, and then they just load the file, make a few changes, and print the final draft.
Digital boards make your life easier, just like kids have it these days. And it's exactly the same way: saving files.
Okay, you've been very patient and I've kept you waiting long enough. Start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "FILING" on the bar across the top of the screen. This should look much different than any other screen you've seen. There are tabs across the top labeled "Load", "Save", "Transfer", and "History".
"History" is pretty slick. Think of it like Word's auto-save feature, but for mixer settings. Like Word's auto-save feature, it'll periodically save your work. Like Word's auto-save feature, you shouldn't rely on it. That's all I'm going to say about it for now. You have more pressing things to learn.
If you've been going through the walkthroughs, it's about time you saved your work. Click on the "Save" tab. There are three columns under the "Save" tab.
The left column is labeled "Show Folders". Let's create a new folder to put our work into. Click the "New" button under the left column. Call the folder "Walkthrough", then hit Enter.
Now look at the center column, labeled "Shows". Click the "New" button under the center column. Type "First Walkthrough" and hit Enter.
Take a look at the right column. D-Show automatically shows you some technical details about the setup in the "Info" box. Underneath is a space for your notes. Let's add a note. Double-click the "Notes" box. Type "This is the result of those awesome walkthroughs I've been doing. Double-check all settings, as Aaron was quite distracting."
Good work! You just saved what's called a "Show" file. Show files contain pretty much everything: input/output/patch settings, snapshots (we'll talk about those someday, but not today), and events (we may talk about those someday, but definitely not today).
So that was a Show file. Last time, we worked with Preset files. You may be wondering, what other kinds of files do you need to worry about?
There are three basic kinds of files you need to worry about: console settings, Shows, and Presets.
Console settings is just that, the settings for the console. It's very hardware-centric. Stage racks, number of sidecar units, Aviom cards, and all the other things that tell the software what its world looks like. This is something that will not change much, so you really won't need to worry too much about it.
Show files are created based on the console settings. By that I mean, if you have two stage racks, you can have inputs from two stage racks. If you only have one, you only get one rack's worth of inputs. Once the Show file is created, it contains everything you need for a performance: input channels (including gain, fade, EQ, compression, plugins, bus assignments, mute groups, etc), output channels, patching, and snapshots.
Preset files are basically a library of settings. You can think of them as rubber stamps. They're bits of settings, as you learned from the last walkthrough:
So console settings, Shows, and Presets are all you have to worry about. Congratulations! You now know about all the file types you'll be dealing with.
One of the nice things about files is that they can be moved. One of the really nice things about D-Show is that you can set up your Show files on your computer at home if you need to, then load them onto the console to run.
Click the "Transfer" tab. Once again, three columns. On the left is the VENUE console (if you're on your home computer, it's the working directory for D-Show--same effect). The center is file selection. The right is available locations.
Do you have a USB stick? Good! You can use that to move files back and forth. You can transfer everything at once, or you can go file-by-file.
For now, I'll keep things simple and just walk you through copying the Show you created to your USB stick.
Start by plugging your USB stick into your computer. Once it's recognized, select it in the drop-down in the upper right-hand side.
Now in the center column, click "Shows". It's almost exactly in the middle of the window.
Look in the upper left-hand corner. There is a button that says "VENUE". Below that, there is a drop-down. Select "Walkthrough". Look! There's our Show!
Now look at the bottom of the center column again. The left-most button says "Transfer" with an arrow pointing to the right. Click that button. You should see "First Walkthrough" show up in the right-hand column. Hooray!
Now, I'm not going to get into a lot of detail about transferring files back and forth, but be a bit careful about stomping on existing files on the console. You can do that, if you try. So at first, especially, be careful when transferring files from your USB stick back to the console. Make sure you know what you're copying, why you're copying it, and then double-check that you're copying the right thing in the right direction.
In terms of the series, I am planning to add some "reminder" material after Wednesday. Some of those posts may include pictures, like pictures of the stage racks with helpful arrows showing where to plug things in. But first, I need to find out for myself where to plug things in.
- Intro and Inputs
- Outputs (and a bit more on Inputs)
- Patchbay
- Presets (and some Input bonus)
- Files [this post]
The VENUE console is basically a computer that controls a bunch of signal processors, with an input device that looks an awful lot like a regular mixer.
With an analog console, it can be difficult to handle overlapping events. You know, like when the Sunday service rehearsal is on Tuesday, the rehearsal for Saturday's concert has to wrap up early to make room for the Wednesday family night event, and there is a wedding Friday night. Suddenly, you're negotiating for blocks of channels and figuring out how not to ruin a fellow sound guy's day.
With Watershed, we were guests in a church that had their Sunday rehearsal on Tuesday or Wednesday. We met on Thursday. They had a fairly small board, so our sound guy would get there early to mark all of the control settings on a printed diagram of the board. After Watershed met, the sound guy would re-set the board according to his notes. It was a bit on the tedious side.
Digital boards can handle situations like this much better.
For you older guys, remember the days of typing papers (or writing them out by hand!), proofreading, revising, and re-typing? Kids these days may never have experienced that. They'll type up a paper, save it, print it, have it revised, and then they just load the file, make a few changes, and print the final draft.
Digital boards make your life easier, just like kids have it these days. And it's exactly the same way: saving files.
Okay, you've been very patient and I've kept you waiting long enough. Start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "FILING" on the bar across the top of the screen. This should look much different than any other screen you've seen. There are tabs across the top labeled "Load", "Save", "Transfer", and "History".
"History" is pretty slick. Think of it like Word's auto-save feature, but for mixer settings. Like Word's auto-save feature, it'll periodically save your work. Like Word's auto-save feature, you shouldn't rely on it. That's all I'm going to say about it for now. You have more pressing things to learn.
If you've been going through the walkthroughs, it's about time you saved your work. Click on the "Save" tab. There are three columns under the "Save" tab.
The left column is labeled "Show Folders". Let's create a new folder to put our work into. Click the "New" button under the left column. Call the folder "Walkthrough", then hit Enter.
Now look at the center column, labeled "Shows". Click the "New" button under the center column. Type "First Walkthrough" and hit Enter.
Take a look at the right column. D-Show automatically shows you some technical details about the setup in the "Info" box. Underneath is a space for your notes. Let's add a note. Double-click the "Notes" box. Type "This is the result of those awesome walkthroughs I've been doing. Double-check all settings, as Aaron was quite distracting."
Good work! You just saved what's called a "Show" file. Show files contain pretty much everything: input/output/patch settings, snapshots (we'll talk about those someday, but not today), and events (we may talk about those someday, but definitely not today).
Snapshots and events both have me excited. In short, they're ways to automate work. A snapshot is a very flexible way of loading a new set of settings. It's, well, a snapshot of the board. Events are even more flexible--they're a set of actions triggered by something happening. Both are very cool, and will be great to experiment with once basic competence is reached.
So that was a Show file. Last time, we worked with Preset files. You may be wondering, what other kinds of files do you need to worry about?
Kinds of Files
There are three basic kinds of files you need to worry about: console settings, Shows, and Presets.
Console settings is just that, the settings for the console. It's very hardware-centric. Stage racks, number of sidecar units, Aviom cards, and all the other things that tell the software what its world looks like. This is something that will not change much, so you really won't need to worry too much about it.
Show files are created based on the console settings. By that I mean, if you have two stage racks, you can have inputs from two stage racks. If you only have one, you only get one rack's worth of inputs. Once the Show file is created, it contains everything you need for a performance: input channels (including gain, fade, EQ, compression, plugins, bus assignments, mute groups, etc), output channels, patching, and snapshots.
Preset files are basically a library of settings. You can think of them as rubber stamps. They're bits of settings, as you learned from the last walkthrough:
- Complete input channel settings
- EQ settings
- Compressor settings
- EQ/Gate settings
- Plug-in settings
- Scope Sets (until you learn about "Recall Safe", you don't need to know about these)
For example, you could load your "Rock Mandolin" Preset into a channel, change the channel settings all you want, save the Show, and your Rock Mandolin Preset would not have changed. If you wanted to "undo" all the changes you'd made to your channel, you could re-load the Rock Mandolin Preset.
So console settings, Shows, and Presets are all you have to worry about. Congratulations! You now know about all the file types you'll be dealing with.
Transferring Files
One of the nice things about files is that they can be moved. One of the really nice things about D-Show is that you can set up your Show files on your computer at home if you need to, then load them onto the console to run.
Click the "Transfer" tab. Once again, three columns. On the left is the VENUE console (if you're on your home computer, it's the working directory for D-Show--same effect). The center is file selection. The right is available locations.
Do you have a USB stick? Good! You can use that to move files back and forth. You can transfer everything at once, or you can go file-by-file.
For now, I'll keep things simple and just walk you through copying the Show you created to your USB stick.
Start by plugging your USB stick into your computer. Once it's recognized, select it in the drop-down in the upper right-hand side.
Now in the center column, click "Shows". It's almost exactly in the middle of the window.
Look in the upper left-hand corner. There is a button that says "VENUE". Below that, there is a drop-down. Select "Walkthrough". Look! There's our Show!
Now look at the bottom of the center column again. The left-most button says "Transfer" with an arrow pointing to the right. Click that button. You should see "First Walkthrough" show up in the right-hand column. Hooray!
Now, I'm not going to get into a lot of detail about transferring files back and forth, but be a bit careful about stomping on existing files on the console. You can do that, if you try. So at first, especially, be careful when transferring files from your USB stick back to the console. Make sure you know what you're copying, why you're copying it, and then double-check that you're copying the right thing in the right direction.
File Organization and Management
I haven't given a lot of thought to what makes sense for managing files for NCBC. Now, I've probably given it as much thought as anyone else, but I haven't come to any solid conclusions. I think there are a few general principles we should follow, but specifics will probably come with time.- Sunday Shows should be in a folder named [4-digit-year] Sunday, e.g. 2011-Sunday. Each individual Show should be named YYYY-MM-DD Sunday, e.g. "2011-08-28 Sunday". This has a few benefits:
- Keeps the number of files in the folder manageable
- Keeps the files ordered by date
- Lets us use the Notes field (rather than the filename) to describe what the Sunday was like (brass line, orchestra, heavy guitars, etc)
- Off-Sunday events should be in a folder named for the purpose, such as Wedding, Funeral, Worship Concert. (Possibly in the future we'll want to re-organize, but for now we don't have a lot of off-Sunday events in any given category.) Each individual Show should be named YYYY-MM-DD [Event Type] [Operator], e.g. "2011-09-09 Worship Concert Matt".
- Once again, use the Notes field to describe the event.
- This gives us a good starting point for future similar events. Weddings and funerals usually aren't complicated, but something like the Voices of Hope concert is.
- Presets are something I'm wrestling with a bit. Right now, I think the way to go is to put presets--especially presets for individuals--into folders by type or class of instrument: Guitar-Acoustic, Guitar-Electric, Piano, Brass, Orchestra, Vocal, Drum. Within the folder, we will have:
- Generic Presets named starting with "Generic", e.g. "Generic Female BGV". The generic Presets will give us a general starting place when dealing with a new or not-unusual worship team member.
- Specific Presets named with the name of the musician, e.g. "Aaron" for Aaron's vocal Preset. If necessary, the name can also include more detail after the name. If Aaron plays two acoustic guitars, we might have "Aaron - Red" and "Aaron - Blue" in the "Guitar-Acoustic" folder. (Some people might argue for naming the Presets according to brand or model of the guitar--but if there's a very distinctive feature that doesn't require the sound guy to be able to recognize guitar brands from the booth, use that!)
- Generic Presets named starting with "Generic", e.g. "Generic Female BGV". The generic Presets will give us a general starting place when dealing with a new or not-unusual worship team member.
What's next?
Training! Wednesday, 6PM. Oh, you knew that? Way to be on top of things! (I'll actually be late to the training, due to family obligations, and I apologize for that.) Bring a USB stick if you want a copy of the console settings to take home.In terms of the series, I am planning to add some "reminder" material after Wednesday. Some of those posts may include pictures, like pictures of the stage racks with helpful arrows showing where to plug things in. But first, I need to find out for myself where to plug things in.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
D-Show Presets
This is the fourth in a series of step-by-step walkthroughs of the D-Show software on your very own computer at home:
In this post, we're going to learn how to save some work. We're going to look at something called "Presets". We'll also cover one or two other work-saving tricks.
Start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "INPUTS" on the bar across the top of the screen. If this looks familiar, that's good. We've been here before.
Over the years, you may have noticed that there are some people that keep showing up on stage at NCBC needing sound reinforcement. You may have also noticed that their channel set-up tends to look pretty similar each time.
If input channel 1 (Aaron's channel) isn't selected, select it now. If you don't have his channel set up (bus assignments, EQ, compressor), set something up. Or go back to the first lesson and go through the walkthroughs. This post will still be here when you get back.
See Aaron's name in the upper left corner? Look below the right corner of that dark blue box. See the square button with the folder-looking icon on it? Click it.
A new window should pop up. Click the Folder drop-down and change it to "User Presets". Now click the "New" button. Hey, that's convenient - it pre-filled the name "Aaron". We'll go with that for now. Press Enter. Your preset is now saved.
See the "+" and "-" buttons next to the folder button you clicked? Click the "+" button a few times until Channel 8 is selected. This really doesn't do anything besides move you to the next channel, but it's another way of navigating.
Click the preset folder button again. Now click on the Aaron preset. Check that out: your bus assignments, aux sends, EQ settings, compressor settings--pretty much everything visible--has been set up. It's not such a big deal if we have Aaron already set up on Channel 1, but it could be a big time-saver if you don't.
Open up the Preset folder again. I changed my mind about naming the preset. We don't want to confuse Aaron's vocal preset with his guitar preset. Right-click on the "Aaron" preset. Note the options on the pop-up. I won't go through them all, but this is where you'd come to do those things. (For those who are confused and not following along at home, if you were following along, you wouldn't be confused. Hop back to the first lesson and download the software, completely free and legal.)
Click "Rename", and rename the preset to VOC-Aaron. Now close the folder window.
Wow, this could be the shortest walkthrough ever! Well, it could if we were done.
Look carefully at the input page. Why aren't we done?
What, you were expecting the answer here? Oh, right, this is a walkthrough, so I suppose it's only fair to give you the answer. Look in the EQ section. Way down in the lower left corner of the EQ section. Do you see that folder button? Do you wonder what that does? Click it and let's find out.
There are two very interesting things here. One thing is that you can save EQ presets separately from full-channel presets. The other interesting thing is that there are some nice factory default EQ settings that we can use.
Oh no! VOC-Aaron is missing!
No, it's not. Well, yes, it's not listed. But it's not missing. What you're saving here is an EQ preset. It's a different kind of file than a channel preset. It's just like when you're looking for a file to open in Word, the Open dialog will list Word (.doc) files, but not MP3 files. So you can relax--it's still there.
Click "New", and save this as "VOC-Aaron-EQ". The "EQ" part isn't necessary (like the above paragraph explained), but we'll put it on there anyway. Nicely done! Now close the Preset folder window.
Quick, find me two more preset types. If you said Compressor/Limiter and Expander/Gate, you're right! (If I had cookies, and we were in the same room, I'd give you one. I shouldn't have said that. I wish I had cookies right now.)
Open up the Preset folder window for both Comp/Lim and Exp/Gate. Look! More factory presets. If you have time, study them and become our compressor expert. If not, know they're there if you need them.
Okay, take a quick break. We're going to change topic a little bit. Earlier I mentioned a couple of work-saving tricks. But I don't want to get into that too much until you've had a chance to rest for a few minutes.
Rested? Have all the Preset information processed, and ready to go on a couple work-saving tricks? Great!
First, let's change some of the settings on Channel 8 (the second "Aaron" channel):
Right-click on the channel name--or really, just about anywhere that's not on the graph or another channel's fader--and click 'Copy "AaronTwo" (Ch 8)'. For a second or two, it'll put a helpful message in the lower-left corner telling you that the channel was copied.
Now click on the Channel 9 fader strip at the bottom (or use any other favorite method of yours to select Channel 9). Now right-click the channel name (or channel fader, or almost anywhere on the screen) and click "Paste to Selected Strip". Bam! All the settings from 8 now show up on 9. The one exception is that the name doesn't change.
We won't actually walk through this, because it's very similar to what we just did, but try right-clicking the EQ section. You can copy just EQ settings. Now right-click the Comp/Lim section. Look! You can copy just compressor/limiter settings. Now right-click the Exp/Gate section. I'll bet you're not surprised anymore that you can copy just compressor/limiter settings.
We just realized that we shouldn't have pasted AaronTwo onto Channel 9. It's my fault. You just did what you were told. Now we have to change it all back to the defaults. My, that could be a lot of work. Except it's not. Right-click the fader strip for Channel 9 at the bottom of the screen. Click "Reset Ch 9". And...defaults! Much easier.
Now let's say we want AaronTwo on a different part of the control surface. Basically, we want to move the controls to a different channel strip.
Select AaronTwo (Channel 8). We're going to move it to Channel 41. With AaronTwo selected, right-click the fader strip for Channel 41 at the bottom of the screen. Now click "Move Selected Strip Here".
It pulled Channel 8 out, moved all the channels to the left, and put Channel 8 in where Channel 41 was.
Something happened that's not quite right, though. Look where AaronTwo ended up: it's at Channel 40. I don't know if this was intentional on the part of the programmers, or if it's a bug--but when you move a channel to a higher channel number, it copies to a spot one lower than where you wanted it. (It's a side-effect of the likely algorithm they used: insert a copy, remove the original, shift everything left to fill.)
So let's fix it. Select AaronTwo (Channel 40). With AaronTwo selected, right-click the fader strip for Channel 42 (yes, forty-two, not 41, even though we want it to end up at 41) at the bottom of the screen. Now click "Move Selected Strip Here". There we go!
Just below the left side of the channel name, "AaronTwo", there's a box that says "Ch 41: Stage1 8 >>". Click it. It's a shortcut to the Patchbay settings for that input channel. Look at where AaronTwo is connected: Analog Card A #8. Now scroll up. Ch 7 is connected to Analog Card A #7, Ch 8 is connected to Analog Card A #9. So moving the channel preserves its Patchbay settings. This is a very good thing (unless you messed up the patching in the first place), because it means you don't have to re-patch every channel between the new and old channel numbers.
The reason I'm very happy that there is a Move feature has to do with this scenario: You've set things up, carefully ordering your channels. Your vocals are nicely grouped together, instruments are in the order that you like, and everything is painstakingly EQd.
Now someone (it's probably Aaron, because he does this kind of stuff) waltzes up to you and says "So, the band got to talking, and decided we needed another electric guitar. I don't want to make extra work, so I'll get everything set up on stage for you. Don't worry, man, I've got your back!" As he walks away, feeling very helpful and generous, you're looking sadly at your beautiful board set-up. Finally, you shrug and stick that extra electric at the end, after the mandolin, the tambourine, the saw, and the kazoo.
It's just not right, is it?
I feel your pain. And apparently, so did the D-Show designers. Thanks, guys!
One last thing and we'll be done with the tricks. I'm not sure if I can call this a time-saving trick, but it'll probably be useful for properly setting up banks of channels.
Well done! You now know all about presets, including the different kinds of presets. On top of that, you know some nice tricks for saving yourself time, like copying and moving channels. You even know something about channel banks.
That's good, because training is on Wednesday!
Training is on Wednesday. You should be there.
After Wednesday, I may add some material based on actual knowledge and experience. How's that for a clever plan?
- Intro and Inputs
- Outputs (and a bit more on Inputs)
- Patchbay
- Presets (and some Input bonus) [this post]
- Files and Organization
In this post, we're going to learn how to save some work. We're going to look at something called "Presets". We'll also cover one or two other work-saving tricks.
Start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "INPUTS" on the bar across the top of the screen. If this looks familiar, that's good. We've been here before.
Over the years, you may have noticed that there are some people that keep showing up on stage at NCBC needing sound reinforcement. You may have also noticed that their channel set-up tends to look pretty similar each time.
If input channel 1 (Aaron's channel) isn't selected, select it now. If you don't have his channel set up (bus assignments, EQ, compressor), set something up. Or go back to the first lesson and go through the walkthroughs. This post will still be here when you get back.
See Aaron's name in the upper left corner? Look below the right corner of that dark blue box. See the square button with the folder-looking icon on it? Click it.
A new window should pop up. Click the Folder drop-down and change it to "User Presets". Now click the "New" button. Hey, that's convenient - it pre-filled the name "Aaron". We'll go with that for now. Press Enter. Your preset is now saved.
We still need to figure out the best filing strategy. It may be multiple folders. It may be putting a prefix on the names, e.g. VOC-Aaron. It may be something else. But for this lesson, you can leave the name as "Aaron".Close the Presets window, either with the X in the upper right corner or by clicking Cancel. At least on your PC, this isn't a necessary step, but do it anyway.
See the "+" and "-" buttons next to the folder button you clicked? Click the "+" button a few times until Channel 8 is selected. This really doesn't do anything besides move you to the next channel, but it's another way of navigating.
Click the preset folder button again. Now click on the Aaron preset. Check that out: your bus assignments, aux sends, EQ settings, compressor settings--pretty much everything visible--has been set up. It's not such a big deal if we have Aaron already set up on Channel 1, but it could be a big time-saver if you don't.
Reality check: This is very convenient, but loading a preset does not mean you're done setting up a channel. You still need to use your ears. Voices and instruments sound different from day to day. The sound context matters: a perfectly (solo) EQ'd vocalist might sound terrible if the sounds around them muddy their voice. Presets get you past some of the set-up so you can use your ears faster (or have more time to use your ears, if you prefer to say it that way).
Open up the Preset folder again. I changed my mind about naming the preset. We don't want to confuse Aaron's vocal preset with his guitar preset. Right-click on the "Aaron" preset. Note the options on the pop-up. I won't go through them all, but this is where you'd come to do those things. (For those who are confused and not following along at home, if you were following along, you wouldn't be confused. Hop back to the first lesson and download the software, completely free and legal.)
Click "Rename", and rename the preset to VOC-Aaron. Now close the folder window.
Wow, this could be the shortest walkthrough ever! Well, it could if we were done.
Look carefully at the input page. Why aren't we done?
What, you were expecting the answer here? Oh, right, this is a walkthrough, so I suppose it's only fair to give you the answer. Look in the EQ section. Way down in the lower left corner of the EQ section. Do you see that folder button? Do you wonder what that does? Click it and let's find out.
There are two very interesting things here. One thing is that you can save EQ presets separately from full-channel presets. The other interesting thing is that there are some nice factory default EQ settings that we can use.
We can use them for things besides a nice EQ starting point. They'd be good for a training tool as well. For example, you could have a trainee compare two different EQ settings (maybe Male Vocal 1 and Female Vocal 1) and try to puzzle out why they'd be different.But for now, we'll just save Aaron's EQ. Use the dropdown to switch to the User Presets folder.
Oh no! VOC-Aaron is missing!
No, it's not. Well, yes, it's not listed. But it's not missing. What you're saving here is an EQ preset. It's a different kind of file than a channel preset. It's just like when you're looking for a file to open in Word, the Open dialog will list Word (.doc) files, but not MP3 files. So you can relax--it's still there.
Click "New", and save this as "VOC-Aaron-EQ". The "EQ" part isn't necessary (like the above paragraph explained), but we'll put it on there anyway. Nicely done! Now close the Preset folder window.
Quick, find me two more preset types. If you said Compressor/Limiter and Expander/Gate, you're right! (If I had cookies, and we were in the same room, I'd give you one. I shouldn't have said that. I wish I had cookies right now.)
Open up the Preset folder window for both Comp/Lim and Exp/Gate. Look! More factory presets. If you have time, study them and become our compressor expert. If not, know they're there if you need them.
Okay, take a quick break. We're going to change topic a little bit. Earlier I mentioned a couple of work-saving tricks. But I don't want to get into that too much until you've had a chance to rest for a few minutes.
Rested? Have all the Preset information processed, and ready to go on a couple work-saving tricks? Great!
First, let's change some of the settings on Channel 8 (the second "Aaron" channel):
- Change the channel name to AaronTwo (double-click the name)
- Un-assign from all groups (probably in 1 and 6); assign to groups 7 and 8 ("Bus Assign" section)
- Slide the fader all the way up to +15
Right-click on the channel name--or really, just about anywhere that's not on the graph or another channel's fader--and click 'Copy "AaronTwo" (Ch 8)'. For a second or two, it'll put a helpful message in the lower-left corner telling you that the channel was copied.
Now click on the Channel 9 fader strip at the bottom (or use any other favorite method of yours to select Channel 9). Now right-click the channel name (or channel fader, or almost anywhere on the screen) and click "Paste to Selected Strip". Bam! All the settings from 8 now show up on 9. The one exception is that the name doesn't change.
We won't actually walk through this, because it's very similar to what we just did, but try right-clicking the EQ section. You can copy just EQ settings. Now right-click the Comp/Lim section. Look! You can copy just compressor/limiter settings. Now right-click the Exp/Gate section. I'll bet you're not surprised anymore that you can copy just compressor/limiter settings.
We just realized that we shouldn't have pasted AaronTwo onto Channel 9. It's my fault. You just did what you were told. Now we have to change it all back to the defaults. My, that could be a lot of work. Except it's not. Right-click the fader strip for Channel 9 at the bottom of the screen. Click "Reset Ch 9". And...defaults! Much easier.
Now let's say we want AaronTwo on a different part of the control surface. Basically, we want to move the controls to a different channel strip.
Today you'd do this by manually adjusting each control on the new strip to match the old strip, then re-patching on the patch panel. Not difficult, but it is time-consuming and can be error-prone.
Select AaronTwo (Channel 8). We're going to move it to Channel 41. With AaronTwo selected, right-click the fader strip for Channel 41 at the bottom of the screen. Now click "Move Selected Strip Here".
It pulled Channel 8 out, moved all the channels to the left, and put Channel 8 in where Channel 41 was.
Something happened that's not quite right, though. Look where AaronTwo ended up: it's at Channel 40. I don't know if this was intentional on the part of the programmers, or if it's a bug--but when you move a channel to a higher channel number, it copies to a spot one lower than where you wanted it. (It's a side-effect of the likely algorithm they used: insert a copy, remove the original, shift everything left to fill.)
So let's fix it. Select AaronTwo (Channel 40). With AaronTwo selected, right-click the fader strip for Channel 42 (yes, forty-two, not 41, even though we want it to end up at 41) at the bottom of the screen. Now click "Move Selected Strip Here". There we go!
Just below the left side of the channel name, "AaronTwo", there's a box that says "Ch 41: Stage1 8 >>". Click it. It's a shortcut to the Patchbay settings for that input channel. Look at where AaronTwo is connected: Analog Card A #8. Now scroll up. Ch 7 is connected to Analog Card A #7, Ch 8 is connected to Analog Card A #9. So moving the channel preserves its Patchbay settings. This is a very good thing (unless you messed up the patching in the first place), because it means you don't have to re-patch every channel between the new and old channel numbers.
The reason I'm very happy that there is a Move feature has to do with this scenario: You've set things up, carefully ordering your channels. Your vocals are nicely grouped together, instruments are in the order that you like, and everything is painstakingly EQd.
Personally, I've always liked putting vocals under my left hand and the band under my right hand, generally starting with guitars or other lead instruments. Not really relevant, but I told you anyway.
Now someone (it's probably Aaron, because he does this kind of stuff) waltzes up to you and says "So, the band got to talking, and decided we needed another electric guitar. I don't want to make extra work, so I'll get everything set up on stage for you. Don't worry, man, I've got your back!" As he walks away, feeling very helpful and generous, you're looking sadly at your beautiful board set-up. Finally, you shrug and stick that extra electric at the end, after the mandolin, the tambourine, the saw, and the kazoo.
It's just not right, is it?
I feel your pain. And apparently, so did the D-Show designers. Thanks, guys!
Even though we're blaming this on Aaron, I know I've ended up doing silly things like leaving three channels for four guitars. So it'll help you fix your own mistakes, too.
One last thing and we'll be done with the tricks. I'm not sure if I can call this a time-saving trick, but it'll probably be useful for properly setting up banks of channels.
In case you don't know, this mixer can handle more channels than we have faders on the control surface. It uses a concept called "banking" to deal with that. The first 32 (I think that's how many physical faders we have) channels get assigned to Bank 1. The next 32 channels get assigned to Bank 2, and so on. When you switch between banks, the control surface will adjust the positions of faders, the indications of knobs, etc, to reflect the settings. There's also a concept called "Bank Safe" which lets you keep a channel always available, but I won't get into that now.Go back to the Inputs page. Right-click the fader strip for AaronTwo (Channel 41) at the bottom of the screen. Now click "Insert Blank Strip". That blank strip isn't selectable, doesn't have any processing associated with it, doesn't show up in the Patchbay... It doesn't exist, except to space your channels out to how you want them.
Well done! You now know all about presets, including the different kinds of presets. On top of that, you know some nice tricks for saving yourself time, like copying and moving channels. You even know something about channel banks.
That's good, because training is on Wednesday!
What's next?
I may do another walkthrough or two on files and organization, snapshots, and things like that.Training is on Wednesday. You should be there.
After Wednesday, I may add some material based on actual knowledge and experience. How's that for a clever plan?
Saturday, August 20, 2011
D-Show Patching
This is the third in a series of step-by-step walkthroughs of the D-Show software on your very own computer at home:
This post builds off the previous posts. You should probably go through them for this one to completely make sense.
Start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "PATCHBAY" on the bar across the top of the screen. You're now looking at the Patchbay.
Look just under the menu bar. You should see four tabs: Inputs, Outputs, Directs, and Inserts. Click on Inputs if it's not selected.
Now look at the grid that takes up most of the screen. There are two tabs on the left of the grid: Channels and FX Returns. Click on Channels if it's not selected.
Now look at the top of the grid. There are four tabs: Stage 1, Stage 2, FOH, and ProTools. These are all possible input sources.
Stage 1 and Stage 2 are stage racks. A stage rack is basically a panel of XLR jacks that sits backstage, then feeds those signals to the mixer.
FOH is a Front-Of-House (FOH) rack. The FOH rack is designed to sit near the mixer console to provide inputs that aren't backstage.
ProTools is a topic for another day. It's an exciting topic, one that I'm just waiting to experiment with, and one that I'm going to leave you hanging on.
Now that you know all about the tabs on the Inputs page, click on the label for the top row of the grid. It should be say "Aaron", if you did the first two walkthroughs. If you didn't, it'll say something exciting like "Ch 1".
Let's look away from the grid for a minute. The area to the left of the grid gives you the basics of the channel labeled Aaron. Fader, phantom power, gain, solo/mute buttons: it's all right there, being very convenient for you.
Look to the right. You probably have, by default, light-colored boxes making a line that goes diagonally down to the right. It's telling you that Aaron is connected to Analog Card A #1; Ch 2 is connected to Analog Card A #2, and so on.
For now, we'll disconnect Ch 2 through Ch 4 from the stage rack. Click the light-colored box on each of those rows. The boxes should turn the dark blue background color. Those channels now are not connected to any input.
Try clicking in Aaron's row right under Analog Card A #5. Go ahead, see what happens.
A warning message! What this message is telling you is that you already have a box checked in Aaron's row (that is, you already have an input going to Aaron's channel). You can "change this assignment" and move the connection to #5 by clicking "Assign", or you can click "Cancel" and keep Aaron on #1. We'll keep Aaron at #1. Click "Cancel".
What's that, Aaron? Ah, yes. Aaron just helpfully reminded us that he's going to spend some time talking and some time singing. For talking, he should have different EQ settings and we need to make sure to cut any reverb or other effects we put on his voice. The easiest way I know of to do that--right now, anyway--is to give him a second channel. We'll give him Channel 2.
How do you think we put one input into two channels? That's exactly right! Aaron's mic is plugged into Analog Card A #1, and needs to go to two channels on the board. So we'll click in the box in the Ch 2 row, in the column under Analog Card A #1. Aaron's mic is now routed to two channels on the board. Cool.
Just for now, disconnect Aaron's mic entirely. (Sorry, Aaron, it's for training purposes. We'll have you running again in a second.) Clear both boxes under Analog Card A #1.
Now here's a trick that will save you a little bit of time here and there. To reconnect Aaron's mic, click in the Aaron/#1 box, hold the mouse button, and drag down to Ch2/#1. Now let go of the mouse button. Nice, eh? Just something to keep in mind.
We're not going to deal with FX Returns for now.
Instead, let's look at our Outputs tab.
Now let's do more than look at the tab. Click the "OUTPUTS" tab and look at your grid. Across the top, you should see the same tabs as before: Stage 1, Stage 2, FOH, and ProTools. I told you most of the story before about the stage and FOH racks, except I left out the part about the racks having outputs as well.
Along the right side of the grid, you'll see tabs labeled Mains, PQ, MTX, AUX, and GRP.
We'll start from the bottom. Unlike toothpaste, we won't flatten as we go up.
Click "Mains". This is where you'll set up your connections to the main speakers (well, amps connected to the main speakers). These settings will hardly ever change, and if they do it'll be a big deal and everyone will make sure you know about it. This is the equivalent to the main output connections on an analog board.
Okay, let's move on. Click on the PQ tab. We won't use this. Remember what I said about PQs? If you don't, I talked about them when discussing the Outputs page. We're not using them--we have Avioms instead.
MTX is Matrix outputs. Once again, these will rarely change. There's more of a chance of changing these if you're trying to do something tricky, but really, don't change these.
Let's cover AUX and GRP together: Chances are you won't change these. But notice that your labels for Auxes and Groups show up in here. If something just plain isn't working with an Aux (most likely) or Group (unlikely that you'll have a Group going directly to an output), there are two reasons to check the output settings here:
Let's say we're in a situation where the band is using way more monitors than a single amplifier can handle. Fortunately, you can assign a single output bus to multiple physical outputs. Assign Band to Analog Card G, #2-#4. Good work! Now the band can have as many monitors as they need on stage.
We're done with the Outputs tab. Now we'll take a quick look at the remaining two tabs. I don't expect us to use these much, but you should know what they do. It'll help you look knowledgeable when you're teaching someone how to use the mixer and they point to one of these tabs and say "Hey, what's that do?"
Remember the old Choose Your Own Adventure books? If you want to be caught flat-footed and stammer an unsatisfactory answer, go look at funny pictures of cats. If you want to answer like a pro, continue reading!
Click the Directs tab. Direct outputs allow you to route any input channel or bus to an output. Directly. It's not just a clever name. In the system set-up, you can configure where you pick off the channel or bus. There may be times when you'll want to take an input and route it directly to an output (instead of going through the usual routing and putting it into Auxes/Mains), but those will probably be very rare. If you have a good use for Direct Outputs, let me know. You can route any input channel ("Channels" side tab), FX return ("FX Returns"), or output ("Outputs") to direct out.
Now click the Inserts tab. One thing you'll notice right away is that the only tab at the top of the grid is FOH. (You did notice right away, didn't you?) The Inserts tab is for hardware inserts plugged into the FOH rack. I don't think we'll use much for hardware inserts (software plug-ins will replace a lot of the offboard processing that's normally inserted). But if there's an external signal processor you'd like to insert into the path for an input channel, FX return, or output, this is where you'd do it.
I will buy you an item (beverage, dessert, etc) of your choice from the Main Street Cafe (or whatever it's called) if you are the first NCBC sound guy to post a comment listing two hardware inserts we have in the loft.
There are a few more things you can do in the Patchbay (name channels, be sneaky and suppress the channel-stealing warning), but I won't cover most of them. Except for one.
Look on the right side of the screen, about an inch below the "OPTIONS" button on the main menu bar. There's a square button, dark gray with lighter gray lines (it kind of looks like the left-justify button in Word). See it? Click it.
Did your web browser just pop up with a new page open? We don't have a big show set up, so it doesn't look all that impressive--but very cool nonetheless. If we properly label our stage racks, this could take some of the work out of giving the setup crew the patch assignments. (Those of you who haven't been following along in your software at home must be wondering what I'm talking about. Remember before when I said you'll learn much better by doing? I meant it!)
One last note on the Patchbay. I fibbed a bit before when I said no more patch panel. There's still some patching to do backstage, to the stage racks. So depending on your point of view, the patch panel just moved backstage. But the Y cables, at least, disappeared. Close enough!
- Intro and Inputs
- Outputs (and a bit more on Inputs)
- Patchbay [this post]
- Presets (and some Input bonus)
- Files and Organization
This post builds off the previous posts. You should probably go through them for this one to completely make sense.
Start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "PATCHBAY" on the bar across the top of the screen. You're now looking at the Patchbay.
Look just under the menu bar. You should see four tabs: Inputs, Outputs, Directs, and Inserts. Click on Inputs if it's not selected.
Now look at the grid that takes up most of the screen. There are two tabs on the left of the grid: Channels and FX Returns. Click on Channels if it's not selected.
Now look at the top of the grid. There are four tabs: Stage 1, Stage 2, FOH, and ProTools. These are all possible input sources.
Stage 1 and Stage 2 are stage racks. A stage rack is basically a panel of XLR jacks that sits backstage, then feeds those signals to the mixer.
In the 46th St facility, there is not an equivalent to the stage rack.
FOH is a Front-Of-House (FOH) rack. The FOH rack is designed to sit near the mixer console to provide inputs that aren't backstage.
ProTools is a topic for another day. It's an exciting topic, one that I'm just waiting to experiment with, and one that I'm going to leave you hanging on.
Now that you know all about the tabs on the Inputs page, click on the label for the top row of the grid. It should be say "Aaron", if you did the first two walkthroughs. If you didn't, it'll say something exciting like "Ch 1".
Let's look away from the grid for a minute. The area to the left of the grid gives you the basics of the channel labeled Aaron. Fader, phantom power, gain, solo/mute buttons: it's all right there, being very convenient for you.
Look to the right. You probably have, by default, light-colored boxes making a line that goes diagonally down to the right. It's telling you that Aaron is connected to Analog Card A #1; Ch 2 is connected to Analog Card A #2, and so on.
For now, we'll disconnect Ch 2 through Ch 4 from the stage rack. Click the light-colored box on each of those rows. The boxes should turn the dark blue background color. Those channels now are not connected to any input.
That's the equivalent of pulling the cable out of channel 2, 3, and 4 on the current patch panel.
Try clicking in Aaron's row right under Analog Card A #5. Go ahead, see what happens.
A warning message! What this message is telling you is that you already have a box checked in Aaron's row (that is, you already have an input going to Aaron's channel). You can "change this assignment" and move the connection to #5 by clicking "Assign", or you can click "Cancel" and keep Aaron on #1. We'll keep Aaron at #1. Click "Cancel".
What's that, Aaron? Ah, yes. Aaron just helpfully reminded us that he's going to spend some time talking and some time singing. For talking, he should have different EQ settings and we need to make sure to cut any reverb or other effects we put on his voice. The easiest way I know of to do that--right now, anyway--is to give him a second channel. We'll give him Channel 2.
Today we'd do this by using a Y cable on the patch panel: one stage input Y-ed to two channels on the board.
There is one major difference: with this board, the Y-ed channels share one preamp. This means that if you adjust the gain on one Y-ed channel, the gain on the other channel(s) will be adjusted too.
How do you think we put one input into two channels? That's exactly right! Aaron's mic is plugged into Analog Card A #1, and needs to go to two channels on the board. So we'll click in the box in the Ch 2 row, in the column under Analog Card A #1. Aaron's mic is now routed to two channels on the board. Cool.
Just for now, disconnect Aaron's mic entirely. (Sorry, Aaron, it's for training purposes. We'll have you running again in a second.) Clear both boxes under Analog Card A #1.
Now here's a trick that will save you a little bit of time here and there. To reconnect Aaron's mic, click in the Aaron/#1 box, hold the mouse button, and drag down to Ch2/#1. Now let go of the mouse button. Nice, eh? Just something to keep in mind.
We're not going to deal with FX Returns for now.
Instead, let's look at our Outputs tab.
Now let's do more than look at the tab. Click the "OUTPUTS" tab and look at your grid. Across the top, you should see the same tabs as before: Stage 1, Stage 2, FOH, and ProTools. I told you most of the story before about the stage and FOH racks, except I left out the part about the racks having outputs as well.
Along the right side of the grid, you'll see tabs labeled Mains, PQ, MTX, AUX, and GRP.
We'll start from the bottom. Unlike toothpaste, we won't flatten as we go up.
Click "Mains". This is where you'll set up your connections to the main speakers (well, amps connected to the main speakers). These settings will hardly ever change, and if they do it'll be a big deal and everyone will make sure you know about it. This is the equivalent to the main output connections on an analog board.
We'll most likely have a very basic template Show file that will store most of the hardly-ever-changing settings like main outputs. Unless something goes very wrong, or you're trying to do something very tricky, you will not need to do anything with the Mains tab. Actually, you'll rarely need to do anything with the Outputs tab in the Patchbay at all.
Okay, let's move on. Click on the PQ tab. We won't use this. Remember what I said about PQs? If you don't, I talked about them when discussing the Outputs page. We're not using them--we have Avioms instead.
MTX is Matrix outputs. Once again, these will rarely change. There's more of a chance of changing these if you're trying to do something tricky, but really, don't change these.
Let's cover AUX and GRP together: Chances are you won't change these. But notice that your labels for Auxes and Groups show up in here. If something just plain isn't working with an Aux (most likely) or Group (unlikely that you'll have a Group going directly to an output), there are two reasons to check the output settings here:
- To make sure that the bus (Aux/Group) actually is assigned to an output
- To confirm which output the bus is assigned to before you head backstage to check the physical connections
Let's say we're in a situation where the band is using way more monitors than a single amplifier can handle. Fortunately, you can assign a single output bus to multiple physical outputs. Assign Band to Analog Card G, #2-#4. Good work! Now the band can have as many monitors as they need on stage.
We're done with the Outputs tab. Now we'll take a quick look at the remaining two tabs. I don't expect us to use these much, but you should know what they do. It'll help you look knowledgeable when you're teaching someone how to use the mixer and they point to one of these tabs and say "Hey, what's that do?"
Remember the old Choose Your Own Adventure books? If you want to be caught flat-footed and stammer an unsatisfactory answer, go look at funny pictures of cats. If you want to answer like a pro, continue reading!
Click the Directs tab. Direct outputs allow you to route any input channel or bus to an output. Directly. It's not just a clever name. In the system set-up, you can configure where you pick off the channel or bus. There may be times when you'll want to take an input and route it directly to an output (instead of going through the usual routing and putting it into Auxes/Mains), but those will probably be very rare. If you have a good use for Direct Outputs, let me know. You can route any input channel ("Channels" side tab), FX return ("FX Returns"), or output ("Outputs") to direct out.
Now click the Inserts tab. One thing you'll notice right away is that the only tab at the top of the grid is FOH. (You did notice right away, didn't you?) The Inserts tab is for hardware inserts plugged into the FOH rack. I don't think we'll use much for hardware inserts (software plug-ins will replace a lot of the offboard processing that's normally inserted). But if there's an external signal processor you'd like to insert into the path for an input channel, FX return, or output, this is where you'd do it.
I will buy you an item (beverage, dessert, etc) of your choice from the Main Street Cafe (or whatever it's called) if you are the first NCBC sound guy to post a comment listing two hardware inserts we have in the loft.
There are a few more things you can do in the Patchbay (name channels, be sneaky and suppress the channel-stealing warning), but I won't cover most of them. Except for one.
Look on the right side of the screen, about an inch below the "OPTIONS" button on the main menu bar. There's a square button, dark gray with lighter gray lines (it kind of looks like the left-justify button in Word). See it? Click it.
Did your web browser just pop up with a new page open? We don't have a big show set up, so it doesn't look all that impressive--but very cool nonetheless. If we properly label our stage racks, this could take some of the work out of giving the setup crew the patch assignments. (Those of you who haven't been following along in your software at home must be wondering what I'm talking about. Remember before when I said you'll learn much better by doing? I meant it!)
One last note on the Patchbay. I fibbed a bit before when I said no more patch panel. There's still some patching to do backstage, to the stage racks. So depending on your point of view, the patch panel just moved backstage. But the Y cables, at least, disappeared. Close enough!
What's next?
I'm still planning more walkthroughs.- Presets
- Possible: Files and organization
Thursday, August 18, 2011
D-Show Outputs
This is the second in a series of step-by-step walkthroughs of the D-Show software. The first walkthrough includes a link to the D-Show software, the disclaimer that I have never touched a VENUE console, as well as the reason for this series.
Last post covered inputs. The title above tells you what this will cover: outputs. So without further ado, start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "OUTPUTS" on the bar across the top of the screen. You're now on the output page.
Look at the faders across the bottom. You have several sections: two groups of Aux sends, PQs, matrix, groups, VCAs, and those lonely ones to the right are your mains.
We'll look at groups first. Groups are basically the same as subgroups on your analog board. Click on the fader for Group 1. "Grp 1" should show in the blue box in the upper left. Let's re-name it to "M Voc", for male vocalists. Click, type, and press Enter.
Now that we have that straight, let's look around. Your output fader is below the name. Below that are solo and mute buttons. Look to the right of those buttons. "Bus Assign" is how you'll get the groups into the mains (just like the "L-R" button above the subgroups on the A&H analog board). The pan knob is another step to the right.
Look up. Inserts. You can use one hardware insert and up to four software plug-ins to process the group. We won't, though. For now. If visions of compressors or drum plug-ins are running through your head, that's great--research what's available and post a comment.
What's that big gray area in the middle? It says it's a "31-Band Graphic Equalizer". You can EQ output groups. If you don't have a good reason, you probably shouldn't. But if you have free time during a rehearsal, you may want to play with this feature to see if you can come up with good reasons.
Now look to the right again. Why does it say "Aaron" under "Members"?
Remember last time, we assigned Aaron to Group 1 (and 6). The software is helpfully letting you know that Channel 1 (named Aaron) is part of this group.
Try something. Switch back to the input page by clicking the INPUTS button at the top left. Select channel 25, and in the Bus Assign section (below the name box, on the right) click the button for Group 1. Now switch to the output page again. Very cool: "Ch 25" is now listed as a member of the "M Voc" group.
Guess what? Aaron just stepped in to say that his five brothers are going to be singing too. We'll put them on channels 31-35. We can set up their input channels later, but let's make sure they're all on the "M Voc" group--the easy way.
See the Multi-Assign button at the bottom of the "Members" section? Click it. Take a minute and look at the blinking light. Also, glance at the lower right corner. The software is helpfully letting you know you're in a special mode. Okay. Switch back to the inputs page. (Don't worry, we can explain proper workflow and notifications to Aaron later.)
Hmm, on the inputs page, you can see that channels 1 and 25 are blinking. That's interesting. But we have a job to do! Click on channel 31. It should start blinking. Click channels 32, 33, 34, and 35. Now switch back to the outputs page, and click the Multi-Assign button again. The new channels should show up in the Members section.
Now let's look at Auxes. Click on Aux 1. The screen should look very familiar. Remember last time, when we said Aux 1 would be the band monitor, and Aux 11 would be Aaron's personal monitor? Let's name them accordingly, as "Band" and "AaronPersonal" respectively. I'll wait while you take care of that.
Got it? Good job! Let's double-check our settings. Click on Aux 11. Notice anything funny? Take a look at the Members list. I guess we got distracted by how picky Aaron was about his exact monitor level, and forgot something important. He's not a member.
That's not something we can fix from here. Switch back to the input page. Click on Channel 1. Hmm, he's got levels set correctly. Ah, both Aux 1 and Aux 11 should be pre-fade. That's probably it. Click the "PRE" buttons on Aux 1 and 11. Hop back to the output page.
Now that Aaron's monitors are set up...wait a second. They're not set up. Let's go back to inputs and check this out. Levels are set, pre-fade is set, and it says "ON" under the knob. Try clicking the "ON" button. Look at that, it lights up! Let's turn on the send to Aux 11 as well. Now back to outputs yet again. Hooray, Aaron is a member of both Auxes now!
Let's talk PQs real quick: you're not going to use them. PQ is one flavor of personal monitor control. It's the one we didn't go with. We're using the Aviom system. Apparently we're also delaying on using those until we get comfortable with the new equipment. I'll probably do a more detailed post on those in a few weeks. What's this all mean? It means ignore the PQ outputs.
And now let's talk Matrix outputs real quick: you don't use them now, do you? Right now, they're mostly pre-set to send a service to our AC venue. I suspect we'll do something similar in the new building. The short version: You can assign any Aux, any Group, any Main, or any of up to 8 user channels to a Matrix input. You have 8 inputs (plus mains) that you can set your levels on. So if you want a lot of "M Voc", a little of Aux 3, a bit of the left main out, and a dash of the choir mic, you could dial that in on Matrix 1. We have 8 Matrix outs, which is 6 more than we do now. Oh, the possibilities!
And a quick overview of VCAs: VCAs are kind of like groups, but much different. A group is a bus; a VCA is not. Now that we have that settled... Okay. Here's how it works. A group (or any bus) combines several signals into one signal. Think of it like a Y-cable, plugged in backwards. Multiple signals end up on one wire. Then that signal goes through a fader, and you can adjust the volume of several signals together. A VCA doesn't do that.
A VCA is more like a collection of under-employed garden gnomes moonlighting as tech assistants. One gnome watches the VCA fader. Each channel that is a member of the VCA has another gnome stationed by its fader. When you move the VCA fader, the chief gnome calls out "Up, boys, 2mm up!" (Importantly, garden gnomes tend to speak at frequencies very difficult for humans to hear, so they're not causing a disruption.) The lackey gnomes then push their faders up 2mm. (This also works if you pull the fader down.) The gnomes are giving you control over multiple faders at once, even though the signals don't get combined. I'm still not sure why you'd choose a VCA over a group--though simply not needing the signals to be combined on a single bus is probably the best reason.
Okay, that's it. We're done for now. Good work, by the way. You've learned to configure and double-check your Auxes, Groups, and VCAs. Plus, you've reviewed a bit of the Inputs page and how to do multi-assignment.
Last post covered inputs. The title above tells you what this will cover: outputs. So without further ado, start up D-Show if it's not running, and let's begin.
Click on "OUTPUTS" on the bar across the top of the screen. You're now on the output page.
There won't be a lot to do on the output page most of the time. Think about what you do with outputs today. You turn aux sends up or down (usually up, because the band wants louder monitors), adjust the pan and fade on subgroups, and adjust your master volume level. Same concepts apply here.
Look at the faders across the bottom. You have several sections: two groups of Aux sends, PQs, matrix, groups, VCAs, and those lonely ones to the right are your mains.
We'll look at groups first. Groups are basically the same as subgroups on your analog board. Click on the fader for Group 1. "Grp 1" should show in the blue box in the upper left. Let's re-name it to "M Voc", for male vocalists. Click, type, and press Enter.
Now that we have that straight, let's look around. Your output fader is below the name. Below that are solo and mute buttons. Look to the right of those buttons. "Bus Assign" is how you'll get the groups into the mains (just like the "L-R" button above the subgroups on the A&H analog board). The pan knob is another step to the right.
Look up. Inserts. You can use one hardware insert and up to four software plug-ins to process the group. We won't, though. For now. If visions of compressors or drum plug-ins are running through your head, that's great--research what's available and post a comment.
What's that big gray area in the middle? It says it's a "31-Band Graphic Equalizer". You can EQ output groups. If you don't have a good reason, you probably shouldn't. But if you have free time during a rehearsal, you may want to play with this feature to see if you can come up with good reasons.
Tip: If you see a graphic EQ being used on an output, ask the person who set up the Show file why it's being used. Most likely it's not needed. But maybe you'll learn something.
Now look to the right again. Why does it say "Aaron" under "Members"?
Remember last time, we assigned Aaron to Group 1 (and 6). The software is helpfully letting you know that Channel 1 (named Aaron) is part of this group.
Try something. Switch back to the input page by clicking the INPUTS button at the top left. Select channel 25, and in the Bus Assign section (below the name box, on the right) click the button for Group 1. Now switch to the output page again. Very cool: "Ch 25" is now listed as a member of the "M Voc" group.
Guess what? Aaron just stepped in to say that his five brothers are going to be singing too. We'll put them on channels 31-35. We can set up their input channels later, but let's make sure they're all on the "M Voc" group--the easy way.
See the Multi-Assign button at the bottom of the "Members" section? Click it. Take a minute and look at the blinking light. Also, glance at the lower right corner. The software is helpfully letting you know you're in a special mode. Okay. Switch back to the inputs page. (Don't worry, we can explain proper workflow and notifications to Aaron later.)
Hmm, on the inputs page, you can see that channels 1 and 25 are blinking. That's interesting. But we have a job to do! Click on channel 31. It should start blinking. Click channels 32, 33, 34, and 35. Now switch back to the outputs page, and click the Multi-Assign button again. The new channels should show up in the Members section.
Now let's look at Auxes. Click on Aux 1. The screen should look very familiar. Remember last time, when we said Aux 1 would be the band monitor, and Aux 11 would be Aaron's personal monitor? Let's name them accordingly, as "Band" and "AaronPersonal" respectively. I'll wait while you take care of that.
Got it? Good job! Let's double-check our settings. Click on Aux 11. Notice anything funny? Take a look at the Members list. I guess we got distracted by how picky Aaron was about his exact monitor level, and forgot something important. He's not a member.
That's not something we can fix from here. Switch back to the input page. Click on Channel 1. Hmm, he's got levels set correctly. Ah, both Aux 1 and Aux 11 should be pre-fade. That's probably it. Click the "PRE" buttons on Aux 1 and 11. Hop back to the output page.
Now that Aaron's monitors are set up...wait a second. They're not set up. Let's go back to inputs and check this out. Levels are set, pre-fade is set, and it says "ON" under the knob. Try clicking the "ON" button. Look at that, it lights up! Let's turn on the send to Aux 11 as well. Now back to outputs yet again. Hooray, Aaron is a member of both Auxes now!
I'd like to say I planned this out, but I'd honestly forgotten to mention clicking the "ON" button in the first lesson. But it worked out very well, because it got you practice in switching pages and a lesson in troubleshooting.
Let's talk PQs real quick: you're not going to use them. PQ is one flavor of personal monitor control. It's the one we didn't go with. We're using the Aviom system. Apparently we're also delaying on using those until we get comfortable with the new equipment. I'll probably do a more detailed post on those in a few weeks. What's this all mean? It means ignore the PQ outputs.
And now let's talk Matrix outputs real quick: you don't use them now, do you? Right now, they're mostly pre-set to send a service to our AC venue. I suspect we'll do something similar in the new building. The short version: You can assign any Aux, any Group, any Main, or any of up to 8 user channels to a Matrix input. You have 8 inputs (plus mains) that you can set your levels on. So if you want a lot of "M Voc", a little of Aux 3, a bit of the left main out, and a dash of the choir mic, you could dial that in on Matrix 1. We have 8 Matrix outs, which is 6 more than we do now. Oh, the possibilities!
And a quick overview of VCAs: VCAs are kind of like groups, but much different. A group is a bus; a VCA is not. Now that we have that settled... Okay. Here's how it works. A group (or any bus) combines several signals into one signal. Think of it like a Y-cable, plugged in backwards. Multiple signals end up on one wire. Then that signal goes through a fader, and you can adjust the volume of several signals together. A VCA doesn't do that.
A VCA is more like a collection of under-employed garden gnomes moonlighting as tech assistants. One gnome watches the VCA fader. Each channel that is a member of the VCA has another gnome stationed by its fader. When you move the VCA fader, the chief gnome calls out "Up, boys, 2mm up!" (Importantly, garden gnomes tend to speak at frequencies very difficult for humans to hear, so they're not causing a disruption.) The lackey gnomes then push their faders up 2mm. (This also works if you pull the fader down.) The gnomes are giving you control over multiple faders at once, even though the signals don't get combined. I'm still not sure why you'd choose a VCA over a group--though simply not needing the signals to be combined on a single bus is probably the best reason.
Okay, that's it. We're done for now. Good work, by the way. You've learned to configure and double-check your Auxes, Groups, and VCAs. Plus, you've reviewed a bit of the Inputs page and how to do multi-assignment.
What's next?
I'm still planning more walkthroughs.- Patching (no more patch panel!)
- Presets
- Possible: Files and organization
Series:
- Intro and Inputs
- Outputs (and a bit more on Inputs) [this post]
- Patching
- Presets (and some Input bonus)
- Files and Organization
- ...future...
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
D-Show Intro
My church is just finishing up our new building, and we're moving from an analog board to a Venue mixer. This is going to be the first in a short series of posts to walk through the D-Show standalone software, which is identical to the software that runs the mixer--except it runs on your Windows computer.
These posts will be step-by-step walkthroughs. Keep in mind I've never actually touched the Venue mixer, so I might be wrong as much as I'm right. Please post corrections or better ways to do things. And read the manual, if you have a chance.
Before starting the first walkthrough, download and install the software (linked above). Then start it (it installs on your Start menu under the VENUE folder. It's called VENUE D-Show.
Also, before you ask, there are no pictures. You'll learn much better by doing.
Almost everything above the fader strips is configuration for one channel.
Look at the faders along the bottom. The first fader on the left is blue. Let's move to Channel 8.
Let's go back to Channel 1, because the beginning is a good place to start. Move your mouse over Channel 1, but don't click just yet. Look at the green text in the bottom left of the screen. Most of the controls will give you helpful hints in that box. Okay, you can click Channel 1 now.
On our analog board, one of the very first things we do is put masking tape down and assign channels. On a digital board, that doesn't work so well. One of the main reasons is that channels can move around. ("Are you suggesting [channels] migrate?" Don't worry. You'll be in control.) Instead of masking tape, double-click in that dark box above that says "Ch 1". Now type "Aaron", then press Enter. Aaron will be our main vocalist.
Great! Now let's finish setting up the channel, just like on an analog board. We'll go in the order of controls here, which may not be the same as you're used to, or the same as you'll do once you're in front of the VENUE console. But it's easier to explain.
First, take a guess at the input gain. See the "Input" section about an inch below Aaron's name? The gain knob is next to the extra-large fader, between 0 and -10dB, and just a bit to the right. See it? Well, Aaron's been singing quietly lately. Let's add some gain. Click and hold on the knob, and move your mouse up, up, up. Wait, that's a bit too far. +60dB is a bit too much. Click on the knob again, and move your mouse down. Try to dial into about +20dB. Move your mouse straight up and straight down as needed. Nicely done.
We'll take a short step to the right. See the "Bus Assign" section? That's a lot like your subgroup buttons in the analog world. We'll want Aaron on Bus 1 and Bus 6. (For now, assume we have a good reason.). Click on the buttons for 1 and 6. They should have little green lights next to them now. Festive.
Let's step right again. The big section there is labeled "Aux Sends". This is monitors and other exciting things you'd want to send an auxiliary signal to. Aaron's important. We'll put him in Aux 1 and Aux 11. Aux 1 is the band's monitor. Aux 11 is Aaron's personal monitor. Click on the Aux 1 knob and put him at about -8dB. That's about where the band wants him. Set him at about -8dB on Aux11, too. Good job.
Wait a second. Aaron wants us to know that "about -8dB" is not acceptable. He needs exactly -7.7dB. I'll wait a minute while you try to dial that in. Tough, isn't it? Yup. But try this: hold Ctrl while you click the knob and move the mouse. Ctrl-clicking gives you fine-adjustment powers. (There is also a button on the console to do the same thing with the physical knobs, I believe.)
Whew, Aaron's satisfied with his monitor. Now let's EQ him. Step to the right once again. Your basic EQ controls are the right-most column of knobs. The ones a bit to the left are "Q", which you can think of as "wideness" of the EQ effect.
Now to EQing! Let's adjust Aaron's "Hi" EQ. By default, the frequency ("FREQ") is set at 10kHz. That's good for now. Remember what a perfectionist Aaron is? Well, he wants a 10.3dB boost at 10kHz. No more, no less. Click the dark box next to the word "GAIN", where it says "0.0 dB". Type 10.3 and ... wait! Don't hit Enter yet. Look at the graph. While you're looking at the graph, hit Enter. How's that for nifty?
Okay, Aaron's not a complete perfectionist. Now that he has his 10.3dB boost at 10kHz, he's okay with any other EQ settings you want. Watch the graph and play with your EQ settings. Now grab one of the boxes on the graph and drag it around while you watch the knobs. Double-nifty! Now, mess with the gain, Q, and frequency settings, until you're happy that Aaron will sound delightful.
Two boxes left! Well, two that I'm going to address now. Those two are related: Comp/Lim and Exp/Gate. That's your Compressor/Limiter and Expander/Gate. Each channel gets a compressor of its own.
Oops! We messed up! Those compressor settings are for Erin (Aaron's sister, who's a backup singer). Aaron does fine with the defaults. You remember the defaults, right? Oh. Me neither. But here's what we can do: right-click on the Comp/Lim box. Click "Reset Comp/Lim Section". Look! Defaults!
I'll skip the Expander/Gate. You know how to navigate the controls now. Plus Aaron doesn't like being gated.
Congratulations! You just set up a channel! Not only that, you've learned to navigate the Inputs section of the D-Show software.
These posts will be step-by-step walkthroughs. Keep in mind I've never actually touched the Venue mixer, so I might be wrong as much as I'm right. Please post corrections or better ways to do things. And read the manual, if you have a chance.
Before starting the first walkthrough, download and install the software (linked above). Then start it (it installs on your Start menu under the VENUE folder. It's called VENUE D-Show.
If you have used the D-Show software before on your computer, you may need to return to the INPUTS page.
Also, before you ask, there are no pictures. You'll learn much better by doing.
Welcome to D-Show
When D-Show starts, it gives you something that looks very much like a mixer. Channel faders, mute and solo buttons, and FX returns are along the bottom. Mute groups are in the bottom right corner.Almost everything above the fader strips is configuration for one channel.
On an analog board, each channel strip is identical (ignore stereo channels on your analog board for now, because let's be honest, you ignore them anyway). Think of the configuration area below the menu bar and above the fader as your channel strip.Look in the upper left corner. It says "Ch 1". You must have Channel 1 selected. (Deep, man, deep.)
Look at the faders along the bottom. The first fader on the left is blue. Let's move to Channel 8.
- Click on the 8th fader from the left. It should turn blue.
- Look in the upper left corner. It should say "Ch 8". Congratulations!
Let's go back to Channel 1, because the beginning is a good place to start. Move your mouse over Channel 1, but don't click just yet. Look at the green text in the bottom left of the screen. Most of the controls will give you helpful hints in that box. Okay, you can click Channel 1 now.
On our analog board, one of the very first things we do is put masking tape down and assign channels. On a digital board, that doesn't work so well. One of the main reasons is that channels can move around. ("Are you suggesting [channels] migrate?" Don't worry. You'll be in control.) Instead of masking tape, double-click in that dark box above that says "Ch 1". Now type "Aaron", then press Enter. Aaron will be our main vocalist.
Great! Now let's finish setting up the channel, just like on an analog board. We'll go in the order of controls here, which may not be the same as you're used to, or the same as you'll do once you're in front of the VENUE console. But it's easier to explain.
First, take a guess at the input gain. See the "Input" section about an inch below Aaron's name? The gain knob is next to the extra-large fader, between 0 and -10dB, and just a bit to the right. See it? Well, Aaron's been singing quietly lately. Let's add some gain. Click and hold on the knob, and move your mouse up, up, up. Wait, that's a bit too far. +60dB is a bit too much. Click on the knob again, and move your mouse down. Try to dial into about +20dB. Move your mouse straight up and straight down as needed. Nicely done.
We'll take a short step to the right. See the "Bus Assign" section? That's a lot like your subgroup buttons in the analog world. We'll want Aaron on Bus 1 and Bus 6. (For now, assume we have a good reason.). Click on the buttons for 1 and 6. They should have little green lights next to them now. Festive.
Let's step right again. The big section there is labeled "Aux Sends". This is monitors and other exciting things you'd want to send an auxiliary signal to. Aaron's important. We'll put him in Aux 1 and Aux 11. Aux 1 is the band's monitor. Aux 11 is Aaron's personal monitor. Click on the Aux 1 knob and put him at about -8dB. That's about where the band wants him. Set him at about -8dB on Aux11, too. Good job.
Wait a second. Aaron wants us to know that "about -8dB" is not acceptable. He needs exactly -7.7dB. I'll wait a minute while you try to dial that in. Tough, isn't it? Yup. But try this: hold Ctrl while you click the knob and move the mouse. Ctrl-clicking gives you fine-adjustment powers. (There is also a button on the console to do the same thing with the physical knobs, I believe.)
Whew, Aaron's satisfied with his monitor. Now let's EQ him. Step to the right once again. Your basic EQ controls are the right-most column of knobs. The ones a bit to the left are "Q", which you can think of as "wideness" of the EQ effect.
Your analog board doesn't have a "Q" setting. If you don't want to worry about it for now, you can click the "ANALOG" button above the high-frequency EQ gain control. See the "Q" knobs disappear? Cool. Okay, un-set "ANALOG" for now, and let's get back to it.Before you adjust the EQ knobs, do two things. First, click the "EQ IN" button in the upper left corner of the EQ area. Now you're actually EQing. Second, look to the right. See that graph? That's your EQ graph. It'll be other sorts of graph later, but right now it's your EQ graph.
Now to EQing! Let's adjust Aaron's "Hi" EQ. By default, the frequency ("FREQ") is set at 10kHz. That's good for now. Remember what a perfectionist Aaron is? Well, he wants a 10.3dB boost at 10kHz. No more, no less. Click the dark box next to the word "GAIN", where it says "0.0 dB". Type 10.3 and ... wait! Don't hit Enter yet. Look at the graph. While you're looking at the graph, hit Enter. How's that for nifty?
Okay, Aaron's not a complete perfectionist. Now that he has his 10.3dB boost at 10kHz, he's okay with any other EQ settings you want. Watch the graph and play with your EQ settings. Now grab one of the boxes on the graph and drag it around while you watch the knobs. Double-nifty! Now, mess with the gain, Q, and frequency settings, until you're happy that Aaron will sound delightful.
Two boxes left! Well, two that I'm going to address now. Those two are related: Comp/Lim and Exp/Gate. That's your Compressor/Limiter and Expander/Gate. Each channel gets a compressor of its own.
For those of you that used compressors before, this is excellent. No more angsty decisions about where to use the few compressors you have. Compress everything, if you want! (But don't do that. Compress responsibly. Don't compress and drive.)Click on the words Comp/Lim. See how the graph changes? It's a little tough to see. Let's add the compressor in. Click the button to the left of "Comp/Lim". Now, Aaron tends to get carried away singing at anything above a whisper. So let's seriously over-compress him. [The following is for the sake of example ONLY and is a BAD idea. Don't do this for real unless you have a very good reason for it.] Crank the threshold way down to about -35dB. Now set the ratio all the way up to 100:1. Well, maybe that's a bit hard on Aaron. Dial it down a bit. Maybe 4:1. See the graph? It's nice to see what you're doing, isn't it?
Oops! We messed up! Those compressor settings are for Erin (Aaron's sister, who's a backup singer). Aaron does fine with the defaults. You remember the defaults, right? Oh. Me neither. But here's what we can do: right-click on the Comp/Lim box. Click "Reset Comp/Lim Section". Look! Defaults!
I'll skip the Expander/Gate. You know how to navigate the controls now. Plus Aaron doesn't like being gated.
Congratulations! You just set up a channel! Not only that, you've learned to navigate the Inputs section of the D-Show software.
What's next?
I plan to post a few more walkthroughs. I plan to cover at least three more major parts of the software:- Outputs
- Patching (no more patch panel!)
- Presets
Series:
- Intro and Inputs [this post]
- Outputs (and a bit more on Inputs)
- Patching
- Presets (and some Input bonus)
- Files and Organization
- ...future...
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