What Analog Components Can My X32 Digital Mixer Eliminate?

[Gatlin]

So I just ordered a X32 rack digital mixer for our church. We currently run an analog mixer thru a 31 band rack eq. Should I run the digital mixer thru the analog eq or use the onboard eq to keep it all digitally adjustable? This will be my first go with digital mixers. Also, we currently use an analog crossover to power the tops and subs. I would like to just use the new mixer and do away with the analog crossover and eq if possible. Thoughts?

 

[makaspar]

So I just ordered a X32 rack digital mixer for our church. We currently run an analog mixer thru a 31 band rack eq. Should I run the digital mixer thru the analog eq or use the onboard eq to keep it all digitally adjustable? This will be my first go with digital mixers. Also, we currently use an analog crossover to power the tops and subs. I would like to just use the new mixer and do away with the analog crossover and eq if possible. Thoughts?

Congrats - you don't need outboard equipment anymore! At least not for what you're doing. Use the on-board 31-band. When I was mixing on an x32 regularly, I was super happy with the eqs, reverbs and delays. When you're comfortable with the software, you'll be able to do more than you could with your outboard stuff.

 

[s0c9]

I'd keep the crossovers, but you can put 31-band EQ's on all of the output busses, including the mains.
You now have compressor, EQ and gate on EVERY channel, with effect inserts and routing to all busses.
You have compression and insert effect +EQ on all output busses.
You CAN replace your FOH EQ's with the onboard ones, but Id' keep the external crossovers as I don't recall their being one on the Rack.
We LOVE ours!

 

[Dp1363]

I'd keep the crossovers, but you can put 31-band EQ's on all of the output busses, including the mains.
You now have compressor, EQ and gate on EVERY channel, with effect inserts and routing to all busses.
You have compression and insert effect +EQ on all output busses.
You CAN replace your FOH EQ's with the onboard ones, but Id' keep the external crossovers as I don't recall their being one on the Rack.
We LOVE ours!

You can set up a very effective crossover on the X32. Various crossover filters are built in such as Butterworth and Linkwitz Riley crossover filters. Very easy to do.

 

[Gatlin]

I've been playing around with the settings since it arrived Wednesday. Is there a way to set separate eq on the left and right outputs (xlr 7 & 8)? Right now I have 7 (left) to my mains and 8 (right) to my subs but I can't find a place to control left and right separately as far as eq is concerned.

 

[s0c9]

I've been playing around with the settings since it arrived Wednesday. Is there a way to set separate eq on the left and right outputs (xlr 7 & 8)? Right now I have 7 (left) to my mains and 8 (right) to my subs but I can't find a place to control left and right separately as far as eq is concerned.

Are the output busses stereo linked?

 

[musicman7722]

No doubt everything

 

[Gatlin]

So I got the x32 up and running. I have to say that this thing is way better than I even imagined. The sound is very crisp, clear and much improved over our analog setup that we had a professional guy setup for the room. I applied preset eqs to each instrument and haven't even eqed the main channels outside of setting crossovers and it sounds amazing. Several compliments after church from people saying it sounded much better than normal. Anyone looking at the x32 will not be disappointed. The band even commented that my bass sounded much better in the in ears (again the only thing i did was apply a preset eq which also had a low cut and compression already set). I took my m87 compressor pedal out of my pedal chain and let the mixer handle it. I could tell just by watching the threshold on the channel that it was doing its job perfectly. I'm very happy with the x32.

 

[s0c9]

So I got the x32 up and running. I have to say that this thing is way better than I even imagined. The sound is very crisp, clear and much improved over our analog setup that we had a professional guy setup for the room. I applied preset eqs to each instrument and haven't even eqed the main channels outside of setting crossovers and it sounds amazing. Several compliments after church from people saying it sounded much better than normal. Anyone looking at the x32 will not be disappointed. The band even commented that my bass sounded much better in the in ears (again the only thing i did was apply a preset eq which also had a low cut and compression already set). I took my m87 compressor pedal out of my pedal chain and let the mixer handle it. I could tell just by watching the threshold on the channel that it was doing its job perfectly. I'm very happy with the x32.

That's awesome... However, be careful with compression on vocals, especially if those same FOH channels are being fed back to your vocalists. Singers rely on dynamics, so putting compression on the FOH channel makes sense. However, if you feed those same channels back to their monitor mixes (wedge or IEM) when they sing louder, the compression will squash what they hear, so they'll sing louder, which will be squashed, so they sing louder.. They'll end up blowing out their voices.
If you use 16 channels or less, you can avoid this by mapping Ch 1-16 onto 17-32, using 17-32 as monitor mixes.. Basically split console. You can set EQ, gates, compression and effects for your monitor mixes and NOT affect FOH channels. This will NOT work if you need more than 16 channels.

 

[monkeyland]

Duplicating channels to create a "monitor split" is a good idea. Just be aware that if you have channels sharing an input then the gain control will effect both channels. It seems obvious but it's easy to get tripped up at first. You don't want to be messing with that mid show as it will effect both mains and monitors.

 

[s0c9]

Duplicating channels to create a "monitor split" is a good idea. Just be aware that if you have channels sharing an input then the gain control will effect both channels. It seems obvious but it's easy to get tripped up at first. You don't want to be messing with that mid show as it will effect both mains and monitors.

Technically.. one should NOT be mixing FOH using trim controls, as that's what faders are for - but I have seen it done.
That's a whole different discussion, but yes.. your warning applies!

 

[monkeyland]

Technically.. one should NOT be mixing FOH using trim controls, as that's what faders are for - but I have seen it done.
That's a whole different discussion, but yes.. your warning applies!

Oh I know. But when mixing using a traditional split I can do whatever I want for front of house and not have to worry about how it effects the band, or vice versa. I still keep a couple of xlr y cables around so that even if I'm mixing monitors from FOH I can have two different preamps for the "star" if I want.