If it doesn't matter were we get the
gain from and I can drive the meters with better information by using the board
gain instead of the receiver
gain, I might look at that. I just expected to provide as much
headroom as possible to give enough for the board to handle the rest. Always thought of the
meter were strictly what was final output from the
channel but you saying that it may be more of a function of how much
gain I'm supplying from the board. I also like to see faders at 0 and adjust
gain accordingly. Something to work on this week.
I don't fully understand any of what you're trying to say, but I'll try to respond. So when I'm setting preamp
gain or adjusting trims I'm keeping input faders at 0, but also keeping the DCA at -10 if I'm doing a show where I'm mixing on DCAs (so, every musical). I do this because I know nominal talking dialogue I can consistently, always, without a doubt hit -10dB on the
fader without my eyes looking at my hands. Some mixers reach for -5dB nominal, I find those shows very hard to sub on. If you're throwing DCAs into the mix I'd find the consistently good
throw and
gain around it.
As for meters, Input meters and output meters. You pay good money for all the meters, get your monies worth from all of them.
Just my opinion here - please feel free to disagree.
Console channel trim/
gain knob settings should be done by a process with the most important determining factors being proper
gain staging and best sound quality. The statement about a 'golden position' of the
gain/
trim knob at 9:00 to 12:00 is suspicious. Did the parent say why?
I like the video TimMc posted.
Paraphrasing from the video, the
microphone preamp for a wireless mic is inside the transmitter. Improper settings here can do damage to your signal to noise, your transmission range and your sound quality. Adjust the preamp in the wireless transmitter optimally first.
I'll check the video out in the AM, I agree there is no golden
gain knob position other than "Maybe I'll need more up" or "Maybe I'll need more down". I'd also be wary of grouping
gain/
trim into the same bundle in order not to confuse new folks - they are most certainly different knobs and confusing the two is the best way to get your
monitor mixer shouting at you real real quick (or even worse, the talent whose ears you just messed with!).
As for where to adjust
gain first, I'll always argue that you need to look at the
system holistically and there is a right answer for every moment. We're also going to assume the output side of the
system is dialed in perfectly here. I'm going to start a
system with transmitters at whatever their nominal setting is, and I usually get someone well before cast is around to read a
book and move from talking to shouting at a healthy actor-y
level. I'll then
gain down the pack until the
point where the shouting moments aren't peaking out the pack or the receiver because no one likes that crunch. Then I go to the
console and
throw the RF into the PA, throwing my input
fader at 0, assigning the
channel to a DCA, throwing that to -10dB and the gaining up by ear to a nice average dialogue
level on the mic. If the meters aren't giving me good information then I go back to the receiver and
gain down the output so I can drive the preamp in the
console a little hotter.
If the show is less
dynamic than whatever the ballpark estimate was in quiet time, I'll go back and
gain up the pack whatever is needed, but in my experience usually there is some leading person who can belt louder than whoever I had screaming and I'm doing a
gain change down to adjust for unexpected
clipping.
In a
theatre environment and in practice, I think this outcome might be a little more challenging to achieve. Perhaps one actor has some very loud lines
in one scene and their transmitter preamp
gain has to be dialed down more than the others. Maybe there are a lot of tight transmitter swaps. And on a
community theatre production there might not be enough time or a qualified A2 to make or revise these transmitter
gain settings properly. There are other variables - maybe on a production, all the transmitter packs and receivers are the same but there is more than one make/model/type of
microphone being used.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the large-scale musical shows I've worked on - A. the designers who
gain every pack per actor. This requires the A2's to carry a
gain cheat-sheet in their pocket the entire show for when they
throw a spare transmitter on folks because it's all about keeping the A1's throws consistent on the mix. Some A2's keep all spares the same and then run back to the receivers and just use the
trim in the receiver to
gain up/down, but if you're throwing that pack on your leading lady and they are about to go into their big scene they may get a little crunchy. The other school of thought is B. The designers who want
gain changes on the transmitter done similarly throughout the entire cast. If your leading lady peaks her pack and you knock it back -3dB at the transmitter, everyone gets their pack knocked back because it is all about the spares. When I design I tend to go with B, keep it simple.
In an ideal situation, perhaps identical default receiver output
level settings would be a good place to start -
mic level type output not
line, 0 dB
gain added. Some may say the receiver output should be set to a higher
level, so the
console preamp wouldn't have to work as hard. Maybe it's set to
line level so the
console preamp doesn't have to work at all. Other considerations might apply - how far physically the receivers are from the mixing board - if it's hundreds of feet and an analog connection maybe you want the receiver output to be a little higher. I'm not so sure I feel strongly that those claims would be justified. Personally, if it were me running the board I don't think I'd care about the receiver output
level as long as these signals were arriving at the
console at a
level that is not ridiculously far out of
line from other signals and within all of the wireless outputs, as consistent as possible with each other, and that the
console preamp is able to handle them (in other words I don't have to pad them). I would probably question a situation where I have to set the
gain/
trim knobs for the wireless all set to 100% maximum, as sometimes preamps can have nonlinearities and
distortion at extremes. That said - mixers are designed to handle a variety of different signal levels, that is why the
gain/
trim knob exists!
I tend to run my units at
Mic level, wide open with no
trim until I need
trim. As with transmitters in my world, receivers all get trimmed uniformly so the
gain can be made back up at the
console appropriately. Keeping it simple, keeping it swap-proof. Now that I've moved to all Dante systems for the most part, it's all
line level and I'm using
console trim to knock whatever I need back. I have exactly zero hardened rules other than, "does it sound good" and "is the
console giving me the data I need?". A good sound designer can get a gig to 95% wonderful sound with a
base set of tools and a lot of knowledge. The last 5% are diminishing returns in what you get, but it both costs a heck of a lot of money and requires a team entirely committed to the tiniest of details. When I'm on a "proper" show there's definitely a method, but I make my usual rules for touring gigs/corporate gigs/gigs where you need to mitigate all risk of failures and keep it simple and still sounding pretty great.
Also it takes like 250+ meters of
XLR to get a -3dB
drop in a balanced
mic-level signal. If anyone is complaining about gaining up on a long run it better be the most insane run!