Mackie SR24•4 Owner's Manual page 42

doesn't clip until +28dBu (balanced). Even
pegging the meters hard, you still have around
12dB of headroom for your peaks.
worry if you're in the yellow a lot or if some
parts of the track hardly read at all. You'll
quickly get a feel for what works for you, when
you can get away with really smacking the
tape or the electronics too much.
BUSES
console is to mix two or more inputs into one
output. Like a coach who has two or more
players to get to the same ballgame, console
designers use a bus. Even Webster's Un-
abridged Dictionary agrees, defining the word
bus in electronics as "a conductor serving as a
common connector for three or more circuits."
The four suggested in the name (SUBs 1–4)
are important, but there are also the main
LEFT and RIGHT buses, six AUX buses and
three SOLO buses. We will try to be clear just
what bus we are talking about when we do
talk about buses.
Appendices
SENDS AND RETURNS
are inputs. So why don't we call them outputs
and inputs?
mean many things, but the way they are gener-
ally used in mixing console parlance is to refer to
send buses, which tap off a little of a signal to
send to some effects device (like a reverberation
unit), and return inputs, which function to
return that reverb back into the mix.
signal from a collection of channels for a
headphone cue mix. For that matter, sends
can be used as additional mix buses, if
needed.
reverb or effects, returns can be used as addi-
tional line-level inputs to your mix.
also apply to insert jacks. The only difference
is that they process the entire signal, not just
tap a little bit of it.
40
But, if your music is sounding good, don't
More often then not, the goal in a mixing
The Mackie SR24•4 has 15 audio buses.
Sends are buses fed to outputs, and returns
Well, actually, the terms send and return can
Sends are also used to tap some mix of
In the same way, if you don't need them for
Incidentally, the terms send and return
SOLO
Solo is a standard console function which
allows you to listen to one or more sources all
by themselves (soloed).
You can check EQ, possible distortion or
buzz, or just listen to see if a particular mic is
open or not. When soloing more than one
source, you can listen to the blend of just part
of your mix: only the sopranos, for example, or
just the tom mics on the drums.
The solo circuits are designed not to inter-
rupt the recording process. The solo bus
signal is sent directly to the control room
monitors without affecting any of the inputs,
outputs or recording buses.
EQUALIZATION
Everybody knows what EQ is, but just in
case you'd like a refresher, we'll put a few
paragraphs in here.
Equalization (EQ) refers to purposefully
changing the frequency response of a circuit,
sometimes to correct for previous unequal re-
sponse (hence the term, equalization), and
more often to add or subtract level at certain
frequencies for a pleasing effect.
Bass and treble controls on your stereo are
EQ; so are the units called parametrics and
graphics and notch filters.
A lot of how we refer to equalization has to
do with what a graph of the frequency response
would look like. A flat response (no EQ) is a
straight line; a peak looks like a hill, a dip is a
valley, a notch is a really skinny valley, and a
shelf looks like a plateau (or a shelf). The
slope is the grade of the hill on the graph.
Graphic equalizers have enough frequency
slider controls to form a graph of the EQ right
on the front panel. Parametric EQs let you
vary several EQ parameters at once. And a fil-
ter is simply a form of equalizer which allows
certain frequencies through unmolested and
other frequencies reduced or not at all. Pass-
port, please?
The equalizers on the SR24•4 use four
different types of EQ in various places.
The LOW and HI sections of the EQ are
shelving equalizers, with a family of curves
shown at right. As you can see, shelving EQs
lift or lower the entire range of frequencies
above or below a certain point. Most tone con-
trols on home stereos are shelving EQs, often
set at 100Hz for the bass and 10kHz for the
treble. The LOW EQ on the SR24•4 is at