Allen & Heath MixWiz 16:3 help

[Medford Bassman]

I've been using this board for awhile with the band. It's great and we like it immensely. However, I'd like to add a DBX compressor I own to the rack so I can compress the vocals. I have 4 vocal channels I'd like to compress but I don't know how to do that. I know i can run the compressor into one channel insert but again, I'd like compression on four of the channels.

Can someone help this mixer idiot (me)? Thanks.

 

[walterw]

here's the trick:

pan all vocals hard left; pan everything else hard right.

insert your compressor into the left main insert! that compresses all the vocals but doesn't affect the monitor auxes (very important).

use the mono out to go to the PA. this also gives you a nice convenient two-master-fader deal, one for vox, the other for instruments.

try using the other side of that DBX set just to gate, and insert it into the kick drum channel. it'll let you boost the kick while keeping low end feedback out of it, and let you control how long the kick sustains.

 

[lowfreq33]

here's the trick:

pan all vocals hard left; pan everything else hard right.

insert your compressor into the left main insert! that compresses all the vocals but doesn't affect the monitor auxes (very important).

use the mono out to go to the PA. this also gives you a nice convenient two-master-fader deal, one for vox, the other for instruments.

try using the other side of that DBX set just to gate, and insert it into the kick drum channel. it'll let you boost the kick while keeping low end feedback out of it, and let you control how long the kick sustains.

Probably the best way to get there since this mixer lacks subgroups. I'm not a fan of running a stereo mix in smaller venues anyway,

 

[Medford Bassman]

Thank you so much!

 

[Medford Bassman]

I will try your suggestions

 

[Medford Bassman]

A few more questions, what are good settings for vocals on the DBX? Or for kick for that matter? Thanks

 

[walterw]

for vocals, try 4:1 ratio, overeasy on, attack and release to their fastest settings, threshold set to where two or three lights come on with normal singing, output gain set to where the volume is the same as when it's bypassed (so up at "0" or maybe a pinch higher).

for kick, try just using the gate part, not the compressor. try to set the gate threshold so the gate opens with even slight hits of the pedal, but not when the other drums or the bass are played.

there are other ways of doing this, but these settings work for me to smooth out vocals without too obviously squashing things.

 

[theStink]

Panning vocals left and inserting a compressor is a terrible idea!

Buy 2x 2 channel units or a 4 channel comp. dbx 1046, presonus makes an 8 and 4 ch comp too.

Compress no more than 3-4 db, ratio at 2-2.5, output at 0 to +6 max, use the RMS or over easy setting. Set up your knobs then bring the threshold down until you see gain reduction at the loudest parts.

Using a compressor will also affect you monitors too, it makes feedback if the threshold is set too low. Use sparingly. If you don't know what you're doing then I'd pass on using one.

 

[walterw]

uh, right; it's a terrible idea, and then in your next sentence you explain (correctly) how you can't use them the other way without messing up the monitors, so you should set them so minimally you might as well leave them at home.

gotcha.

(Also, harrumph.)