Question

My church has a StudioLive 32.4.2 AI mixer, and we are trying to find a way to have a "Lead Vocal" sub-mix that we can feed into any number of Aux mixes and the Main mix.  We have 5 vocals that take turns as the lead vocal for different songs.  It would be great if we could simply lower one channel's level in the sub-mix and raise one other in between songs, and have that change be applied in all the mixes that want it.  In some of the mixes this would increase the new lead channel's volume from a "background" level to a "lead" level, and in other mixes it would increase the lead channel's volume from zero to the "lead" level they want.

In general, we want all the Aux mixes to be Pre2, because the different monitors need very different mixes, and we don't want them to be affected by changes to the Main mix.

The FX mixes almost achieve what we want, but it seems there is no way to remove/disable the effect.  We tried setting the reverb decay time in FXA to its minimum, but it was still too much reverb for our building that already has a lot of natural acoustic reverb.  We also tried setting the delay time in FXD to its minimum, but that created a phasing effect as we turned up a channel in the FXD mix (because of adding the 5 msec delayed signal to the dry signal that was already present in the Main and Aux/monitor mixes).  Is there any way (even by recalling a manually modifed FX preset file) to remove the effect from an FX bus or set the decay/delay time to zero?

We also tried using an Aux mix as the sub-mix, connecting a patch cable from the Aux output to Return A, so that it could be added to the Main mix and other Aux mixes.  But similar to the test with FXD this seemed to have a small time delay (presumably from the Digital->Analog and Analog->Digital conversions?) that created a phasing effect.

We would like a dry sub-mix that would purely add to a channel's volume in the downstream mixes.  I think on a StudioLive Series III this could be done by configuring the Main and Aux mixes as matrix mixes and feeding the Lead Vocal mix into them, but we have a StudioLive AI.  Is there any way to do this?

Answer 1

I haven't tried this but I believe you could mix your lead vocal sub mix into the Main mix and Aux send by hard patching a 1/4 inch cable out of the Sub Mix that you have the lead vocal coming out of and into Aux Input A or B.  Btw, don't assign the Sub Group to the Main out but instead, assign the Main out to the Aux Input your are using.

Hit the Mix button twice on the Aux Send you're using and you'll be able to adjust the first few knobs under the meters.  Look for the Meter labeled "Aux in A" or "Aux in B" and dial in the Aux In you are using.

So from here, you should be able to control the lead vocal using a Sub Out and have it coming out of an Aux Send and the Main out.