Newbie questions

[Fraea]

hey,

our campus radio station is just being set up... we know how to work the basic stuff on the new mixwizard, but the rest of it (ie all the dials for changing frequency and amplitdude) doesn't make a lot of sense. Anyone willing to offer beginner advice / good websites etc?

Re. the frequency/amp dials -- can they be left at a given (ie 'auto') setting or should they be changed depending on the situation, and are they used to correct sound difficulties like feedback etc?

Also, having basically zero experience, the manual is at times more confusing than helpful -- can anyone explane stuff like what the equalizer does, the 'aux sends,' or the balancer? -- even 1 or 2 tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[gingertom]

hey,

our campus radio station is just being set up... we know how to work the basic stuff on the new mixwizard, but the rest of it (ie all the dials for changing frequency and amplitdude) doesn't make a lot of sense. Anyone willing to offer beginner advice / good websites etc?

Re. the frequency/amp dials -- can they be left at a given (ie 'auto') setting or should they be changed depending on the situation, and are they used to correct sound difficulties like feedback etc?

Also, having basically zero experience, the manual is at times more confusing than helpful -- can anyone explane stuff like what the equalizer does, the 'aux sends,' or the balancer? -- even 1 or 2 tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

In simplest terms the dials on each channel for Frequency and cut/boost are essentially a grown up version of the tone controls on a Hifi. Except rather than being "Bass" and "Treble" you have the ability to select whcih part of the "Bass", "Mids" or "Treble". I found that with the lads I teach I get them to listen to some fairly basic source material on CD, or set up a mic, and just play with the "dials" to see the effect that they have. If you google "EQ" or "Parametric EQ" you should end up with various pages that will help, and probably explain in a better fashion.

 

 

As for the Aux Sends: They are basically just another way to get the sound out of the desk. For example you may be running your main audio out from Left and Right, and recording to a device from your Subgroups, and then find that you need to send the main vocal channel to a reverb unit.. You would do this by sending the vocal via an auxilary.

 

HTH

[Ben Langfeld]

One thing I'm wondering is where you'd get feedback from?

[lightsource]

Not an easy one to reply to, as many books could be written on the subject.

 

But in it's simplest form, is when a microphone picks up the output of a speaker, and it gets re-amplified constantly forming a loop, and the howling noise.

[Ben Langfeld]

I know what feedback is! I was saying I wondered where she'd get feedback from. Being a radio studio, I'd expect more or less all monitoring to be done with headphones.

[lightsource]

I have seen one instance, where (cheap) headphones have created a loop with a mic, when the user got too close to the mic

[paulears]

You don't always use headphones. To be honest, a mix wizard, or any conventional desk is pretty iffy for radio station use, apart from in pre-production. Proper radio desks don't even present the user with eq on many of them. Some have channel strips with eq as an option. Faders on a radio desk are designed to be shoved to maximum and small adjustments only on a gain pot. Proper desks also automatically mute the speaker outputs, and light up a red light saying "Mic Live" as soon as a fader is opened. The faders also send start messages to the playout kit - so shoving a fader opens it and the music starts. The routing on radio desks also give mix-minus feeds which you need if you do any telephone input from a TBU.

 

A normal mixer is too complicated and 'dangerous' for radio presenters who are not expected to be engineers. The lack of proper radio facilities makes what you are attempting to do very difficult unless all the presenters have really thorough training and you have a technician/engineer on site. Far too many buttons on a mix wizzard to make it simple. People will twiddle - and working out which single button out of hundreds is the one stopping output is a nightmare - because when it goes quiet, people press everything in sight!

[Dmills]

You don't always use headphones. To be honest, a mix wizard, or any conventional desk is pretty iffy for radio station use, apart from in pre-production. Proper radio desks don't even present the user with eq on many of them. Some have channel strips with eq as an option. Faders on a radio desk are designed to be shoved to maximum and small adjustments only on a gain pot. Proper desks also automatically mute the speaker outputs, and light up a red light saying "Mic Live" as soon as a fader is opened. The faders also send start messages to the playout kit - so shoving a fader opens it and the music starts. The routing on radio desks also give mix-minus feeds which you need if you do any telephone input from a TBU.

 

Mix minus (Also called 'clean feed') is easily contrived with an aux bus, but things like 'talk to caller' (with appropriate main send muting logic) are more of a problem. That said, the WZ 20S version of this desk does not make that bad a radio board, and a fader start kit is available as a retrofit.

 

For a board intended for a mostly playout situation they are too complex and judicious use of perspex can help to minimise the pain. Also be wary of the metering dynamics, you want PPM for this job.

 

Also, if you are doing voice tracking, having a GPI to mute the mic channel to air is useful as it cuts down on embarassing accidents, relays on insert jacks can solve this sort of thing if you have someone who knows what to do with a soldering iron (More or less a requirement in a student radio station).

 

A normal mixer is too complicated and 'dangerous' for radio presenters who are not expected to be engineers. The lack of proper radio facilities makes what you are attempting to do very difficult unless all the presenters have really thorough training and you have a technician/engineer on site. Far too many buttons on a mix wizzard to make it simple. People will twiddle - and working out which single button out of hundreds is the one stopping output is a nightmare - because when it goes quiet, people press everything in sight!

 

Amen, but for production or use in a small 'live' truck they can be quite nice.

 

How did you choose this desk? From the sound of it you have little experience with live sound or radio station engineering, and I would have thought that any of the reputable dealers in such things would have steered you towards a radio desk (Alice, Airmate, Souncraft, Soniflex all make suitable units to name but a few), or even something like one of the larger A&H club mixers as being more appropriate then a Mixwiz.

 

Regards, Dan.

[dbuckley]

... That said, the WZ 20S version of this desk does not make that bad a radio board

There are now two versions of this desk, the old one and the new V3 model, with a rather different feature set. Both are on the website, I'm wondering if A&H will keep both models in production as they are two different animals...?

[paulears]

I'm a firm convert to the keep it simple way of working. I love the perspex panel idea! Proper radio desks are really daft prices, considering their apparent lack of facilities.

http://www.eastanglianradio.com/radio.jpg

http://www.eastanglianradio.com/coastal.jpg

 

Typical desks surrounded by students! - one a permanent college radio studio, the other for a RSL

[Bobbsy]

I suspect the problem is that you'd be hard-pressed to buy a specialist radio board for the price of a Mixwiz. I've seen quite a few hospital and school radio stations operate on an "ordinary" board.

 

At this point I had quite a long, elaborate post partially composed suggesting things like driving monitor speakers off auxes to avoid ever feeding a mic into them and so on, but on second thought, without knowing more detail of your setup, I'd probably just confuse things. So, I'll stick to some general advice.

 

First, you mention "automatic" settings. Your board doesn't have any so don't worry about it.

 

Regarding the EQ knobs, on all your line sources (like CD's, computers, and so on, leave them in the centre "notch" position. Those sources don't need equalisation. For your microphone(s), IF you have somebody with engineering skill and a good ear, have them adjust the EQ then leave it. If you don't have anybody good, probably leave these in the centre position too.

 

Your board has some stereo and some mono input channels, but in radio use you'll likely have to double up some mono channels for extra stereo sources. If you do, a bit of DIY with plastic and tape to link together two faders can be useful to a DJ in a rush. Where you do this, pan the left fader full left and the right fully right...then leave them!

 

Spend some time setting up the levels on your board so the DJ can be fairly sure that pushing a fader or faders to a certain level will be right. The classic way is to have the nominal level at the "0dB" mark on the fader; some radio studios are set so you push them right to the top. Your choice, but standardise, then use the trim pot (the one nearest to the input sockets) to set the levels to be right when the faders are in the right spot.

 

Discourage people with a little knowledge from playing once you're set up...making a change, even for a good reason, then leaving it is likely to confuse the next user.

 

Good luck, and if you have specific questions, come back!

 

Bob

[Fraea]

How did you choose this desk? From the sound of it you have little experience with live sound or radio station engineering, and I would have thought that any of the reputable dealers in such things would have steered you towards a radio desk (Alice, Airmate, Souncraft, Soniflex all make suitable units to name but a few), or even something like one of the larger A&H club mixers as being more appropriate then a Mixwiz.

 

 

I didnt actually choose it myself, so I cant tell you why the guy who chose it did... but we may be doing some live recording type of stuff besides just the broadcasting.

Thanks to your guys replies at least I can figure stuff out now!

 

THANKS EVERYONE FOR ALL YOUR REPLIES! Ill probably have more questions soon, but the manual looks a little less intimidating thanks to your help.

[Big_L]

Sorry, Just to add one further point to Bobbsy's post:

 

IF you have somebody with engineering skill and a good ear, have them adjust the EQ then leave it. If you don't have anybody good, probably leave these in the centre position too.

 

Bearing in mind if its a student station you'll be having lots of different people with lots of different voices, it's even more likely that any EQ changes to the microphone channels will do more harm than good across different shows; what sounds great for your 'late night music' male presenter might not be so brilliant for your 'light and bubbly' female breakfast show person!

 

Lewis

[Bobbsy]

Probably true, though I wasn't so much thinking of EQing for specific voices, more to compensate for any unpleasant room effects or deficiencies in the mic (for example the SM58 presence peak or the harshness of a C1000). However, unless somebody knows what their doing, leaving it all flat is probably best as I said.

 

Bob

[Adibrad]

Hi. I'm a new technician for a new local band and I was wonderin if anyone could send me a diagram of a typical live Equaliser and what all the knobs and stuff do ty.

 

 

Moderation: The poster's request that answers be emailed to him plus his email address have been edited out for a couple of reasons. First off, the whole point of forums like the Blue Room is that answers are posted in the open for the benefit of all readers. Second, posting your email address leaves you open to your details being picked up and used by 'bots that trawl the net continuously and use email addresses they find for not-nice reasons...at best spam and at worst malware attacks.