allen and heath ZED-428 sound desk

[AlexD]

We are chaneging the sound board that we are getting, the soundcraft turns out wouldent do what we wanted (there was no group outputs) and we are now getting the allen and heath ZED-428 sound desk, witch is much more suited with even more feturs we can use. I have two questions.

First is, can you conect the desk virer USB and get a screan up that will show you all the chanles and there levels?

Second is, can i use the direct out's for ea channle to feed a speaker line? What i am planing is, i am going to have a usb interface that has 8 jack outs and use them to put into 8 chanles, this is to send a sound cue to difrent speakers for difrent cues, i was going to put the suround sound speakers into the group chanles but now i reolise i dont need it to go through them becaus no other chanles will be going though them, so will the dirct out's be able to feed an amp?

[Dionysus]

No the USB connection is only for basic stereo USB-Audio. Does not allow for control or monitoring (visual).
This USB can be set to receive from the console from a pair of auxes or the main L&R output. At the same time the computer can output stereo audio either down a rail or to a single pot. I suggest sending it down a rail.
There are little blue buttons to change the settings.

It is standard to have outputs for subgroups, but I will double-check just to be sure for you. (I have a ZED-24, the little brother, but I have the documentation for the 420 -somewhere... I almost got the 420, but did not have the money)

Edit:
The USB can also feed from the Matrixes.
And yes the groups have inserts and outputs.

[jkowtko]

Alex, you can use the direct out from the input channel. It delivers roughly the same signal level as the channel input.

However these boards come from the factory with the dir outs set to pre-fader, which can be changed only by moving a solder connection. So, if you were counting on being able to use the fader here, you're out of luck unless you were planning on pulling the board open and doing the soldering.

However using the input channel will provide some other benefits:
- EQ
- HPF
- Mute button still works ... will make a good "kill" button
- convert unbalanced input connection to (impedance) balanced

If the above aren't of use then you're just as well off connecting the amp directly to your sound card output jack.

[AlexD]

Ah. i wanted volume control on the output (quick acses volume control) incase something gose wrong. gess ill just have to send them through the subs, Or how hard will it be to do a soldring job on the conectors?

[jkowtko]

I'm guessing the connectors are on each individual channel's PC board -- which means opening up the case and pulling out a channel board. Not sure if that's something you want to do right away with a brand new $1500 board ....

As an alternative, if you have only a couple of FX outputs and can spare the Auxes, I would suggest using the post-fade Auxes (Aux 3, 4, 5, 6) to route your FX channels. This will still allow you to use Groups for their traditional purpose (of grouping your vocal and band inputs and sending them to the main speakers) while giving you fader control over the FX.

[AlexD]

Ye i have looked into this a bit more and see that it is quite hard and tecnical and im not confdent anouth in my skill to do this. If i do do this i will get a profeshnol to come and do it. But yes i will probly have to use the auxs, only problem is that i want to have a PA system set up at ROH for fx in a big show witch means i need two more outputs...

[jkowtko]

Then you should consider getting a board that allows all 6 Auxes to be set post-fade. The A&H GL2200 and GL2400, and Soundcraft LX7 will do this. The ZEDs are a lower-end line so the company had to remove features somewhere ... and setting the first two auxes to pre- only seems like a common feature limitation (since in a live band environment those are normally used for foldback, it's a commonly used setting anyway ... but for live theater, not so)

[AlexD]

The problem is price, I have managed to get away with this upgrade witch is £120 more then the previous board because this board can give so much more and comes with sonar le (from studiospares) witch is going to be such a huge help when it comes to editing sound samples. And the Gl2400 is to expensive, they wouldn’t allow me to do it and the soundcraft was my first request (of sorts) but the ZEDS's sonar and USB connector is so much more helpful for what we need.

I was going to be using the surround sound in the direct outs, cant because they are pre fade, I know have info on how to change it to post fade but there is no whey I am going to do the soldering not on a 1 grand piece of equipment (especially after the last board we had, the master fader broke because someone took it apart) So I was thinking of hiring someone to come in and do this, probably someone like you guys, off the top of your heads how much would you charge to re-solder 1 joint in 4 channels? Or would it be worth to get every direct out changed to post fade if I did this?

Though most people will do it by the hour so how long would it take to re-solder 24 joints and replace two faders (one on a sound desk other on a lighting desk). My school dosent seem to like haveing master faders

[jkowtko]

I personally wouldn't take the soldering route. Then if you ever need those direct outs as pre-fade, you'll have to pull the board open all over again.

Another thing you could do is try to use some of the groups or the M bus for the extra FX channels. if you only need to use 2 groups for your vocals and band, you can use the other two groups for FX and patch from those group outs to the FX amps. The same goes for the M (mono) bus).

Bottom line -- this board has 13 busses, 11 of which can be used post-fade. If you don't need to group your input channels then you have full access to all 11 post-fade busses from each input channel to do what you want with them. (If you do need to group your input channels, then your LR and whatever groups you need will be taken up for grouping and routing to main speakers)

[AlexD]

Ye it will do what i want at the moment but not when it comes to expanding, though they probably wont upgrade anymore. Guess I'm just trying to keep it as open as possible.

I had a thought, the problem I'm having is the 4 surround sounds that are coming from the PC, they will go through the mixer but after they do they go strait out, they don't use any feature of the mixer, so in theory i could just plug the 4 channels form the sound card strait into the amp but what i want is control over the level, at the touch (or push) of a button/knob/fader. One way i can do this is to find a 4 channel mini mixer with L&R out and two aux witch I could use separate from the main mixer and have the faders or knobs for the control. One problem is this would cost a lot (well to much for what we can afford) dose anyone know of a control interface that has 4 inputs and 4 out puts and can control each channel with a fader or knob for about under £30. Probably not but its worth a shot.