jkowtko
Well-Known Member
I recently acquired a Soundcraft LX7-32 (original series) and have been working through the gain structure to get the noise floor down on board recordings. I'd like to run this by you guys to see if I'm missing anything.
* 32 channel board, we ran 12 mics, reveb return, 6 channels band, 2 channels sound effects
* I muted all other channels to minimize noise through the summing amps.
* The (5.1 arrangement) speaker outputs are through the four groups and two auxes.
* I recorded stereo off the LR main outs, through a DBX266xl compressor, and input my Marantz PMD660 line input
* Originally I sent Groups 1/2 (the LF/RF speakers) to Mix, but I noticed the additional noise floor so instead I routed all input channels directly to mix, which cut down the noise somewhat.
* I also noticed that with LR a full fader (0) there is noticably more noise than if I drop it to -10 or more. So one correction I made was to turn down all PA speaker outputs 10db, forcing the sound op to push the inputs up another 10db across the board, thereby allowing me to lower the Mix fader down so I would get less noise into the recording.
* I also checked cabling from LR outs through the compressor and into the recorder ... there was some noise there but it was less of an issue than the board noise.
The problem I am having IS NOT overall volume or noise through the PA, or recording songs where the volume levels are up. That sounds just fine and I seem to have plenty of leeway on where I can set Group and Mix fader levels.
The problem I AM having is recording during low level dialogue passages. Since the theater is so small we pull down the reinforcement to the -20 to -30 level during dialogue because you can hear the actors directly pretty well, and at this point we're only adding a small amount of ambient fill. This is where the noise level is noticable. It would also be nice if I could get it nice and quiet during pauses in the music.
So up to now my take is that you have to keep the input faders as close to zero as possible to get a nice hot signal going into the mix bus, and therefore minimize mix bus noise. Am I on track or is there something else I should be trying?
Also, can anyone comment on noise floors of the analog boards in general? I had assuming that even a baby Soundcraft should sound a lot cleaner than our old Mackie CFX ... but do I need to move up to a higher end board to get cleaner mixes? Or will they all have the same general issue (in which case I'm thinking digital is the only way to lick this for sure)?
Thanks. John
* 32 channel board, we ran 12 mics, reveb return, 6 channels band, 2 channels sound effects
* I muted all other channels to minimize noise through the summing amps.
* The (5.1 arrangement) speaker outputs are through the four groups and two auxes.
* I recorded stereo off the LR main outs, through a DBX266xl compressor, and input my Marantz PMD660 line input
* Originally I sent Groups 1/2 (the LF/RF speakers) to Mix, but I noticed the additional noise floor so instead I routed all input channels directly to mix, which cut down the noise somewhat.
* I also noticed that with LR a full fader (0) there is noticably more noise than if I drop it to -10 or more. So one correction I made was to turn down all PA speaker outputs 10db, forcing the sound op to push the inputs up another 10db across the board, thereby allowing me to lower the Mix fader down so I would get less noise into the recording.
* I also checked cabling from LR outs through the compressor and into the recorder ... there was some noise there but it was less of an issue than the board noise.
The problem I am having IS NOT overall volume or noise through the PA, or recording songs where the volume levels are up. That sounds just fine and I seem to have plenty of leeway on where I can set Group and Mix fader levels.
The problem I AM having is recording during low level dialogue passages. Since the theater is so small we pull down the reinforcement to the -20 to -30 level during dialogue because you can hear the actors directly pretty well, and at this point we're only adding a small amount of ambient fill. This is where the noise level is noticable. It would also be nice if I could get it nice and quiet during pauses in the music.
So up to now my take is that you have to keep the input faders as close to zero as possible to get a nice hot signal going into the mix bus, and therefore minimize mix bus noise. Am I on track or is there something else I should be trying?
Also, can anyone comment on noise floors of the analog boards in general? I had assuming that even a baby Soundcraft should sound a lot cleaner than our old Mackie CFX ... but do I need to move up to a higher end board to get cleaner mixes? Or will they all have the same general issue (in which case I'm thinking digital is the only way to lick this for sure)?
Thanks. John